Franco Columbu Photograph/Poster/Print Photograph

Francesco Maria Columbu was an Italian bodybuilder, powerlifter, actor, author, producer, and a licensed chiropractor.

Originally a boxer, Columbu won the Mr. Olympia in 1976 and 1981. And competed in the inaugural edition of the World's Strongest Man in 1977. Where he placed fifth. He also had an acting career and authored numerous books on bodybuilding and nutrition. Columbu was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2001, and received the Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Columbu was born on August 7, 1941, in Ollolai on the island of Sardinia, Italy. He was a son of shepherds Maria Grazia Sedda and Antonio Columbu. He said in 1982: "I was always skinny. Until I was 11, I got beat up a lot. Then one day, I started beating people up. Nobody could touch me." He worked as a shepherd while training as a boxer. He won over 30 fights as a boxer before quitting the sport in favor of weightlifting and bodybuilding, stating: "Boxing's too rough on your face and head."

Columbu moved to Germany at a young age for work, and met Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1965 at a bodybuilding competition in Stuttgart, Germany. Columbu formed a lifelong friendship with Schwarzenegger, and was Schwarzenegger's best man for his marriage to Maria Shriver in 1986 and godfather to their daughter Christina.