Slideshow: Jack LaLanne, inspirational fitness guru, dead at 96 (photos, video)

Slideshow: Jack LaLanne, inspirational fitness guru, dead at 96 (photos, video)

Jack LaLanne, the man who inspired millions of television viewers for decades to eat right, exercise, and stay healthy has died. He was 96.

Reuters reports that LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, California.

LaLanne’s daughter, Yvonne LaLanne, 66, told the news outlet, “He was surrounded by his family and passed very peacefully and in no distress… and with the football game on Sunday, so everything was normal."

She said her father recently taped a public TV special and had remained active until just a few months ago.

LaLanne exercised about two hours a day after turning 90, continuing to lift weights and swim -- switching up his routine every 30 days, Reuters reports.

Of his healthy lifestyle, LaLanne said “I can’t die… It would ruin my image.”

Born Francois Henri LaLanne on September 26, 1914, he began his health and fitness regimen after attending a Paul Bragg lecture when he was only 14. Bragg, a health advocate, preached the gospel of exercise and ingestion of unprocessed foods.

By 15, LaLanne was eating mainly fruits and vegetables and created his own exercise routine.

In 1936, he opened the first modern health club in the U.S. in Oakland, California, which contained a gym, juice bar, and health food store, according to Reuters. His health clubs grew in popularity and shortly thereafter 100 gyms existed across the nation.

LaLanne’s rise to infamy began in 1959, when an exercise show he began in 1951 -- ‘The Jack LaLanne Show’ -- went national. It ran for more than three decades on daytime TV, schooling housewives on healthy eating and exercise.

He was innovative and inventive, developing exercises that needed no special or costly equipment.

“The only way you can hurt the body is not use it,” LaLanne once said. “Inactivity is a killer and, remember, it’s never too late.”

In 2009, LaLanne successfully underwent heart valve surgery.

He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Elaine LaLanne, two sons, Dan and Jon, and daughter Yvonne.

To see more photos of Jack LaLanne, click on the slideshow to the left of this article, or click here.

To see a video report regarding LaLanne, click on the player to the left of this article, or click here.

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