Bob Paris (born Robert Clark Paris on December 14, 1959) is an American-Canadian writer, actor, public speaker, civil rights activist and former professional bodybuilder. Paris was the 1983 NPC American National and IFBB World Bodybuilding Champion, Mr. Universe.

Biography

Early life
Paris was born and grew up in Brown County and Columbus Indiana. From a very early age, he was both artistic and athletic. He won National Scholastic awards for his drawings and paintings and wrote short stories in his spare time. Paris was also an avid outdoors man who dedicated a large portion of his time to hiking and backpacking through the wooded hills of southern Indiana; Paris as well would ride his bike through the back roads and canoe the rivers. In high school Paris's interest in acting and theater started early, Paris was in several musicals throughout high school. Moreover, Paris was also involved in his school's debate team and a member of the International Thespian Society. Paris was involved in many sports in high school, he did track and field, golf, and was a talented football player for his school. By the time Paris was a Sophomore, he discovered an old, dusty weight-machine in a back room of his school's basketball gym. After experimenting with weight training, Paris started to really put on some size and strength. Paris had eventually started to lose interest in team sports due to his progress with weight-lifting. From that discovery Paris knew he wanted to be a bodybuilder.

After high school, Paris spent a summer in U.S Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. From there Paris started attending college at Indiana State University and later transferred to Indiana University in Bloomingdale. Paris really wanted to see more of the world so he moved to southern California to pursue his life and dreams of becoming a well-renowned bodybuilder and actor. Paris also had plans to begin writing. When Paris first moved to California he had no contacts or friends; He often had to live out of his car. But after 2 years of living in Los Angeles, he had won 2 competitions, Mr. Los Angeles and Mr. Southern California. Paris's career had finally started.


Career
In 2006, Flex Magazine ranked Bob Paris the most aesthetic athlete in the history of bodybuilding. Renowned for both his aesthetics and artistic approach toward the sport, he was also a dedicated advocate for the rights of athletes and an outspoken voice in the push for drug testing at the professional level. He retired from bodybuilding in 1991.

In addition to his writing career, Bob Paris remains a civil rights advocate and public speaker. He is also a model and a classically trained theatre actor. Since rising to fame in the early eighties, Bob Paris has appeared on the covers of scores of magazines worldwide.

On October 10, 1998, he made his New York stage debut, starring at Carnegie Hall opposite Bea Arthur, Sandy Duncan, Michael Jeter, Philip Bosco, Alice Ripley and Tyne Daly in the Broadway musical, Jubilee as the character Mowgli.

In 2009, he performed in a recurring role on the first season of the ABC Television series, Defying Gravity.