Dave Bautista will be the first person to tell you that he’s always been something of a late bloomer, and he didn’t even consider the idea of a professional wrestling career until he was 30 after working a variety of jobs that made decent use of his massive frame including bouncer, bodybuilder and lifeguard. Even after hitting it big in the squared circle, though, he was only a full-time member of the WWE roster for eight years, before winning a solitary professional MMA fight and then making the permanent transition to the acting business.
Things have worked out pretty well for him so far, too, after he’s taken a deliberately different path to other famed wrestlers-turned-actors Dwayne Johnson and John Cena by tackling a variety of smaller and more challenging roles, although he’s certainly not against the idea of starring in big budget blockbusters, either.
To celebrate his 52nd birthday, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Drax the Destroyer took to social media to prove that he’s still in better shape than a lot of people half his age, and it looks as though he’ll have no issues continuing to play the Guardians of the Galaxy’s permanently shirtless member for a while yet.
To put things into perspective, this is a guy who was a grandfather twice over before he’d even turned 40 and was born in the same year as Jason Bateman, Edward Norton, Jack Black and Patton Oswalt, all of whom he could comfortably eat for lunch. Of course, middle-aged men posting shirtless selfies on social media typically doesn’t tend to go down very well in some circles, but Dave Bautista‘s fans will no doubt be willing to let him off the hook seeing as it was his birthday.
