BILL Pettis: The Body-builder Who Rivaled Schwarzenegger Is Homeless And Broke

BILL Pettis was an eighties legend, blessed with biceps bigger than Arnie’s and the face of an iconic poster for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

But while Schwarzenegger became a Hollywood and political heavyweight, the bodybuilder who beat him to the title of “world’s largest arms” wound up broke and homeless in Venice Beach.
Bill, now 68, was even banned from a bodybuilding contest on an LA beach a few years ago for being drunk and disorderly. He now survives on benefits and begging, LA magazine reported.
In his day, Bill was a very different figure. He was obsessed with building up his gigantic arms, starting out with weights he made from cinder blocks, and eventually spending six hours a day working his biceps and triceps. While Schwarzenegger’s guns only ever reached a circumference of 22 inches (56cm), Bill hit a whopping 23.25 (59cm).
After Joe Gold, his mentor and founder of the well-known gym, died in 2004, Bill lost his way completely. He started drinking, and didn’t stop. Now he lives at a boarding house and hangs out in Venice wearing fluorescent Speedos and posing shakily for photos.
A local store owner said on a bodybuilding forum that Bill regularly came into the shop asking for copies of his photo to hand out. When a YouTube video of the former strongman in his current toothless and semi-incoherent state went viral in 2010, fans called it “disturbing” and said it “killed them” to see what had happened to this star of bodybuilding’s golden era.