Lisa Lyon, pioneering female bodybuilder and inspiration for Marvel’s Elektra, dead at 70
Trailblazing female bodybuilder Lisa Lyon is reportedly dead at the age of 70 after a battle with stomach cancer.
According to TMZ, the Los Angeles native died Friday at her home in San Fernando Valley, Calif., less than a week after they reported Lyon had recently been transferred to hospice care.
Fellow muscle-maker Arnold Schwarzenegger told the outlet Lyon was “the best.”
The two of them once posed for a photo in which Lyon had Schwarzenegger hoisted on her shoulders. At the time, she stood at 5-foot-4 and weighed just 120 lbs., compared to Schwarzenegger’s 225 lbs., which is said to be the amount she could deadlift.
Lyon won the first International Federation of Bodybuilders Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in 1979. The following year, Lyon flexed for Playboy magazine. Famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe photographed Lyon for a 1983 gallery exhibition in SoHo. Lyon even served as the initial inspiration for Frank Miller as he was creating the Marvel Comics character of Elektra.
In 2000, Lyon was inducted into the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federal Hall of Fame in recognition of her contribution to the sport.
