Maurice Catarcio, who died Thursday at 76, was a record-setting strongman whose stunts included pulling a 17-ton bus, “swim pulling” an 80-foot sightseeing boat with 50 people aboard, and holding back two Cessna airplanes headed in opposite directions.

Most amazing is that he accomplished his feats of strength only after 1991, when he was stricken with prostate cancer at 61. Following a radical prostatectomy, Catarcio embarked on a crash diet and fitness program.

Inspired in part by an early friendship with Jack Lalanne, Catarcio adopted a strict vegetarian regimen and began pumping iron. Billing himself as “Magnificent Maurice,” he began performing feats of strength, he said, as an inspiration to others facing adversity.

“I’m probably the strongest senior citizen in the world,” Catarcio said in 1997. “And I know I’m the strongest politician in the world.” (It would be years before California’s voters sent a famous bodybuilder to the statehouse.)

Catarcio for many years served as bridge commissioner for Cape May County, N.J.A longtime state GOP committeeman, he also served in the Electoral College for the 1976 campaign.

Among Catarcio’s special talents was ripping decks of playing cards in half. He once ripped 41 decks in four minutes, and 102 decks in 14 minutes. Sometimes he ripped decks wrapped in duct tape. Other times, he ripped the halved decks into quarters. The skill was transferable to telephone books and license plates. He also bent steel bars over his head.

Catarcio used press coverage of his stunts to urge others to adopt his lifestyle. “I want to show people, if a guy who’s 66 can do these feats of strength, they can get stronger and healthier, too,” he said in 1995. “It’s never too late to change your lifestyle.”

Catarcio was born in Ocean City, N.J., in 1929. He joined the Navy right out of high school in 1947, serving nearly six years, including a stretch during the Korean War. After working as a lifeguard and policeman, he became a painting contractor and spent 30 years restoring homes in south Jersey.

Between 1957 and 1960, Catarcio wrestled part-time for the World Wrestling Federation. Styling himself “The Matador,” he sported a bullfighter’s cape. Although he had delighted in displaying his strength since he took up bodybuilding as an adolescent, Catarcio let his body go after retiring from wrestling. By 1991, when cancer was diagnosed, he was overweight, hypertensive, and diabetic. After a combination of surgery, diet, and exercise, he regained fitness, and began promoting healthy living through spectacles.

He pushed and pulled various vehicles, including swim-pulling the Delta Lady, an 80-foot touring boat, across Sunset Lake in Wildwood Crest, N.J., in 1995. In 1997, he hoisted his 20-year-old niece and two of her pals into the air, all perched atop a refrigerator. In 2000, he pulled an idling 75-foot car-transport truck across a parking lot in Cape May Courthouse, N.J. In 2001, at age 72, he dragged a 27,000-pound bus down a New York City street on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

The cancer returned two years ago, and Catarcio was forced to scale back, but insisted he would again prevail. He recently told the owner of his hometown fitness club that he would be back soon to perform yet another feat of strength.