Father of Physical Fitness – Jack LaLanne Dies at Age 96

Jack Jack LaLanne receives a Lifetime Achievement Award on September 3, 2007

(HMG Celebrity News) – Those of us old enough to remember him as a younger man, know that, Jack LaLanne, was The godfather of physical fitness, advocating workouts and good nutrition.  Jack’s passion and ability to perform amazing feats of fitness went well into his later years, but his body finally gave out and he died at his coastal California home in Morro Bay from respiratory failure due to pneumonia, at the age of 96.  Jack’s workout show wearing his short-sleeved jumpsuit, was a television staple from the 1950s to the ’70s, with his wife of 51 years, Elaine LaLanne, and white German shepherd, Happy, a frequent partner in his television appearances.  Jack opened the nation’s first modern health club in California’s Oakland, in 1936, and eventually opened dozens of fitness studios under his name, later licensing them to Bally. He invented the forerunners of modern exercise machines like leg-extension and pulley devices and later marketed a Power Juicer.  Jack is survived by Elaine and his three children.