Lisa Lyon

Lisa Lyon

Born: June 1, 1953
Died: September 8, 2023
in Los Angeles, California, USA
Lisa Lyon (June 1, 1953 - September 8, 2023) studied art at the University of California at Los Angeles. There she became accomplished in the Japanese art of fencing, kendo, but found herself lacking sufficient upper body strength so she began weight training. This eventually led her into bodybuilding.

Lyon entered and won the first International Federation of BodyBuilders Women’s World Pro Bodybuilding Championship in Los Angeles on June 16, 1979. This was the only bodybuilding competition of her career. She appeared in many magazines and on television talk shows, promoting bodybuilding for women. She also wrote a book on weight training for women titled Lisa Lyon’s Body Magic, which was published in 1981.

Although Lyon is often cited as the first female bodybuilder to appear in Playboy (in October 1980), she was actually predated by stripper and bodybuilder Kellie Everts, who appeared in a May 1977 pictorial called "Humping Iron".

Lyon modeled for Helmut Newton, American fine art photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (between 1980 and 1983, Mapplethorpe created over 150 photographs of her, resulting in the 1983 book Lady: Lisa Lyon), and Marcus Leatherdale, who published two pictures of her in his first catalogue book at Molotov. Lyon's work with Mapplethorpe was notable owing to Mapplethorpe's depiction of her body as simultaneously traditionally feminine and strong in a conventionally masculine sense.

She was inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000 for being a one-woman media-relations activist on behalf of the sport and Elevating bodybuilding to the level of fine art.

Lisa Lyon also had a short acting career.

Movies for Lisa Lyon...

Vamp
Title: Vamp
Character: Cimmaron
Released: July 18, 1986
Type: Movie
Two fraternity pledges go to a sleazy bar in search of a stripper for their college friends, unaware it is occupied by vampires.
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Hollywood Erotic Film Festival
Title: Hollywood Erotic Film Festival
Character: Herself (segment "Lisa Lyon: A Portrait of Power")
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
Ten erotic vignettes from eight different directors.
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Getting Physical
Title: Getting Physical
Character: Pilar Jones
Released: March 20, 1984
Type: Movie
The world of female bodybuilding provides the backdrop for this tale of an aspiring young actress who initially becomes interested in the sport as a means of self-defense following a physical attack by two men, but then finds that while concentrating on building up her body her relationship with her parents, with whom she is living, and her new-found boyfriend, a young cop, is breaking down. Several noted bodybuilders and iron-pumpers, male and female, put in appearances to give this production an added authenticity.
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Three Crowns of the Sailor
Title: Three Crowns of the Sailor
Character: Matilde the Dancer
Released: April 23, 1983
Type: Movie
Shortly after murdering his professor, a young man encounters a sailor who offers him a position on his ship in exchange for 3 Danish crowns and his attention as he recounts his life story.
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The Hustler of Muscle Beach
Title: The Hustler of Muscle Beach
Character: Self
Released: May 16, 1980
Type: Movie
A slick promoter in the bodybuilding subculture of Venice Beach, California, finds what he considers a diamond in the rough: a dedicated but somewhat mentally challenged young man who wants to win bodybuilding championships, but needs some help and direction--and the promoter thinks he's just the one to do it.
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Title: Little House on the Prairie
Released: September 11, 1974
Type: TV
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, and Karen Grassle, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s.