Since 1998, the native of City of Calamba in Laguna, Philippines, has had around 17 plastic-surgery procedures to make him look like his childhood idol, Superman.
Chavez, now 34, modeled his look after Reeve, who played the Last Son of Krypton in four Hollywood films before his death in 2004, as well as the animated version of Superman on Super Friends. Chavez says he was always attracted to Superman’s overwhelming love for mankind and how he “did good deeds for truth, justice, and the Filipino way—oops, I mean the American way, originally,” he says with a laugh.
He was an acne-riddled 21-year-old when he began the procedures. The first, he says, was rhinoplasty in 1998, and he’s had numerous others since, including three more nose jobs, lip injections, two chin augmentations to give him the signature cleft, three tummy tucks, a facelift, skin pigment orientation to whiten it, a butt implant, hip implants, and numerous steroid injections to various parts of his body. Many have alleged that Chavez suffers from body dysmorphic disorder—a mental illness where one becomes obsessed with his or her own body image, and believes one’s own body to be inferior. But Chavez brushes those claims off. He’s just a big, big, BIG Superman fan, he says.
Chavez’s home in Calamba is a shrine to Superman, filled with various forms of memorabilia, including comics, posters, bed sheets, figurines, and several larger-than-life statues of the superhero—which he often poses alongside.
On Wednesday, Chavez watched Zack Snyder’s latest Superman film, Man of Steel, and—as is his wont—found it “totally exciting.”
“I can say it’s a perfect movie,” he says, although he wishes that some of the fight scenes between Superman (Henry Cavill) and his movie nemesis, General Zod (Michael Shannon), were handled a bit… differently.
Obsessed Superman fan has cosmetic surgery to look like his hero (... bet that took longer than changing in a phone box)
When Clark Kent wanted to transform into his heroic alter-ego, Superman, all it took was a quick whizz round inside a phone box.
In real life, things are rarely so easy. A 35-year-old man has had extensive cosmetic surgery to make him look more like the comic book character.
Herbert Chavez, from the Philippines, has dramatically altered his appearance to look more like the famed Man of Steel.
When producer Christopher Nolan and director Zach Snyder set about to find the man who would be their Superman, they cast a wide net, reeling in "Immortals" actor Henry Cavill all the way from England.
Herbert Chavez, a 35-year old Filipino pageant trainer, has since 1995 undergone a whole host of surgeries to make him more closely resemble the Man of Steel. According to a RealSelf.com translation of a news report out of the Philippines, he has admitted to a nose job, chin augmentation -- for that iconic cleft, silicone lip injections and, of course, thigh implants.
The news report speculates that he has Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which makes him compulsively undergo plastic surgery. Whether or not that's true, he is clearly obsessed with the man of steel; a peek inside his home reveals a shrine to the hero, with everything from bedding to wall decorations to actual, larger than life statues of the hero taking up an entire room.
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