High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Stephen L. Reeves (January 21, 1926 ? May 1, 2000[1]) was an American bodybuilder and actor.Born in Glasgow, Montana[2], Steve Reeves moved to California at the age of 10 with his mother Goldie[1], after his father Lester Dell Reeves died in a farming accident. Reeves developed an interest in bodybuilding while in high school and trained at Ed Yarick's gym in Oakland. By the time he was 17 he had developed a Herculean build, long before the rise in general interest in bodybuilding. After graduating from high school, he entered the Army during the latter part of World War II, and served in the Pacific.