The Resume

(August 16, 1868-October 12, 1955)
Born in Mill Spring, Missouri
Birth name was Bernard McFadden
Bodybuilder/Health advocate/Magazine publisher
Founded Macfadden Publications (1898)
Published the magazines 'Physical Culture,' 'Photoplay,' 'Sport,' 'Liberty,' 'True Detective,' 'True Story,' 'True Romances,' 'Ghost Stories' and the newspaper 'The New York Graphic'
Wrote over 100 books including 'Macfadden's Encyclopedia of Physical Culture' (1912), 'Fasting for Health' (1923) and 'Be Married and Like It' (1937)

Why he might be annoying:

He changed his first name to Bernarr because he thought it sounded like the roar of a lion.
He was married four times, divorced three times.
His adopted daughter Helen was widely rumored to be his out-of-wedlock daughter from an affair with one of his employees.
He used his kids as guinea pigs to test his health theories.
He considered vaccines a main cause of poor health.
He tried to take on the Kellogg Brothers and C.W. Post by opening a cereal factory in Battle Creek, Michigan (1907); his cereal, 'Strengthfude,' was a flop.
He ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate and mayor of New York City.
He tried to found his own religion, 'cosmotarianism,' based on the Bible and physical culture.
He was forced to relinquish day-to-day control of his publishing empire after being sued by stockholders for using company funds to promote his pet projects (1941).
He boasted he would live to 120, but fell 33 years short of the goal, dying from a urinary tract infection that he refused medical attention for and instead treated himself by fasting.

Why he might not be annoying:

He was orphaned when he was eleven.
As a child, he almost died as a result of an ineptly administered vaccine.
Much of his fitness advice -- advocating fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and emphasizing the importance of exercise -- was sound.
He would usually walk the 20 miles from his suburban house to his Manhattan office.
He was the first publisher to extensively use photos in magazines.
He discovered bodybuilder Charles Atlas and columnists Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan.
He was a founding member of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club (1903).
Unlike most of the doctors of his day, he felt sex should not be limited to procreation.
He earned his pilot's license when he was 62.
He took up skydiving in his 80s.

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• Anti-Vaxxers
• Breeders [Have 5 or More Kids] (Ranked: 8)
• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 56]
• I Adopted a Child
• I Died in 1955 (Ranked: 87)
• I Fathered Children Out of Wedlock
• I Have Adopted and Biological Children
• I Outlived My Child
• I Sought Political Office
• I was Adopted or Orphaned
• I'm Buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx
• Look at Me, I Got My Hands on My Hips
• My Name, My Company
• My Spouse is at Least Ten Years Younger than Me
• Newspaper Journalists/Editors/Publishers
• Nobody Told Me I'm Old
• Pilots
• Profiles 36001-36250 (Ranked: 36190)

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 35 Votes: 74.29% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 61 Votes: 44.26% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 152 Votes: 53.29% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 101 Votes: 41.58% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 25 Votes: 52.00% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 82 Votes: 54.88% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying