Dave Draper

Credit: Peter John Moxham/Fairfax Media via Getty

Bodybuilder Dave Draper died has died at age 79, his family confirmed in a post to social media.

Draper — whose achievements include winning the Mr. America title in 1965 and Mr. Universe in 1966 — died Tuesday morning, his wife, Laree Draper, wrote in a post on Facebook. A cause of death has not been revealed at this time.

"Hi, friends, as the word's getting out, I wanted to let you know so there's no confusion. Dave died early this morning," she said. "I was with him and it was calm and peaceful. It, as his doctor told me a little while ago, was a good death."

According to his website, Draper said he got into bodybuilding after he began using a makeshift set of weights when he was a child. The act of lifting weights became more than simple exercise, he said.

"They were my solid steel friends that I could trust," Draper wrote. "When the going got tough, when I kept missing the baseball, and when girls were far too cute to talk to, the weights were there and they spoke my language."

Draper's chiseled physique helped him make a name for himself in the bodybuilding scene, which helped him in a part in the 1967 comedy, Don't Make Waves, also starring Sharon Tate.

Dave Draper