Photographer: Tony Lanza

Robert Roy by Lanza, 1940s.

Ferdinairdo Antonio “Tony” Lanza (Photo Lanza, Tony Lanza of Montréal) was born in 1920 in Montreal, but he was fully Italian by blood. His father immigrated to Canada from Italy before the First World War. When the war started, he returned to Italy and joined the Italian army. His wife was about four months pregnant with Tony when she left Italy on a ship bound for Canada.

As a teen, Lanza was active in boxing and amateur wrestling. In 1936, he became the training partner for future superstar Yvon Robert, both in Montreal and at a training camp ran by Emile Maupas, where trainees would cross-country ski in a bathing suit in the winter. The Second World War interrupted Lanza's plans for a sporting life. He became a mountie (RCMP) in charge of the regimental police on the docks in Quebec.

Acrobat Reynaldo by Lanza, 1940s

It was during the war that Lanza took up bodybuilding and photography. While looking for a set of dumbbells, Lanza purchased a used set from Joe Weider and from this chance meeting the two became friends. Lanza began photographing bodybuilders for Ben and Joe Weider, and continued to photograph for the Weiders as they came to dominate the bodybuilding scene. Lanza bought his first camera at a pawn shop. With that first camera, Lanza would take over 500 photos that became magazine covers for Weider publications.

After the war, Lanza returned to wrestling, but being known as a photographer, he donned a mask and wrestled under a variety of names:

• Lario Lanza, The Singing Wrestler
• Young Sandor
• The Black Devil
• The Hooded Terror
• The Strangler
• The Black Mask
• The Gorilla

Self-portrait, 1940s.

At 6-feet, 255-pounds, Lanza did well in the ring, traveling to St. Louis, Toronto, and Los Angeles. It was not uncommon for Lanza to travel 3000 miles a week for many years. When Lanza retired from wrestling in 1973, he continued to do physique photography of wrestlers, bodybuilders, and athletes.

At age 68, Lanza had surgery to remove a tumor from his brain that was attributed to the concussions he had suffered as a professional wrestler. Still, Lanza remained active, riding horses, hunting, fishing, sculpting, and taking photographs. When he died in 2005, Lanza was considered the greatest wrestling photographer in the history of the sport.