Paul Wynter was a competitive bodybuilder and sometimes film actor. He is best known for his two wins in the Mr. Universe competition. A native of

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a Sovereign state, sovereign archipelagic country composed of Antigua, Barbuda, and List of islands of Antigua and Barbuda, numerous other small islands. Antigua and Barbuda has a total area of 440 km2 (170 sq mi), ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

, he was born on October 28, 1935. He died on January 14 in 2019 aged 83.

Bodybuilding and Mr. Universe

Wynter was first awarded the title of Mr. Universe in 1960. He won the title again in 1966, and placed highly in the same competition over several years from his first placing in 1958. During his career as a bodybuilder he was admired for having one of the most perfectly symmetrical bodies in the world, standing at a relatively average 5'8" tall and weighing 180 lbs. He was featured in at least fourteen issues of ''Health and Strength Magazine'', even as recently as 1997.

Film career

Wynter's best known roles are arguably in the Italian-made

sword and sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (: pepla), is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Holly ...

films '' Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops'' (1961) co-starring

Gordon Mitchell Gordon Mitchell (born Charles Allen Pendleton; July 29, 1923 – September 20, 2003) was an American actor and bodybuilder, known for his starring roles in Italian sword-and-sandal and Spaghetti Western films. Early life Charles Allen Pendleto ...

and '' Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules'' (1961) co-starring

Mark Forest Lou Degni (January 6, 1933 – January 7, 2022), known professionally as Mark Forest, was an American actor and bodybuilder — widely known as the protagonist in a series of 1960s sword and sandal or ''peplum'' movies — including his ...

. Additionally, he appeared in several French-made comedies. Wynter performed his strongman act on Granada TV's much-loved variety show,

The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club ''The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club'' was a British television variety show created and produced by Johnnie Hamp for Granada Television from 1974 to 1977. It was set in a fictional working men's club in the North of England and was hos ...

in 1974.

Later life

According to a 2003 article, Wynter was living in

New Moston New Moston is an area of north Manchester, England, four and a half miles northeast of Manchester city centre, between Moston, Failsworth and Chadderton. New Moston Primary School was founded in 1901. Nuthurst Park opened in 1915, followin ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

with his wife Mary, who two years his junior and manages a care home. In that year, a mentally unstable neighbor broke into the couple's home and attacked them with a knife. While the couple survived the incident, Wynter sustained a stab to the chest that punctured his lung. The local police force honored Wynter with a special award. When it was revealed that the attacker, who had been caught, was awarded freedom by the Manchester court, Wynter boycotted the ceremony out of protest. His wife Mary accepted the award on his behalf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynter, Paul 1935 births 2019 deaths People associated with physical culture Professional bodybuilders