Bill Pearl

William Arnold "Bill" Pearl (born October 31, 1930) is an American former bodybuilder during the 1950s and '60s. He won many titles and awards, including winning the Mr. Universe contest five times, and was named "World’s Best-Built Man of the Century." He became an expert trainer and author on bodybuilding.

Biography

Pearl was born in Prineville, Oregon. His first major victory was in the 1953 Amateur Mr Universe contest (in which he beat out a then 23-year-old Sean Connery). He actively competed until his retirement in 1971 after winning the Mr. Universe one last time, over superstars Frank Zane, Reg Park and Sergio Oliva. In all, he won the professional Mr Universe 4 times in an 18 year span, which was unprecedented at the time.

He was the first professional bodybuilder to author bodybuilding training courses/booklets. He is also the first to pose to music, and was especially noted in performing exhibitions doing an entire posing routine of Eugen Sandow (who is known as the man who invented bodybuilding). Ever the showman, along with his lifelong coach Leo Stern, Pearl would wear a fake mustache, leotards, a fig leaf, and a late-19th century backdrop, all for providing the exact effect of the Sandow era. Leo Stern had some different ideas when training Bill such as drinking cream to gain weight that did seem to work to produce a powerful build.Pearl was equally as famous for performing his strongman routine, which included tearing of license plates, bending penny spike nails, and blowing up a hot water bottle as well as his ability on the bench press exercise using up to 500 lbs.