We were discussing this last night, and were surprised at the short list we came up with. By successful I mean didn’t have a cameo or a walk on role playing themselves (Dan Marino, Reggie Jackson, Brett Favre) but actually became actors in their own right. Here’s what we came up with, I’m sure there are more.
Fred Dryer. NFL career mostly eclipsed by acting career. I mean, Hunter. Nuff said.
Jim Brown. Dirty Dozen, Ice Station Zebra, that movie where’s he’s the sherriff in a racist southern town
OJ Simpson. We debated this one, but you gotta give it to him for Nordberg from the Naked Gun movies
Terry Bradshaw. Well, he did make some movies with Burt Reynolds…
Howie Long. Broken Arrow, that crappy fireman movie
Dick Butkus. We knew he became an actor, but none of us could remember a single thing he was in.
Alex Karras. Blazing Saddles, Against All Odds, Webster
Bob Uecker. Mr. Belvedere, Major League
That’s all we could come up with. Any we forgot?
Rowdy Roddy Piper has a couple of watchable b-movies out there, and has also done shots on Walker, Texas Ranger, I think.
Chuck Norris supposedly had some type of legit karate background.
Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea has a few craptacular bombs out there, but was decent in whichever Rocky movie he was in…think it was III.
Dewayne “The Rock” Johnson is pretty good, and even appeared in an episode of ST:Voyager before making several movies. He’s acting full time now, with no plans to return to the ring, last I heard.
Leon “Big Van Vader” White did a couple of guest shots on Roseanne, and had a recurring role on some other series…Boy Meets World maybe
Butkus, as well as fellow hall-of-famer Bubba Smith, were in the TV series Blue Thunder. Smith deserves mention on the strength of his many Police Academy movies.
Ed Marinaro – College football Hall of Famer who played several years for the Minnesota Vikings, and has had a long career in TV, including regular roles in “Hill Street Blues” and “Sisters.”
Max Baer – Heavyweight champion who turned to acting and appeared in about 20 films. His son, Max Baer, Jr., gained fame as Jethro on “The Beverly Hillbillies”
Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom – another boxer (over 250 pro fights) who went into acting successfully (71 IMDB entries).
Joe Namath made several movies, starring in a couple.
Fred Williamson was a star defenseman with the Oakland Raiders/Kansas City Chiefs before switching to acting. He has almost 100 IMDB credits right now, including a rolein the movie MASH.
Johnny Weismuller – probably the most succesful as both an athlete and an actor. He won five Olympic gold medals and was considered the greatest swimmer of his time (think Tiger Woods in a pool), then went into movies and became a screen icon as Tarzan.
Buster Crabbe also was an Olympic gold medalist who became a screen icon as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.
If you’ll allow professional bodybuilders then Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno come to mind.
A number of martial artists including Jackie Chan (well, he was a circus performer really), Benny Urquidez, UFC’s Oleg Taktarov, Bruce Lee. I’m not sure if Jet Li was a “professional athlete” before his acting career. Cynthia Rothrock. Dolph Lundgren.
Jesse Ventura (from wrestling to acting…maybe not that much of a jump).
If you’ll consider stuntmen who moved into acting then Dar Robinson (well, bit parts that usually culminated in a spectacular demise) and of course Richard Farnsworth who was a stuntman for 30 years before moving to acting.
No love for Kareem Abdul Jabaar, Bruce Lee’s opponent in Game of Death? Of course, the title asks for successful, and Kareem can’t be counted as successful.