In Hollywood, there are many actors were actually former athletes. Most of them started their acting careers after retiring, and they even become superstars and great actors in the world. Here we will introduce you 15 actors who were incredible athletes.
Johnson played briefly in the Canadian Football League, before wrestling professionally like his father, Rocky Johnson. His first acting job was playing his father on an episode of “That 70’s Show”. The Fast and Furious star is currently in the HBO show “Ballers”.
Best known for his appearance on the NBC comedy My Name is Earl, Jason Lee was a successful pro skateboarder and extreme sports entrepreneur. He didn’t start acting until the early 1990s.
Starring only once in a Warner Brother movie, the acting career of the greatest pro basketball player in history is very simple, but he did appear with many legendary characters.
Starred as Lucas McCain on the ABC series “The Rifleman”, Chuck Connors has been in the acting industry for almost 40 years. In his early years, Connors had managed to play for three professional sports teams including the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs.
Except for playing minor league baseball, Kurt Russell never gave up his acting career, which had been going strong since he was a child. He has been cast in the upcoming movie The Hateful Eight.
You can’t imagine this tough guy had ever been a member of the British National Diving Squad for twelve years.
“Broadway Joe” was a showy and gorgeous Super Bowl-winning quarterback for the New York Jets. After that, he accepted small roles playing himself on TV. Now, the NFL Hall of Famer commentates on pro football.
As well as acting in films as a child, Bruce Lee also studied martial arts. He later developed his style of fighting in the US and was asked to trial performance for the role of Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet. Before his death at the age of 32, he had already become a film icon and the man who popularized martial arts films in the US.
In 1982, the champion bodybuilder earned the lead in “Conan the Barbarian”. He became one of the biggest stars of the 1980s due to his appearance as the android in James Cameron’s “The Terminator”. What shocked everyone is that he became Governor of California, but told the acting world “I’ll be back.”
“Shaq Diesel” acted in several films while in the NBA and launched a successful rap music career.
Being a world champion in Mixed Martial Arts and an actress, Ronda Rousey hopes to build her profile enough so that Marvel Entertainment casts her in the upcoming film Captain Marvel.
The former wrestler, Hulk Hogan, appeared as a villain in Rocky III. Due to using racially derogatory language, he was fired from the WWE.
Before winning 3 NBA titles with the Lakers, Rick Fox began his acting career almost as soon as he turned pro.
Esther Williams had won 3 US national championships in the 1930s. Due to the war, she was unable to compete in the Olympics and as a result, she ended up working in Hollywood. She died in 2013 at 91 years old.
Gina Carano was one of the early stars of the female Mixed Martial Arts circuit. Because of her beauty, she appeared in magazines a lot. Now, she is an action movie star, appearing in the Fast and Furious 6 and Deadpool.
