Jack LaLanne, 1914–2011

last updated 8 January 2015

Jack LaLanne performed feats of strength, he said, for the same reason Jesus performed miracles—“to call attention to my profession!” At age 42, he did 1,033 pushups in a record 23 minutes, and to celebrate his 60th birthday he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco—while shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat. Given the reputation such stunts earned him, “I can’t die,” he used to say. “It would ruin my image.”

LaLanne preached regular exercise and healthy eating at a time when such practices were the province of cranks and cultists, said the Los Angeles Times. Born in San Francisco to a French immigrant couple, he grew into a scrawny, pimply, rage-prone teenager who found solace in cake, pie, and ice cream. Desperate, his mother dragged him in 1929 to a lecture by nutritionist Paul Bragg, who told him his diet made him “a walking garbage can.”

The lecture was the turning point in LaLanne’s life, said The New York Times. He gave up sweets and caffeine, and began each day with a grueling workout that often included weight lifting—“an oddity” at the time. In 1936, he opened one of the country’s first health clubs, and when the new medium of television arrived, he decided to host a fitness program to spread his gospel. Able to afford only an early-morning time slot, LaLanne pitched his show, which debuted in 1951, to children, urging them to wake their parents to join in the workout. Eschewing complex equipment, he often limited his props to “a broomstick, a chair, and a rubber cord.”