Russell Crowe displays dramatic transformation from his character in 'Gladiator'

Russel Crowe sports a bushy beard and grizzled locks in Rome

Russel Crowe became known as 'Russell the Muscle' after he starred as General Maximus in the epic 2000 Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator, reported Daily Mail on the 5th of June 2018

Crowe's character was a disgraced Roman General who becomes a famous gladiator, and the actor displayed a magnificent physique.

The actor was in Rome, Italy to attend the Il Gladiatore In Concerto presentation and he looked very different from his svelte self of 18 years ago.

The 54-year-old Oscar-winner wore a black polo shirt and blue denim jeans and posed next to a promotional poster of the original movie.

Although his figure is definitely fuller, the greatest change to his appearance is the bushy grizzled beard and the unruly mane of salt-and-pepper locks.

He has changed a great deal since his first years in Hollywood as a young Australian hopeful trying to break into acting.

Gladiator won Crowe his first Oscar, and the A-lister never looked back. Crowe appeared as the tobacco firm whistle blower Jeffrey Wigand in the 1999 film The Insider, for which he received five awards as best actor and seven nominations in the same category.

Crowe then went on to play mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John F. Nash in A Beautiful Mind and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

Crowe's private life has taken a toll on his spirits, and he admits his drawn-out divorce from actress Danielle Spencer wounded him deeply.

Crowe and Spencer separated in 2013, but the divorce was only finalized in April 2018. The couple began an on-again, off-again relationship in 1989 when they co-starred in The Crossing.

The actor became romantically involved with his co-star Meg Ryan while filming Proof of Life, but Crowe and Spencer reconciled in 2001 and married in 2003. Crowe and Spencer have two sons: Charles, 14, and Tennyson, 12.

Crowe was seen in Mexico with an attractive brunette, but he has denied that he is dating and identified the woman as his assistant, tweeting: 'Been told there are pics of me "on holiday with a young woman" in Mexico.'

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