At a height of 5’5” and weighing 185 lb, Columbu was pound-for-pound one of the strongest men in the world. For example, he could perform a 780 lb deadlift. His strength feats earned him the nickname “Sardinian Strongman”. Mr. Columbu met Mr. Schwarzenegger, the future film star, politician and perhaps the most famous bodybuilder in the sport’s history, at a bodybuilding competition in Munich in 1965. They trained and worked together after Joe Weider, a bodybuilding impresario, brought them to California in the late 1960s.
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They later competed against each other and appeared together in films, notably the classic bodybuilding documentary “Pumping Iron” (1977), which also featured famous muscled men like Lou Ferrigno and Mike Katz. All of them helped bodybuilding gain broader mainstream acceptance.
Mr. Columbu won his Mr. Olympia titles in 1976 and 1981 — he took some years off from the competition in between after he dislocated his left knee while racing with a refrigerator on his back during the 1977 World’s Strongest Man Competition.
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Such feats of strength were hardly unusual for Mr. Columbu, whose website notes that his personal records included bench pressing 525 pounds, squatting 655 pounds and dead lifting 750. In one scene in “Pumping Iron,”
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he casually lifts a car by the back bumper and heaves it out of a tight parking spot. Francesco Maria Columbu was born on Aug. 7, 1941, in the small mountain village of Ollolai in Sardinia to Antonio Columbu and Maria Grazia Sedda, who were shepherds. He often got into tussles as a boy, which he said were more fun and games than combat.
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Men of Many Talents
Some of Columbu’s iconic hollywood roles consist of films like “Rambo: First Blood Part II” (1985) and several that starred Mr. Schwarzenegger, like “Conan the Barbarian” (1982), “The Terminator” (1984) and “The Running Man” (1987). His more recent parts include a turn in the Italian movie “Dreamland: La Terra Dei Sogni” (2011). Mr. Columbu lived in Los Angeles. His survivors include his wife, Deborah (Drake) Columbu, whom he married in 1990; a daughter, Maria Columbu;
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and three sisters, Anna, Gonaria and Celestina Columbu. Mr. Columbu was also a chiropractor, and in addition to his memoir wrote several books on bodybuilding and nutrition.
He noted that moderate exercise had its benefits, even if they might not include hoisting cars.
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“This kind of program will not get you in shape for the Super Bowl,” he said in 1982 of a training regimen mellower than the ones he practiced, “but it will help to ensure that you are around for a great many football games to come.”
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Franco Columbu and Arnold Friendship
In the mid-1960s, Franco traveled throughout Europe performing in weightlifting and bodybuilding competitions. Over the years, he earned Powerlifting Champion titles in Europe, Italy, and Germany. Columbu was also an amateur boxing champion in Italy, and used boxing workouts as a cardio strategy during his competitive bodybuilding days. He didn’t back down from any challenge, once saying: “Winners do what they fear”. Back in the Golden Era, strength components were common in bodybuilding competitions.
At one of those competitions, Columbu met Arnold Schwarzenegger in Germany in 1965, and the moment would spark a life-long friendship.
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A Tribute for Columbu
The Italian bodybuilder whom Arnold Schwarzenegger called his “best friend” in a moving tribute on social media, has passed away aged 78. A two-time Mr Olympia, Columbu appeared alongside Schwarzenegger in The Terminator, the Running Man and Conan the Barbarian.
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He passed away in hospital in his native Sardinia after not feeling well while swimming in the ocean, as reported by sources. As Columbu was best known for his decades-long friendship with Schwarzenegger, in a heartfelt tribute posted to Instagram,
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the actor and former governor of California said his life was “more fun, more colourful, and more complete” thanks to Columbu. “From the minute we met in Munich, you were my partner in crime,” Schwarzenegger wrote about Columbu. “We pushed each other, we competed with each other, and we laughed at every moment along the way.”
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