Driving Daddy Hoffman

[Christian Bligh]

I like Daniel Craig as Bill March

Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Bob Hoffman

Hugh Jackman as Bill Starr

Christian Bale as Lou Riecke

Nicholas Cage as Norbert Schemansky

Scott Caan as Bob Bednarski

Andy Garcia as Joe Weider

Kevin James as Paul Anderson

Pretty good.

I'm sorry, casting has already locked Mr. Clooney in the slot as Bill Starr...

How's Pat Mendes (Average Broz Gym) for Paul Anderson?

[The Emancipated Freak]

Great article, Starr is definitely a great story teller. He may give Knurling and Sully a run for their money.

[matclone]

Evidently (Bob) Hoffman was no great physical specimen himself, so I like (Philip Seymour) who is, at least, big.

Did Schemansky have an accent? If so, we could cast Schwarzenegger in the role. Just put a pair of glasses on him.

May need to recruit some actual weightlifters or other athletes for the roles.

[Mark E. Hurling]

I may have been premature about Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Not a bad point, because on careful consideration there is a marked resemblance. As for Schemansky's accent? He had a standard U.S. Great Lakes accent (thanks to Len Deighton of the UK for identifying this because he was dead on) shared in one slight variation or another by Midwesterners in Detroit, Milwaukee, Duluth, and (shudder) Chicago. Hell, just in the spirit of international good will I'll throw in Windsor Canaduh too. The Chicago accent has a strong New York undercurrent to it but it's Midwestern roots are there.

[51M0n]

Hugh Jackman supposedly was benching 315lb when he bulked up for wolverine (his training was mainly the big lifts as well), which isn't too baf for an actor.

[Carlos Daniel]

Mr. Starr lives in seclusion in an undisclosed location.

Legend has it that Master, I mean, Mr.Starr sends you the manuscript of his articles engraved on stone tablets.

[Mark Rippetoe]

They come in on typewriter paper. He has an IBM Selectric.

[Mark E. Hurling]

They come in on typewriter paper. He has an IBM Selectric.

Ah, such memories. Of course this was johnny come lately new fangled folderol that I had a hard time getting used to after so many years of parchment and goose quills. Grinding your own ink was really fun.

[Patrick Stroup]

I would love to see more articles like this Coach. I love reading Bill or Tommy talk about the people they have trained around. I would love to hear a lot more about John Grimek.

I also thought it would be cool if you did a video talk session with Bill like you have with Dan John and others.

[randybes]

I am an old guy that is just now at 65 years of age trying to get back into lifting. I met Bob Hoffman when I was in high school in St. Louis. Got his autograph but have long since lost it. I do have to tell this story that fits in well with Starr's article. I was a Strenght and Health magazine (and later Muscular Development) enthusiast. I especially loved the stories of old time strongmen. I hung on every word that Hoffman wrote and Weider was the enemy. I believed everything that Hoffman wrote, that is until I met him. He was in St. Louis at the AAU track and field championships. At that time Gary Gubner was a shot putter and sometime weightlifter. When I met Hoffman he was with Gubner. One of the things Hoffman wrote about was how he never ate junk food, etc. etc. etc. Well I saw him in the surrounding building that adjoined the track (don't remember the track but it was one of the newer ones...maybe at Sumner High School). This would have been 1963 or 1964. Anyway, I followed him and he went up to a vendor and ordered two hot dogs and fries and lathered them with ketchup and mustard. I was destroyed. At that point, I new that what he wrote was not what he practiced.