A Talk with Lou Ferrigno: Actor, Fitness Expert Discusses Recent Cochlear Implant

By David Fabry

This article is a part of the September/October 2021, Volume 33, Number 5, Audiology Today issue.

Many people may know Lou Ferrigno from his iconic title role in the television series “The Incredible Hulk” from the late 1970s. In the show, Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) travels across the United States and finds himself in positions where he helps others in need despite a terrible secret: because of a laboratory experiment, he transforms into an enormous, savage, incredibly strong alter-ego named the Hulk (Ferrigno) during times of extreme anger or stress. Banner’s inner struggle paralleled the dilemmas of the people he encountered on the road and the plot line focused on various ways that the Hulk manifested itself in everyone. 

Although I watched the show when it was broadcast from 1978–1982, my familiarity with Ferrigno began earlier, when he co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1977 bodybuilding documentary “Pumping Iron.” I was immediately struck by the contrast in personalities between Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno. The former was extroverted, aggressive, and brash and he trained at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach, while the quiet and reserved Ferrigno trained privately with his father in a poorly lit basement gym. 

I found myself instantly rooting for Lou and learned in the movie that he had lost much of his hearing as a child. Although well before I decided to become an audiologist, it was one of my earliest exposures to the challenges faced by those with severe-to-profound hearing loss. 

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to meet Lou on several occasions and was honored to catch up with him during Better Hearing Month (in May) to discuss his recent cochlear implant surgery.