Lisa Lyon, bodybuilding pioneer and Playboy model who inspired Marvel’s Elektra, ‘dies in hospice at 70 after battling stomach cancer’
- Lisa Lyon has died aged 70 following a battle with pancreatic cancer
- Lyon, who also posed for Playboy in 1980, was being treated at a hospice in LA
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Women’s bodybuilding pioneer Lisa Lyon has died at age 70 following a battle with stomach cancer, according to TMZ.
Lyon, who also posed for Playboy in 1980, had been receiving treatment at a hospice in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley.
Although she is best known as a bodybuilder, she is also said to have inspired Frank Miller to create the Marvel Comics character Elektra. In 2005, Jennifer Garner starred in the action film “Elektra”.
But Lyon’s influence extended beyond the comic book world. She wrote a book about bodybuilding in 1980 – “Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic” – and became friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
He’s even quoted by TMZ as saying that Lyon is “the best – I love her.”
Lisa Lyon, a pioneer in women’s bodybuilding, has died at the age of 70 due to complications from cancer
Lyon believed he had inspired Frank Miller to create the Marvel Comics character Elektra
In 2000, she was inducted into the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Hall of Fame and was described as “a one-woman media activist on behalf of sports and elevating bodybuilding to the level of fine art,” according to GreatestPhysiques.Com.
Lyon has also modeled for Robert Mapplethorpe – a photographer best known for photographing artist Andy Warhol – as well as Helmut Newton and Joel-Peter Witkin.
But it was Mapplethorpe’s 1983 book “Lady, Lisa Lyon” that perhaps stuck with her most.
“It was as if she was trying to get to the boundary that separates the sexes without completely crossing it,” critic Arthur C. Danto is quoted as saying in the book “Robert Mapplethorpe.”
“Female bodybuilding has come a long way since Lisa Lyon, and with the use of steroids there are women whose feminine characteristics seem like relics of a previous existence,” Danto continued.
Lisa Lyon joined and won the first International Federation of BodyBuilders
Lisa Lyon, pictured in Paris in 1980
In this 1980 photo, Lisa Lyon is pictured by Jean-Louis being held by another bodybuilder
In 2000, she was inducted into the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Hall of Fame
She was born and raised in Los Angeles and also appeared in three films in the ’80s
Lisa Lyon, the bodybuilding pioneer who helped popularize the sport, is seen in Paris in 1980
“In contrast, Lyon appears strikingly feminine in Mapplethorpe’s photographs, and we find it difficult to recognize her masculinity. Mapplethorpe photographed her in certain costumes that were perhaps intended to emphasize her masculine identity – lace underwear, bridal veils, and so on – but these appear to have the opposite effect as intended.”
According to numerous bodybuilding websites, Lyon was born in 1953 – making her around 70 years old – but the exact date is not mentioned.
She was born and raised in Los Angeles and also appeared in three films in the ’80s after her fame rose through her Playboy work.
In 1983 she appeared in Thee Crowns of the Sailor and a year later she appeared in Getting Physical. Her last appearance was in 1986’s Vamp.