George Gregory Plitt, Jr. (November 3, 1977 January 17, 2015) was an American fitness model and actor. He starred in the Bravo television series '' Work Out.'' He died at age 37 when he was struck by a train

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

while filming a video.

Early life, family and education

Greg Plitt was originally from

Lutherville Lutherville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 6,504. Prior to 2010 the area was part of the Lutherville-Timonium CDP. Within its borders lies the Luther ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. His mother was an interior designer, and his father was a real estate agent. Plitt had an older sister who attended the

United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (US Naval Academy, USNA, or Navy) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy ...

. Plitt said that he had been a fitness buff since his father bought a home gym when Plitt was in sixth grade; he was further inspired after seeing how his older sister changed after her first year in the Naval Academy. Plitt was a graduate of

Gilman School Gilman School is an all-boys independent school located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. There are three school divisions: Lower School, grades pre-kindergarten through five; Middle School, grades six through eight; and ...

, Class of 1996, in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...

, Maryland, where he was on the football, wrestling, and golf teams. He was also a graduate of the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, Class of 2000, and was both Airborne and Ranger qualified.

Career

Plitt served in the US Army as a

Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

for five years. He was a certified personal trainer in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. He was a member of the official

MET-Rx MET-Rx is an American brand of nutritional supplements originally produced by Met-Rx, Inc., a California company started by Scott Connelly, and sold several times since. The brand is best known for pioneering a new category of bodybuilding supp ...

athlete and was awarded the MET-Rx Athlete of the Year award for 2012. He was the author of the workout program MFT28 as featured by Bodybuilding.com and appeared on covers and/or in editorials for ''Maxim'', ''AXL'', ''American Health & Fitness'', ''Flaunt'', ''Men's Fitness'', ''Muscle & Fitness'', ''Men's Health'', ''FitnessRx for Men'', ''Instinct Magazine'', and ''Men's Exercise'', among others. Plitt compared his work as a physical trainer to his work training military recruits:

That transformation that you see when someone becomes a soldier; many of them come in with real bad attitudes.... they start changing their ways and they become the men they always wanted to be. Then other soldiers start looking up to them as role models. Then they're proud and they hold their heads high. That's more gratifying than anything I've done. That's what's so cool about it — to be able to train somebody and transform them and bring out all of the great qualities that everyone possesses.

Plitt was a global spokesperson/model for

Thierry Mugler Manfred Thierry Mugler (; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the fo ...

's Angel Men and ICE*Men men's fragrances. He did TV commercials for Old Spice Body Wash, ESPN's Great Outdoor Games, Under Armour, MTV, Zoli Sinks, Gold's Gym Power Flex, Bowflex, and modeled for Under Armour,

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

Jeans,

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, an ...

, Modell's, and Skimpies, among others. In his later career, he had several acting roles. Images of his body were used to create Dr. Manhattan's muscular physique in the 2009 film ''

Watchmen ''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...

'', as well as the corpse of

General Zod General Zod is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly known as an adversary of the superhero Superman. The character, who first appeared in ''Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961), was created by Rob ...

in '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice''.

Death

Plitt was struck and killed by a southbound Metrolink

Antelope Valley Line The Antelope Valley Line is a commuter rail line that serves the Northern Los Angeles County area as part of the Metrolink system. The northern segment of the line is rural in character because it travels through the sparsely populated Soledad C ...

train 268, led by Metrolink MP36PH-3C locomotive no. 888 in Burbank,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, on January 17, 2015, while running between the rails. The entire incident resulting in his death was recorded by an onboard event recorder camera mounted in the cab of the lead locomotive. After examining the video, police reportedly told TMZ Plitt may have been trying to outrace the train when it approached for a video he was shooting. He was shortly after knocked off the tracks and out of frame. He may have believed the train was coming up behind him on a parallel track, not the one he was on. The video was for a self-produced energy drink commercial.

Filmography

References

External links

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Interview
with Matt Weik for ''BodyBuilding.com'', June 4, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Plitt, Greg 1977 births 2015 deaths 21st-century American male actors Accidental deaths in California American male film actors Male models from Maryland American male soap opera actors Male actors from Baltimore Participants in American reality television series People from Lutherville, Maryland Railway accident deaths in the United States United States Army officers United States Army Rangers United States Military Academy alumni Gilman School alumni