Trailblazing ‘Flawless Marvel’ bodybuilder unrecognisable after shunning fame
The trailblazing bodybuilder known as 'The Flawless Marvel' now looks unrecognisable after shunning fame.
Frequently hailed as the most aesthetically pleasing athlete in the history of bodybuilding, Bob Paris topped lists of legends including Steve Reeves and Frank Zane.
Rising to fame in the 1980s, the 6ft Adonis showed that he was more than just a chiseled physique as he broke boundaries within the sport.
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As well as being a dedicated advocate for the rights of sports stars, he was also the first male athlete to come out as gay while still competing.
His announcement in 1989 was particularly brave as it was at a time when almost 70% of Americans thought homosexuality was a sin.
Bob revealed he was gay in an edition of Ironman. He later told Oprah Winfrey how the bold move affected his career.
“I lost about 80% of my business. Literally had doors closed in my face,” he said.
"There were a number of times where my life was threatened. Some death threats came by phone, by mail.”
Born in December 1959, Paris grew up hiking through the hills of southern Indiana’s Hoosier National Forest, riding his bike and canoeing its rivers.
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He played high school football before moving to California where he lived out of his car until his efforts in bodybuilding caught fire.
Throughout his nine-year career, Bob was an accomplished competitor, with wins in the 1983 NPC American National and IFBB World Bodybuilding Championship.
He graced the front covers of scores of bodybuilding magazines and was photographed by some of the world's leading photographers, including Herb Ritts and Bruce Weber.
He retired from the sport in 1991, but made a lasting impression in the fitness world.
In 2006, the official publication of the IFBB, Flex Magazine, named Bob the most aesthetic – aka the best-looking – athlete in the history of bodybuilding.
Unlike other stars of the sport like Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob left his bodybuilding days behind, instead focusing on a career in writing.
He wrote several best-selling books including Beyond Built , Flawless, Natural Fitness and Prime and also penned three works of personal memoir.
His novel Gorilla Suit was highly acclaimed, giving an honest behind-the-scenes look into the bodybuilding world.
Bob also continued his work as an activist for gay rights and dabbled for a time with acting, appearing in the Broadway musical Jubilee and on the short-lived ABC sci-fi drama Defying Gravity.
Today he lives a basic, spiritual life with his spouse, Brian LeFurgey, on an island near Vancouver, British Columbia.
On the most recent photos on his social media accounts, Bob cuts a much-smaller figure than in his bodybuilding heyday but is still seen walking and promoting yoga.
In 2012, aged 52, he explained on his website that he never wanted to be a "lifestyle bodybuilder."
While he enjoyed the discipline and focus of bodybuilding, he wrote in his personal blog it was "simply a sport at which I excelled. It wasn't my core identity."
He added: "In fact, I often found myself (as I wrote in GORILLA SUIT) desperately wishing I could leave the by-product of my hard training (ie that massive and generally uncomfortable physique) in the gym, as a baseball player leaves behind his bat, a track athlete her cleats."
Nowadays Bob maintains a very low profile away from the public glare with a Facebook account which was last updated in 2020.
His official website and blog was last updated in 2017.
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