Stay Hungry (United Artists 1976, Jeff Bridges, Sally Field)

Bob Rafelson (director of ‘Five Easy Pieces’, 1970) revisits the clash between rich and poor in the U.S. in drama Stay Hungry.

Wealthy Jeff Bridges pursues a real-estate development that stumbles on the refusal by a bodybuilding-gym owner to move his business. When he comes to know the owner and his patrons, Bridges gets involved with the gym rats who call it home, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, in one of his first movie roles, who’s training to be Mr. Universe. Bridges also falls for Sally Field, a girl who’s never been part of his country-club set.

Although he had already starred in Hercules in New York (1970) and had a bit role in Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1974), Arnold Schwarzenegger did not seriously pursue an acting career until after making Stay Hungry.

production details
USA | United Artists | 102 minutes | 1976
Director: Bob Rafelson
Script: Bob Rafelson, Charles Gaines,

cast
Sally Field as Mary Tate Farnsworth
Jeff Bridges as Craig Blake
Roger E. Mosley as Newton
Joanna Cassidy as Zoe
Ed Begley Jr. as Lester
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Joe Santo
Robert Englund as Franklin
Scatman Crothers as William
Dennis Fimple as Bubba
R.G. Armstrong as Thor Erickson
Fannie Flagg as Amy
Joe Spinell as Jabo
Helena Kallianiotes as Anita
Franco Columbu as Franco Orsini
John David Carson as Halsey
Kathleen Miller as Dorothy Stephens
Woodrow Parfrey as Uncle Albert
Richard Gilliland as Hal
Mayf Nutter as Packman