Tony Little

:"For the Head Master of Eton College see Anthony R. M. Little."

Tony Little (b. September, 1956) is an American TV fitness personality and businessman, best known for his fitness infomercial products.

Little is a certified personal trainer and identifies himself as "America's Personal Trainer", and most of the products he sells on his infomercials are targeted to the personal fitness market. He is known for his over-the-top, hyper-enthusiastic personality and bald spot always covered by a baseball cap, and long blonde ponytail. Four of Little's favorite catchphrases are "You can do it," "It's technique!," "Always believe in yourself" and "Conceive, Believe and Achieve™"

Little ’s infomercials have generated more than $3 billion in sales globally. Little averages about 6,000 hours a year on TV.

Biography

Personal life

As a child, Little was abandoned by his father, and raised by his mother in Fremont, Ohio. As an adult, he moved to Tampa, Florida to advance his personal fitness career. Little has two children, a boy and a girl. Little is an avid collector of antiques and classic cars. He owns eight of the latter.

Little is a former Mr. Florida and Junior National Bodybuilding champion. In 1983, while training for The Mr. America Bodybuilding Championship, he was in a near-fatal car accident in which he suffered numerous physical injuries. He suffered lacerations to his face and body and two herniated discs, a cracked vertebra, and a dislocated knee. He recovered enough to compete in the event and finished in fifth place. Little has stated publicly that afterward he suffered from depression and became addicted to pain medication and gained weight.

During his recovery Little began developing exercise programs and become a successful in the fitness industry. His book "One on One with Tony Little: The Complete 28-Day Body Sculpting And Weight Loss Program" has sold thousands of copies. His fitness videos have won 14 Platinum Awards, 9 gold video awards, and over 47 million customers. His products are sold by retailers world-wide, including HSN and QVC. His most notable product is the "Gazelle" by Fitness Quest.

Little revealed on a July 9 HSN broadcast of One on One with Tony Little that he would be turning 50 in September 2006.

Parodies and media appearances

Little has frequently been the target and source of parodies. In his own infomercials, he's dressed up, and made fun of other TV personalities, such as Fabio, Richard Simmons, and Susan Powter. Some of these were light-hearted, but others were part of attacks and counter-attacks between competitors, each portraying others as having silly gimmicks, while they themselves had "legitimate" products.

In 1997, he appeared as himself, making fun of his own image, on The Weird Al Show. The following year, he once again parodied himself on the Fox show MADtv. He also did a cameo appearance in the movie "Frezno Smooth" in 1999. In 2005, he appeared in a GEICO commercial, that at first pretends to be another of his personal training videos, but then becomes a commercial for car insurance.

On an episode of MADtv in early 2002, he was parodied and was portrayed by WWE wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin himself would be parodied by MADtv cast member Will Sasso.

Little appeared in the 2006 film "The Pumpkin Karver".

Little has appeared on VH1's Best Year Ever 2007.

In October 2006, Little appeared on an episode of G4TV's popular videogame review show "X-Play"; the episode in question was actually named [http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/episodes/6088/The_Tony_Little_Episode.html "The Tony Little Episode"] . The highlight of the episode featured Little in a comedy sketch which directly parodied his own infomercials. In the sketch, Little magically transports (via superpowers) an excessively obese member of G4's web design team into a fitness infomercial (Little claims in the sketch that he obtained said superpowers when he was 16 years old, after being bitten by a radioactive ponytail). Little then shows the person how they can begin an exercise regimen using specialized video-game peripherals.( [http://media.g4tv.com/videoDB/013/465/video13465/xp6107tonylittle_pod.mp4 "X-Play's" Tony Little Fitness Infomercial - MP4 video format] )

Little appeared in a October 29, 2006 episode of VH1 reality show Celebrity Paranormal Project.

Little has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno three times.

External links

* [http://www.tonylittle.com Tony's web site]