Franco Columbu Movies and Career Information

Franco Columbu (born August 17, 1941) is an Italian actor, former bodybuilder and World's Strongest Man competitor. Columbu was born in Ollolai, Sardinia (Italy). Starting out his athletic career as a boxer, Columbu progressed into the sport of Olympic Weightlifting, powerlifting and later bodybuilding, winning the title of Mr. Olympia in 1976 and 1981. At 5 feet and 5 inches in height (some magazines reported as short as 5'3"), Columbu is shorter than most of his bodybuilding competitors, but that did not prevent him from achieving widespread success. Columbu competed in the 1977 World's Strongest Man competition and was actually in first place. During the Refrigerator race, while ahead, he stumbled, and was shown on national television collapsing with a grotesquely dislocated leg. That ended his participation in the World's Strongest Man contest. In the end, he finished in fifth place. He received a reported $1 million in compensation for his injury. It took six hours of surgery to remove all the muscle and fix his leg. Doctors told him he would never walk again, but Columbu fully recovered in three years. After Arnold Schwarzenegger's comeback victory in the 1980 Mr. Olympia,