Earl Maynard

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Earl Maynard, on the cover of Health and Strength Magazine in 1956.

Earl Maynard is a bodybuilder and professional wrestler as well as a film actor, producer and director from Barbados.

Maynard won the 1964 Universe - Pro - NABBA bodybuilding competition - part of the Universe Championships, the 1965 Universe - IFBB - now the World Amateur Bodybuilding Championships and the 1978 Masters Mr. America - AAU contest. He was also the winner of Mr. Europe 1959 and Mr. England 1960 early in his career.

His appearances as an actor include such films as Melinda (1972), Black Belt Jones (1974), Truck Turner (1974), Mandingo (1975), Swashbuckler (1976), The Deep (1977), Circle of Iron (1978), The Nude Bomb (1980) and The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982).

Maynard is listed in the WWE Top Wrestlers of All Time. He was NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) America's Tag Team Champion twice (with Rocky Johnson in 1970 as well as with his longtime partner Dory Dixon in 1972).

At the age of 17, Earl was 5’ 10” tall and weighed only 130 pounds. Despite poor health, he had a happy childhood in Barbados. Maynard left the island when he was 18 and moved to England where he completed his education. He earned a degree of M.S.F. in Physiotherapy in London.

Maynard started wrestling while he was in the British Air Force. He was stationed on Cyprus. The sports facilities were very limited, so the implements for his weightlifting and conditioning had to be improvised with what materials he could find. While He was on Cyprus, a British wrestling promoter, who was there on vacation, spotted him and liked what he saw. Maynard became a professional wrestler in 1960. It was wrestling promoter Gus Karras who eventually brought Earl to the United States to continue his wrestling career on this "side of the pond".

All of his bodybuilding achievements were accomplished while he continued to wrestle professionally. He eventually became known in the wrestling circles as "Mr. Universe" because of being a two time winner of that most prestigious of bodybuilding titles.

Maynard is now a film producer/director and living back in his native Barbados.