If you are into fitness, you must know about Bill Blanks. He is an acting professional, martial art expert and Fitness Guru from America. He is known for investing in a popular workout program known as the Tae Bo Workout. Almost every fitness enthusiast knows about Billy Blanks, but very few of them have good knowledge about his personal life, career, family, etc. So, if you want to get a sneak peek into the life of Billy Blanks and learn about the different aspects of it, you must read the following paragraphs.
Early life
Billy’s full name is Billy Wayne Blanks, but he is more popular with the name of Billy Blanks. He was born in September 1955 in Erie, Pennsylvania. He started learning martial arts when he was eleven as he used to attend some Taekwondo and Karate classes. At the time of his birth, he was diagnosed with an anomaly in the joints of his hip, which made him face a lot of problems while making certain movements. His inability to perform martial art moves properly made him a joke in front of his siblings, and his martial art instructors also didn’t expect much from him. But he got highly inspired after seeing Bruce Lee on TV and chose Karate to change his life and became World Champion in martial arts.
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Career beginning
Billy’s first job was as a bodyguard, which he started in 1988 when he became the bodyguard for Catherine Bach, the lead actress of ‘Driving Force’. The producers of the movie were so impressed by the looks and physique Billy that they have him a supporting role in the movie. It was the beginning for him into the film industry as after that, he was seen in numerous martial art films such as Bloodfist, King of the Kickboxers. He was also seen in ‘Kiss the Girls’, in which he played the role of a kickboxing instructor. Billy was a talented martial artist, but he always wanted to create something unique and of his own, and his dream came true in the late 1980s.
He created a unique ‘Tae Bo’ workout which was a combination of boxing and martial arts. At that time, Billy was having a karate studio in Massachusetts. He named the worked Tae Bo because it was a combination of Taekwondo-Tae and Boxing-Bo. Later, he started a fitness centre in Los Angeles, where he started teaching his Tae Bo workout to others. Soon, it gained massive popularity, which made some top celebrities such as Paula Abdul join Billy. Soon after that, billy started selling videos of his workouts and sold over 1.5 million tapes in the very first year. It made him earn around $80 to $130 million as sales revenue.
Personal life
Billy Blanks married Gayle Godfrey in 1974. They met during his karate classes and soon fell in love. After marrying her, Billy adopted her daughter, Shellie Blanks, who can also be seen in most of the Tae Bo videos.
Net Worth
Billy has earned a lot of money from working in films and selling workout tapes. His network stands around $40 million.