Football Players in Hollywood

To show the power in entertainment that football has we decided to list out some of the more famous players turned actors in Hollywood that football has produced.

The entertainment industry is broad and widespread. Technically anything that people can sit and enjoy watching is in the class, so sporting events to movies TV and more are all included inthe category. Perhaps that is why it is so common that the fellas of football throughout history that have big personalities are recruited by Hollywood to act.

We thought it would be kind of neat to review a list of the big time football stars that also showed up on film in other areas of entertainment.

The Count of Monte Cristo is considered by many to be the first Hollwood film way back in 1908. I don't think we had any football men in that one but the history of seeing pigskin heroes on the silver screen does go back a ways.

Woody Strode had quite the role in football as in the movies. Mr. Strode was one of the first black player to be on an NFL roster after the color barrier was broken. He was a member of the LA Rams in 1946 and later the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. In his acting career he received a sweet part in a little flick called Spartacus opposite Kirk Douglas. Woody was so good at the part that he was nominated for a Golden Globe.  He stayed in the hollywood spotlight too when would go on to appear in a number of westerns, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Professionals and The Quick and the Dead according to footballbabble.com.

John Kimbrough was the second-overall pick in the NFL Draft way back in 1941. His services in the NFL never happened though as the second incarnation of the AFL and one of their franchises, the New York Americans inked him. That league then folded after the Pearl Harbor attack, and Kimbrough tried his hand at acting. The popularity of his good football name got him cast into starring in two Westerns. His Hollywood career like most others was then interupted when he went off to fight for his country in WWII, but then returned to play more football and then became a member of the Texas House of Representatives in 1953.

Alex Karras was a great player for the Detroit Lions once upon a time, so good that he was a top name in the 1960s NFL. He got a starring role in the 1980s in his role in the hit sitcom Webster but his break in Hollywood on the big screen was in Blazing Saddles as Mongo.

John Wayne once was a pretty good player for the USC Trojans. Besides being one tough son-of-a-gun in westerns and miliatary films, Wayne's size and toughness proved to be a big deal on the gridiron too. The stumbling block for his promising football career was an injury. The Duke shortly there after recovering got a job working in the prop department of local movie studios near USC. He was eventually cast in small parts and worked his way up to feature status after several years. When you think of Westerns, John Wayne jumps to the top of the list.

How about some of the biggest stars the NFL has ever known. Is Jim Brown big enough? The record books sure say so and so did movie fans. After setting the football world on fire with his talent on the field, it was an easy connection when movie producers cam calling to capture some of Mr. Brown's talent and popularity. Right at the heigth of his gridiron career with the Cleveland Browns, he retired without much warning while filming The Dirty Dozen. Probably he was helped in that decision when Browns Owner Art Modell gave him an ultimatum to either play football or make movies. Jim Brown had big parts in other films too such as Any Given Sunday, The Running Man, Mars Attacks! and, 100 Rifles. He served as a color commentator for the first six UFC pay-per-view events.

Burt Reynolds  wheterh you know it or not was not always an actor. Yes he played Paul Crewes in the original Longest Yard and even a lesser role in the newer Adam Sandler version of the film, but in real life he was a promising halfback at Florida State back in the day. Injury took away football but he talent in acting got him roles in movie hits like Smokey and the Bandit and more.

Mike Henry was a stud linebacker with the USC Trojans that moved into the NFL to play the same poosition with the early 1960s Pittsburgh Steelers.  His fitness, LA connections and talent earned him a chance to star as the famous vine swinger in three different Tarzan films in the 1960s. He also played Junior, the son of Jackie Gleason’s Buford T. Justice, in “Smokey and the Bandit.”

Fred Williamson had a pretty cool nickname on the football field, when folks referred to him as "the Hammer." It really portrayed his hard impactful hits as a defensive back on the NFL football field. Fred also got some roles in film later on and one such movie he was in was called oddly enough, Hammer.

Bubba Smith was a big man that was a beast on the field both at Michigan State and with the Baltimore Colts but he also played parts in some big time movies at the box office.His role that I think of first was Hightower in the Police Academy movie franchise.

Merlin Olsen was best known as the defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams from 1962-1976, making the Pro Bowl a whopping 14 times and eventually being enshrined into the Hall of Fame. He also was a great NFL broadcaster for many seasons after his playing days. His acting though found him starring in Father Murphy and in lesser roles on Little House on the Prarie.

Ed Marinaro was a pretty good back at Cornell when became the first running back in NCAA history to rush for over 4,000 career yards and led the nation in rushing in two straight years. He was drafted and played in the NFL for teams like the Minnesota Vikings,  New York Jets and Seattle Seahawks, and he was even on the roster of Super Bowl squads in SB VIII and IX with the Vikings. He later turned to acting, starring in such television shows as Laverne & Shirley and Hill Street Blues.

Carl Weathers the well known actor who was in Happy Gilmore and multiple Rocky movies playing Apollo Creed was also an outstanding player at San Diego State.

Fred Dryer was a former number one pick by the New York Giants before making the Pro Bowl with the LA Rams. After football, he starred in the hit TV series Hunter, a hit from 1984 until 1991. He would later star in a television show entitled Land's End. I liked him in the movie role he played in the flick Death Before Dishonor in the 1980s.

We have seen our share of appearances and careers of football players turned actors in recent decades as well.

Dwayne Johnson is probably the biggest (in more ways than one) stars in Hollywood right now. Hit movie after hit movie starting with The Scorpion King all the way to The Tooth Fairy, Fast and the Furious and Jumanji film series and more.

Terry Crews is known for his television roles on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and America's Got Talent as well as movie roles in Adam Sandler's version of The Longest Yard.  Terry used to be a terror on the football field when he played for Washington in the NFL.

John Matuszak the towering number one over NFL Draft pick got his big break in the cult classic Goonies where he portrayed the Sloth character. 

Ed O'Neil played Al Bundy in Married with Children and more recently as the patriarch in Modern Family. His characters always had refernces to earlier football glory but in reality he did play some ball even starting as a linebacker with the Pittsburgh Steelers in a short NFL career.

Mark Harmon was the star quarterback at UCLA long before his days of starring in NCIS and many other shows and films

The list goes on and on. Here are some more football players that had spots in Movie and TV and some of their more famous times on film.

Joe Namath - C.C. and Company and The Joe Namath Show

Brian Bosworth - Longest Yard

Lyle Alzado - TV - Learning the Ropes

Bob Golic - Saved by the Bell: College Years

Rosey Grier - Simpsons, many other TV series, in fact over 70 of them.

OJ Simpson - Naked Gun series

Sam J. Jones - Flash Gordon

Fran Tarkenton - That's Incredible

Bo Jackson - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Lois & Clark

Clay Matthews Jr - Pitch Perfect 2

We could go on and on and maybe we will revisit this again to add more some time, but the main thing is that when players are'nt playing some of them have other skills that transfer to our everyday entertainment.

The banner photo is of a cropped picture of the Hollywood sign by Wikimedia Commons contributor Minkelhof, is in the public domain