Charles Latham Gaines III died of natural causes on July 21, 2026, after a short illness. He was born January 6, 1942, in Jacksonville, Florida to Margaret Shook Gaines of Birmingham, Alabama, and Charles Latham Gaines Jr. The family soon moved to Birmingham, and Charles attended Mountain Brook Grammar School, Indian Springs School, and Birmingham University School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Birmingham Southern College, and a Master of Fine Arts degree, also cum laude, from the University of Iowa’s Creative Writing Workshop. While at Birmingham Southern, he met the love of his life, Patricia Ellisor, and they were married in 1963.
Pursuing his career as a writer and hers as a painter and sculptor, Charles and Patricia lived in Georgia, Ireland, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia, as well as Alabama. Since 2003, they divided the year between homes in Monastery, Nova Scotia and Argo, Alabama.
During a long and varied writing career, Charles published 25 books, among them the novels, Stay Hungry, a finalist for the National Book Award, Dangler, Survival Games, and the forthcoming The Passions of Saint Francis; the non-fiction New York Times and international bestseller, Pumping Iron; and the memoir, A Family Place. The book Pumping Iron and a later film of the same title written and narrated by Charles, are widely credited for having introduced both bodybuilding and Arnold Schwarzenegger to the general public. He also wrote the scripts for two produced feature films, two award-winning feature-documentaries, and a 2-hour PBS adaptation of Edith Wharton’s “Summer,” as well as numerous segments for ABC’s “American Sportsman,” a show for which he also directed and produced. For his television writing he was the recipient of two Emmys, and two Cine Golden Eagle Awards.
Over more than 60 years of magazine writing, Charles published articles and stories in Harpers, GEO, Sports Illustrated, Town & Country, Architectural Digest, Audubon, Forbes Life, Esquire, Men’s Journal, Playboy, Garden & Gun, Field and Stream, Sports Afield, Southern Living, among many other periodicals, and was a Contributing Editor to a number of those magazines.
A lifelong sportsman and outdoors adventurer, he was at various times during his life a dedicated wing-shooter and bird-dog trainer, a rock and ice climber, a ski instructor and winter mountaineer, a canoeist and small boat sailor, a certified diver, a (bad) bull rider, bungee-jumper, and skydiver. He was also, with Hayes Noel and Bob Gurnsey, co-inventor of the game of Paintball, co-founder of the first Paintball company, a recipient of the Paintball Lifetime Achievement Award, and an inductee into the Paintball Hall of Fame.
His favorite outdoors activity was fly-fishing, which he was fortunate enough to practice all over the world, in over 25 countries and on five continents, and his two collections of essays on the sport, The Next Valley Over and Waters Far and Near are considered to be among the best American books of that genre. He was a founding member of the US Fly Fishing Team and fished as a member of that team in World Championship Fly Fishing Competitions in New Zealand and Tasmania.
He was a Lifetime Board Member of the US Fly Fishing Team, and a US Director and National Council member of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus by both The Altamont School (formerly Birmingham University School) and Birmingham Southern College, and he taught periodically as an Associate Professor in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. In 2018 he was inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame and was the 2020 recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for lifetime achievement in non-fiction. In 2026 he was awarded the prestigious Heritage Award by the Museum of American Fly Fishing for lifetime contribution to that sport and to fishery conservation.
Charles is survived by his beloved wife of more than 60 years, Patricia Ellisor Gaines; his three children, Latham, Greta, and Shelby Gaines; five grandchildren: Cassidy and Ryder Haje, and Lucy Bo, Belle, and Rose Gaines; and by his sister, Hansell Burke and her boys, Monte, Justin, and Chris.
