Greg Plitt

Personal life

Originally from Lutherville, Maryland, Plitt's mother was an interior designer and his father was a real estate agent. Plitt was from a family of four, and had an older sister who attended the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. Plitt was a graduate of Gilman School, Class of 1996, in Baltimore Maryland, where he was on the football, wrestling, and golf teams. He was also a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, Class of 2000, and was both Airborne and Ranger qualified. He served as a Ranger for five years.

Career

He was a certified personal trainer and trained clients out of Los Angeles where he lived. He was a member of the official MET-Rx athlete, and was awarded the MET-Rx athlete of the year award for 2012. He was the author of the workout program MFT28 as featured by Bodybuilding.com and appeared on covers and/or in editorials for Maxim, AXL, American Health & Fitness, Flaunt, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Men's Health, FitnessRx for Men, Instinct Magazine, and Men's Exercise, among others.

Plitt said that he had been a fitness buff since his dad bought a home gym when Plitt was in sixth grade; he was further inspired after seeing how his older sister changed after her first year in the United States Naval Academy. Plitt once compared his work as a certified physical trainer to his work training military recruits:

"That transformation that you see when someone becomes a soldier," he says, "many of them come in with real bad attitudes. They're tough guys on the street and nobody's going to tell them what to do. Then one day, they'll come to you crying, saying, 'I need someone to talk to.' All of sudden they start changing their ways and they become the men they always wanted to be. Then other soldiers start looking up to them as role models. Then they're proud and they hold their heads high. That's more gratifying than anything I've done. That's what's so cool about it — to be able to train somebody and transform them and bring out all of the great qualities that everyone possesses."

Plitt was a global spokesperson/model for Thierry Mugler's Angel Men and ICE*Men men's fragrances. He did TV commercials for Old Spice Body Wash, ESPN's Great Outdoor Games, Under Armour, MTV, Zoli Sinks, Gold's Gym Power Flex, Bowflex, and modeled for Under Armour, Old Navy Jeans, Calvin Klein, Modell's, and Skimpies, among others. In his later career, he had several acting roles. Images of his body were used to create Dr. Manhattan's muscular physique in the 2009 film Watchmen.

Death

Plitt was hit and killed by the southbound Metrolink Antelope Valley Line train 268 in Burbank, California, on January 17, 2015, while running between the rails. His death was recorded by the camera mounted in the cab of the engine. After examining the video, police reportedly told TMZ Plitt may have been trying to outrace the train when it approached for a video he was shooting. He was shortly after knocked off the tracks and out of frame. He may have believed the train was coming up behind him on a parallel track, not the one he was on. The video was for a self-produced energy drink commercial.