The Real-Life Origins Of Popeye The Sailor, And The Man He Was Actually Based On

You’d be forgiven for being taken in by the photo, though, as the fella in the snap looks just like how we’d imagine the real-life Popeye to look. Popeye is a scrappy sailor, and this dude clearly knows his way around a ship. He also looks a bit like he’s been hacked out of a block of wood – again, just like the cartoon character.

Yep, it’s no wonder people think this real-life sailor is the inspiration for Popeye. He’s got the outstanding chin, the signature expresssion and even the pipe. Plus, you can totally imagine him saying things like, “I yam what I yam an’ tha’s all I yam!” And what if we told you the lookalike had the nickname of “Popeye,” too? Yes, really!

This Popeye was, in fact, a seaman in the British Royal Navy. According to the Imperial War Museum, the famous picture of him is from 1940. It was taken when he was serving on H.M.S. Rodney – a battleship that a year later would help sink the Bismarck. And the tough look was no doubt down to being a stoker – a guy whose job was to shovel coal into a furnace all day. Pretty cool, right? Well, not literally, of course.

This version of Popeye had 21 years of service in the British military. He is, in a very real sense, an inspiration. But here’s where things start to get a little mixed up. The viral internet meme claims that the guy is called Frank “Rocky” Fiegel and that he inspired our favorite spinach-munching sailor. But the truth is more complicated than that, and Fiegel probably wasn’t someone we should admire.

Contrary to what the meme says, the Imperial War Museum makes it clear that this Popeye isn’t the man who inspired the cartoon. But if it’s not him, then who is it? The answer is easily solved by looking into the creation of Popeye. Because – arf! arf! – you can’t always believe everything you read in a meme...

Remember when we said the picture of the stoker Popeye was taken in 1940? Well, that is actually 11 years after comic-strip Popeye was first dreamed up! So by this point, the cartoon was already pretty well known. Who knows, he may have even been pulling that face to look like the fictional version. Though this doesn’t mean the meme is completely wrong. Frank “Rocky” Fiegel was a real guy – and he really did help create the character. So what is the truth here?

Well, fictional Popeye first saw the light of day in January 1929. He was the brainchild of Elzie Segar, a cartoonist from Chester, IL. As it turns out, the artist wasn’t even alive at the time the real-life sailor was photographed. He had passed away a couple of years before. Funnily enough, the British Popeye didn’t actually make it into the navy until after Segar’s death, either.

And the comic strip where Popeye first appeared had been around for ten years before he turned up. Yes, Segar had been drawing Thimble Theatre since 1919. You’d have found some familiar characters there, too. Chief among them was Olive Oyl and her brother, Caster. Before Popeye was on the scene, Olive also had a man named Ham Gravy.

But the strip would be revolutionized in 1929 when Popeye made his entrance into the lives of both Olive Oyl and us readers. And the seaman with a mangled face and difficulty talking quickly gained a following. Before long, it was Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye, and an American icon had been born.

However, the character – although a seaman – was not in the military at the start. Nope, he’d actually just begun life in the merchant marine. Then he joined the Coast Guard – as shown in a 1937 short film. And even at the time Segar sadly passed away, the character had still not enlisted in the navy.

But surely Popeye is a naval guy? Yes, like many young men, Popeye signed up in 1941. From then on, he was seen in a U.S. Navy uniform, and he became ever more popular for his patriotism. He became known, too, for having a famous penchant for spinach.

It may surprise you to learn that Popeye didn’t eat spinach at first. Nope, to begin with, he gained his strength by rubbing a chicken’s head! Within a few years, though, he was knocking back cans of spinach and gaining incredible strength. And it gave the veggie a lot of good press. Apparently, sales went up by a third in the Depression years!

Popeye also puffed on a clay pipe when he wasn’t chowing down on the green stuff. But the spinach gave him the power he needed to save his “goil” Olive from peril. Without it, he wasn’t so tough – regularly taking a beating from that very same lady.

So, “eat more spinach, and you’ll be tough” was the theme of many short films about the diminutive sailor. And from 1933 on, Fleischer Studios created animations for Paramount Pictures that showed Popeye defeating villainous Bluto and rescuing Olive.

Even though the cartoons were simpler than the comic strip, Popeye himself didn’t much change. He was the same small guy with ballooning triceps and a pliable face. And when given a voice in the shorts, he would announce to the world, “I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam.”

But surely such a vivid character must have a basis in real life? Popeye is so distinctive that it seems only natural he would have a human inspiration. Well, although Segar never admitted it, many local people in Chester believe that several of the famous cartoon characters were born in their hometown.

Take storekeeper Dora Paskel, who was apparently exactly like Olive Oyl. It’s said, in fact, that her long body was just like Olive’s and that she, too, liked to tie her hair in the distinctive tight bun. Paskel even wore similar clothes right down to her shoes – button-ups that were all the rage in the interwar years.

Interestingly, though, Paskel’s personality was apparently miles apart from Olive’s. The real woman was not a clownish figure at all. The town’s children actually found her a bit intimidating, and that meant they would rarely enter her store. In 2004 Ernie Schuchert – a child back when Segar was also a Chester kid – told The New York Times, “We were kind of scared of her.”

Meanwhile, Schuchert’s relative J. William was the clear inspiration for Wimpy. And it seems that he gave young Segar a job. Yes, the boy who would become a famed comic artist saved up for a drawing course by working at the Chester Opera House.

Just like Wimpy, Schuchert’s relative loved his hamburgers. He would send Segar to the nearby tavern Wiebusch’s to grab them for him when there weren’t any performances. J. William even looked similar to the cartoon character, with a figure that tended to the rotund. We don’t know whether he promised to pay for the burgers on Tuesday, though!

Yet Wimpy’s character wasn’t entirely drawn from the Opera House worker. Website Popeye Picnic notes that his crooked aspects may have been based on a boxing referee in Ocean Park, California. In any case, Schuchert was a much-loved guy in Chester. He was an easy-going character who loved embellishing a tale – and that’s somewhat reflected in Wimpy.

So, there’s little doubt that Segar did look to local people for inspiration. But what about Popeye? Who was he based on? And what was it that made him such an anti-hero? Well, many people in Chester are quite convinced that Segar used Frank “Rocky” Fiegel as the basis for his cartoon.

Fiegel was a Pole by birth and had come to the United States with his family when he was young. It’s said that the tough guy resided with his mom near the town’s cemetery. Unlike Popeye, he was a tall man, but just like the sailor, he didn’t shy away from a fight. And in Fred Grandinetti’s book Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History, local Lee Huffstutler is quoted as saying that Fiegel was “always a winner” when he did get into a rumble.

But Fiegel was no sailor, so it’s definitely not him in the picture of the British naval stoker! No, it’s instead said that he mostly found work as a bartender. Yet Fiegel did have something of a yearning for the sea. The man could sometimes be heard saying that he’d love to explore the world in a sailing boat.

Fiegel apparently looked the part, too. Supposedly, he had a prominent chin, and his face was twisted so that one of his eyes looked larger than the other. He also loved his pipe – just like the comic character. In fact, he’d never be seen out and about without it! It gave him a distinctive look that probably went on to inform the drawing of Popeye.

But above all else, Fiegel was hard as nails. As a younger man, he’d achieved what a local newspaper described as “amazing feats of strength.” It was on account of his jacked body that he was nicknamed “Rocky.” And Fiegel wasn’t afraid to put himself on the line if someone wanted a fight.

No, Fiegel didn’t mind scrapping at the bar. The Polish-American didn’t often find himself on the wrong end of a beating, either. And he was tough enough not to need fueling with spinach. But there was a hidden side to the man. Schuchert told The New York Times that although Fiegel wasn’t a nice guy, he’s remembered as being sweet enough.

Word is that the local kids – perhaps including Segar himself – would also play pranks on Fiegel. They’d catch him snoozing in the afternoon after he’d been working the bar at a saloon. Then the youngsters would sneak up and yell at him. When Fiegel woke up fighting mad, however, they’d all be gone!

You should know, though, that the idea of Fiegel being the inspiration for Popeye wasn’t really established until Segar had passed. At that time, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch displayed Fiegel’s photo and claimed that he was the original Popeye. It’s not known, either, whether the Polish-American ever saw the newspaper. Still, as Chester is not too far from St. Louis, it’s possible that he did.

“I don’t know that he ever knew he was Popeye,” Schuchert told The New York Times in 2004. And his memories of Fiegel weren’t exactly flattering. “He’d sit on a stoop outside his house, which was really dilapidated,” Schuchert added.

But people in the town of Chester had no doubt that he was the real Popeye, and nowadays everyone agrees. Perhaps Segar sweetened up his tough character a little bit, but the liquor-loving Fiegel had the comic character’s boldness. And, of course, Segar turned him into a seaman, which the Polish-American never was.

In fact, it doesn’t seem like Fiegel did much at all. As we noted, the guy worked behind the bar sometimes and occasionally did laboring work. But he wasn’t always in a job. Fiegel would often be found lazing away the day in one of the bars in town – ready for a fight.

Fiegel’s life came to an end in 1947, and he was put to rest in a grave with no marking. But the liquor-lover wasn’t completely forgotten, and the Official Popeye Fan Club set a headstone at his plot in 1996. As an epitaph, it bore a replica of the 1929 Popeye.

As for Segar? He quit Chester in the 1920s. And the comic he created ultimately became a hit, going on to feature in 500 different newspapers. Then, on Popeye’s 90th birthday in 2019, the character turned up in brand new cartoons on YouTube. He was still the same old guy – minus the pipe, though, as he sets a better example for kids these days.

And there’s another place you may be able to catch a Popeye cartoon or two: the old Opera House in Chester. Once a movie theater, it’s now home to a museum dedicated to the character as well as a store with an enormous selection of collectibles. The Tennessean couple who run the establishment love Popeye so much that they just had to make Chester their home.

Of course, the pair are not the only ones who adore Popeye, as the character has close to ten million followers on Facebook. “He’s an American icon,” local Laurie Randall told The New York Times in 2004. “He stands for being who you are and standing up for the little guy.”

Schuchert will always remember, though, that the people who inspired Popeye’s characters were just everyday folks in Chester. “These were just our friends and family. We’re just happy the rest of the world knows them, too,” he explained to The New York Times. And Chester certainly hasn’t forgotten about them – far from it, in fact.

No, the town is still to this day honoring the characters from Popeye by making a “Popeye and Friends Character Trail.” This lengthy project is placing granite statues in meaningful places. There’s already one in bronze of Popeye himself, though the first of the statues is of Wimpy, and it went up in 2006 right next to the old Opera House.

Chester isn’t the only place to have memorialized Popeye in statue form. Crystal City, Texas, put up a figure of the seaman in the middle of town to commemorate his love of spinach. The city is the center of a spinach-raising area, you see. But, sadly, we’ll probably never know what Fiegel thought of the veggie – or whether he ever ate a can of the stuff before a fight.