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On Game of Thrones, Gregor Clegane was the biggest, strongest dude this side of Wun Wun. And the actor cast to play the Mountain didn’t just look the part—Hafthor Bjornsson is a real-life strongman, and he just set a world record by deadlifting a full 1,104 pounds.
The Icelandic actor posted footage of himself performing the feat to Instagram. “I have no words,” he wrote in the caption. “What an amazing day, one I will remember for the rest of my life. I said I was coming for it and once I set my mind on something I’m a dog with a bone.”
In case you need a refresher, the Mountain served as the Lannisters’ most loyal and lethal knight, and was feared throughout Westeros due to his penchant for committing pretty heinous war crimes. After being seriously wounded in combat during the series’ fifth season, defrocked maester Qyburn turned him into a walking, non-talking zombie, and he remained in this state until he finally met his end in a fight to their mutual deaths with his brother, Sandor, in the series’ penultimate episode.
Bjornsson, who won the World’s Strongest Man contest in 2018, was a top strongman before he was cast on the hit HBO show. (He also wasn’t the first actor to play the Mountain—in the character’s first early-season appearances, he’s played by two separate performers.) Last year, he told CNBC that his TV fame had eclipsed his athletic celebrity. “If I’m walking on the street, people recognize me more from ‘Game of Thrones’ than Strongman,” he said. “It’s close, but it’s probably close to like 60-40.”
