Joe Weider | Pioneering bodybuilder, 93

Joe Weider, 93, a Los Angeles-based bodybuilding pioneer who created a multimillion-dollar fitness publishing empire, died Saturday in Los Angeles.

Mr. Weider, who discovered a teenage Arnold Schwarzenegger at a bodybuilding contest in Europe, then sponsored the young Austrian's move to the United States, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital, said Charlotte Parker, his longtime publicist.

A masterful marketer, entrepreneur, and promoter with a rags-to-riches - and scrawny-to-brawny - story of his own, Mr. Weider had a faith in the power of bodybuilding that he compared to a religious fervor.

He popularized the sport worldwide, riding the health and fitness wave with such publications as Muscle & Fitness, Flex, Men's Fitness, and Shape, which was for women. - L.A. Times