Remembering Charles Gaines
He was not on the list.
AMFF was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Charles
Gaines, the recipient of the 2026 Heritage Award and a true fly fishing
luminary who had a remarkable impact on the world around him and those he came
in contact with. Our hearts go out to his family and the angling community at
large, who lost an icon today. See more photos, videos, and speeches from the
Heritage Award Event back in April and Charles’ official obituary below.
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. Click here for
more photos, videos, and speeches from the evening.
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.
GAINES, Charles (Charles Latham Gaines III)
Born: 1/6/1942, Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.
Died: 7/21/2026, Trussville, Alabama, U.S.A.
Writer
Stripper (1985)
Stripper
5.7
Writer
1985
Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985)
Pumping Iron II: The Women
6.0
bookscreenplay
1985
Great Performances (1971)
Great Performances
7.9
TV Series
adaptation
1981
1 episode
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Pumping Iron (1977)
Pumping Iron
7.3
book "Pumping Iron"
1977
Jeff Bridges and Sally Field in Stay Hungry (1976)
Stay Hungry
5.6
screenplaynovel
1976
Actor
Max Julien and Vonetta McGee in Thomasine & Bushrod
(1974)
Thomasine & Bushrod
6.0
Bank Customer
1974
Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, and Ben Gazzara in Husbands
(1970)
Husbands
7.0
(as Chas. Gaines)
1970
Additional Crew
Arnold Schwarzenegger in Pumping Iron (1977)
Pumping Iron
7.3
consultant
1977
