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Bill Pearl was a Men's Open Bodybuilding competitor from the United States. Bill Pearl has a verified height of 5'10" (178 cm) and a recorded contest weight of 240 lb (109 kg).

Bill Pearl profile photo

10 career wins

Bill Pearl

GenderMale
Born1930
DiedSeptember 14, 2022, aged 91
Born inPrineville, Oregon, United States
StatusRetired
High confidence 10 recorded results, Well-verified source Updated August 15, 2026 Accurate?

Bill Pearl was a Men's Open Bodybuilding competitor from the United States with a competitive record spanning 1953–1971.

Across 10 recorded contest results, Bill Pearl had 10 first-place finishes (a 100% win rate).

Win rate here is first-place finishes as a share of all 10 recorded contest results. It is published only where a career holds at least five, because below that a single placing moves the figure by twenty points or more.

Bill Pearl, a bodybuilder from the United States, stands 5'10" (178 cm) tall and competed at a contest weight of around 240 lb (109 kg). He was born in Prineville, Oregon, United States on October 31, 1930 and died on September 14, 2022, aged 91.

Career Record

Total Results
10
Wins
10
Win Rate
100%
Career
1953–1971
Height
5'10" (178 cm)
Weight
240 lb (109 kg)
Lifespan
1930-2022 (aged 91)
Country
United States
Verified
Sources
5

Every season on record

1953 to 1971 shown · 10 results on record

Peak Year 1953 (5 wins)

Measured against Bill Pearl’s own seasons, not against the field.

1953
1956
1961
1967
1971
Olympia 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Other
Pro Debut
1953
Last Contest
1971

About

William Arnold Pearl was an American professional bodybuilder and athlete. During the 1950s and 60s, he won many titles and awards, including winning the Mr. Universe contest five times, and was named "World's Best-Built Man of the Century". He later became an expert trainer and author on bodybuilding.

Physique benchmark

How Bill Pearl measures up

Fat-free mass index turns the height and weight on this profile into one number for how much muscle a frame carries, so a shorter competitor is not flattered by a bodyweight comparison. The normalised figure adjusts it again to a standard height, which is the version worth ranking. Both assume the 6% body fat a competitor steps on stage at, because that is the only condition the recorded weight was taken in.

32.5FFMI
32.6Normalised FFMI
94thOf 316 measured men

The closest Olympia champion on that measure is Lee Haney, at 32.1.

What this rank is not. This database holds a height and a weight for just 463 athletes, and they are overwhelmingly the ones somebody bothered to measure: 73 of them hold an Olympia title. Almost every competitor on record carries no measurement at all. The pool also mixes every division and era together, from the lightweight women's classes to the open heavyweights, so it ranks size and nothing else. It says where Bill Pearl sits among the athletes we hold measurements for, not among competitors.

All results

Every contest result on record for Bill Pearl, 10 in all. Won by names the winner of the division Bill Pearl competed in, and shows a dash where that winner cannot be pinned to one person in the database.

YearContestDivisionPlaceWon by
1971 Universe - Pro Other Divisions #1 Winner
1967 Universe - Pro Other Divisions #1 Winner
1961 Universe - Pro Other Divisions #1 Winner
1956 Mr USA Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
1956 Universe - Pro Other Divisions #1 Winner
1953 Mr America Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
1953 Mr California Other Divisions #1 Winner
1953 Mr California Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
1953 Mr Southern California Men's Open Bodybuilding #1 Winner
1953 Mr Universe Other Divisions #1 Winner

Where these results come from. Each contest in the table was recorded from a named source, and for Bill Pearl that source is MuscleMemory. Open any contest above and that page names its own source and links to it where the source is still reachable. That archive no longer answers at the addresses we hold, so it is credited by name here and not offered as a link.

In 4 meetings, Bill Pearl finished ahead of Irvin Koszewski (Zabo) 4 times to 0.

Opponents are ranked by how often they shared a stage and how big the stage was, not by reputation. A meeting is one contest where both competed in the same division and both were placed.

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