Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Vintage Bodybuilder as Gladiator

He looks like Reg Lewis but I doubt it's him. Can someone confirm or id him?

4 comments:

jim said...

I believe that's 1960's/70's bodybuilder & sometimes "actor", Dave Draper. He appeared on TV on The Monkees & The Beverly Hillbillies & in films such as "Don't Make Waves", with Tony Curtis & Claudia Cardinale.

Don't think he ever made a actual peplum film & that this was just a costume for a publicity shot.

Although, with his blond good looks & 21" arms, Dave would have made an imposing Hercules/Samson. Unfortunately, he wasn't a very good actor.

PEPLUM cinema said...

I don't think it's Draper because the photo looks more like early 1950s.

Steven Lester said...

Sir, it is David Draper. The get-up that he is wearing is from a weekend show that took place during the afternoon in the L.A. market which was set up for showing peplum films that were exclusively bodybuilder based. I know this for sure because I religiously watched this program every week for at least a year, it seemed. Dave Draper was the set-up guy, who would give a synopsis of the film we were about to see, and then make brief comments after the commercials were done. However, this is a shot taken from one of the Weider magazines of that era. He never actually flexed during the show itself.

PEPLUM cinema said...

Thanks Steven. Jim was right. The photo is from a magazine Young Mr America.

http://www.davedraper.com/mag-cover-mr-america-2.html