Ralph Crawford, the Lewiston-area sculptor whose most famous model, Arnold Schwarzenegger, commissioned a 9-foot bronze statue of himself in 2011, died Saturday at the age of 92.
Schwarzenegger tweeted this on his Twitter page after learning of Crawford’s death:
“Ralph Crawford was a great artist and a fantastic friend and I will miss him,” the former California governor/bodybuilder/movie star wrote. “He will live on through his sculptures all over the world and through his loving family and friends. I am tremendously proud that Ralph’s statues of me stand in front of my childhood home and in Columbus, Ohio, and we will continue to give the best bodybuilder in the world the trophy that Ralph sculpted at the Arnold Classic every year. My thoughts are with his family.”
Ann Crawford, Ralph’s widow, said Tuesday her husband met Schwarzenegger in the 1970s after he’d sculpted a statue of Joe Weider, another famous bodybuilder and entrepreneur from Canada.
“Ralph did (a statue) of Joe Weider and Arnold liked it, and so he got hold of Ralph and wanted him to do one of him,” Ann said.
The result was the Arnold Classic that has been made into replicas that stand in front of Schwarzenegger’s boyhood home in Thal, Austria, and in Columbus, Ohio. A miniature version of the statue also is given out to the top bodybuilder each year at Schwarzenegger’s fitness event.
Ann said Schwarzenegger bought all rights to the Arnold Classic from her husband so he can reproduce it when he wants to.
Ralph got his start in Western and Native American sculptures and was a bodybuilder himself, which is how he got to know Weider.
Through the years, Ralph and Schwarzenegger got together several times, at movie sets, at Schwarzenegger’s home in Sun Valley and at the governor’s office in Sacramento. The two men were good friends, Ann said, but weren’t bosom buddies.
“Ralph said he’d hear from Arnold about every 10 years,” she said. “They were chums and pals at times but not like long-lost friends. I think (Schwarzenegger) respected Ralph a lot and (Ralph) always liked Arnold. He thought he was honest. They had a mutual admiration for each other.”
When Schwarzenegger visited Ralph at his Lewiston home in 2011 to preview the classic statue, Ann said the governor seemed a bit more distracted than usual. The next day, she said, the news broke about Schwarzenegger fathering a child out of wedlock with his former housekeeper, which led to the eventual breakup of his marriage with Maria Shriver.
The Crawfords were invited to the unveiling of the Arnold statue in Thal, Austria, and in Columbus.
“We visited a little bit in Austria but it was such a media mob you couldn’t hardly wade through the crowd,” Crawford said.
Ralph continued to sculpt until about three years ago. It had been several years, Ann said, since he’d talked to Schwarzenegger.
But when Schwarzenegger learned of Ralph’s death, he sent the family a text.
“He sent his deepest sympathies and a nice little text message,” Ann said. “It was very nice of him. He always admired Ralph. It was nice that he took the time to do that.”