Louis Silvie Zamperini was born on the 26th January 1917, in Olean, New York State USA, of Italian origin, and was an Olympic athlete, and a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.. In 2008, Zamperini was inducted into the National Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame. His life was presented in the book of Laura Hillenbrand (2010) which was adapted in the film “Invincible” (2014) directed by Angelina Jolie. He passed away the same year.
How much was the net worth of Louis Zamperini? It has been estimated by authoritative sources, that the overall size of his wealth was $1 million, converted to the present day.
Louis Zamperini Net Worth $1 Million
To begin with, the boy was raised by his parents Anthony Zamperini and Louise Dossi, with three siblings. While studying at school Louis was a target for bullies, his father therefore taught him boxing so he could defend himself, and soon, he was able to do battle with anyone. His older brother took him to the school’s athletic team, and in 1934, he set a high school world record at the CIF California State Meet of the California Interscholastic Federation trials, running a mile (1.609 km) in 4:21.20 min, a record broken only after 20 years. A week later he ran the mile in a time of 4:27.8 min and won the championship, which earned him a scholarship at the University of Southern California. In 1936, he was called to the athletics team of the US, but didn’t qualify for the 1500 metres, so actually participated at the Olympic Summer Games in Berlin in 1936 in the 5000 meter run – Zamperini was the youngest participant and the youngest ever for the US. He finished 8th, but he finished his last lap impressively quickly, which attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler who later congratulated Zamperini personally on his run. In 1938, Zamperini set up a national collegiate sports record (a mile in 4:12 min.), which earned him the nickname of the Torrance Tornado.
In 1941, Zamperini joined the US Army Air Force, and after his promotion to the Second Lieutenant, he was transferred to Hawaii where he participated in numerous assignments. As a result of a mechanical malfunction his plane crashed, thus Zamperini and two other survivors were able to save themselves in a boat. On the 47th day, Zamperini and the other survivor, pilot Russell Allen Phillips, reached the Marshall Islands, where they were captured directly by the Japanese, and remained a prisoner until the end of the war. In 1945, it was announced that Zamperini was still alive and he returned to the US as a war hero.
The attempt to continue his athletic career failed because of ill treatment suffered in the Japanese prison, He became a devotee of evangelist Billy Graham, who helped him become a Christian evangelist, to which he devoted most of the rest of his life.
On the occasion of his 81st birthday, Zamperini participated in the Olympic torch relay for the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan in 1998.
Finally, in the personal life of Zamperini, he married Cynthia Applewhite in 1946, with whom he lived until her death in 2001; they had two children. Zamperini died at the age of 97 in Los Angeles, following the effects of lung inflammation, on the 2nd July 2014.
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