RIP Charles Gaines, author
Author Charles Gaines in an undated file photo.
Author Charles Gaines, who grew up in Birmingham and wrote "Stay Hungry" and cowrote "Pumping Iron," both of which were made into movies that cast a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, passed away on Tuesday, reports AL.com's Michaela Yielding.
Gaines was born in Jacksonville, Fla., but his family moved to Birmingham when he was still in grade school. In recent years he and his wife split time between homes in Nova Scotia and Argo.
Pumping Iron, of course, was made into a 1977 docudrama that launched Schwarzenegger into megastardom and lifted bodybuilding into the mainstream.
It also inspired a generation of 13-year-old boys to get a subscription to FLEX magazine, name-drop Arnold, Ferrigno and Columbo, and spend at least a half hour on the Nautilus machines where their moms took Jazzercise classes.
According to the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Gaines was a lifelong bird hunter and fished in more than 25 countries.
He's also credited with being one of the inventors of paintball.