MONTREAL -- Jimmy Caruso, the Montreal photographer who took some of the most iconic photos of Arnold Schwarzenegger during his bodybuilding prime, passed away on July 18 at 95-years-old.
No cause of death was given.
According to an obituary posted to a bodybuilding website, Caruso first met the then-up-and-coming Austrian in 1968, during the Mr. Universe competition, in which Schwarzenegger placed second.
Caruso was the first person in North America to take photographs of the man who would go on to become one of the biggest movie stars of his generation and governor of California.
Schwarzenegger paid tribute to Caruso in a Facebook post, calling him "an artist, a visionary and just a good man."
"His photos were beautiful and helped tell the story of the golden age of bodybuilding. You have heard me say I’m not a self-made man over and over -- people like Jimmy are a big reason why. He was one of the first people I met when I arrived in the United States for the Mr. Universe in Miami and he was always there for me and the sport, helping to popularize bodybuilding and spread our images all over the world."
Caruso was a fitness buff himself: he was a body builder and personal trainer.
Still, it was his images that he was best known for, with his work regularly gracing the covers of bodybuilding's most well known publications.
"To me, everything was easy," he told The Montreal Gazette in 2011. "I started taking photos because I didn't like the way they were being photographed. I bought a camera, and within three months I had a cover shot."
According to TheBarbell.com, Caruso and his most famous subject reunited in 2019 at the famous Gold's Gym Venice.
