Some athletes were so famous that Hollywood came calling once they left the field, pool or ring. These 30 sports stars, from Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller to football player Carl Weathers, found a second career in front of the camera.
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth was the biggest name in baseball when he hit 60 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1927. He also loved the movies, and in "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942) he played himself alongside Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig.
Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller won five Olympic gold medals in swimming at the 1924 and 1928 Games. After retiring from the pool, he played Tarzan in 12 films from 1932 to 1948, and his jungle yell became one of the most famous sounds in movie history.
Johnny Mack Brown
Johnny Mack Brown was named the most valuable player of the 1926 Rose Bowl after scoring two touchdowns for Alabama. Hollywood signed the handsome halfback, and he went on to star in dozens of Westerns, like the cowboy role seen here.
Buster Crabbe
Buster Crabbe won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. He soon became a movie serial hero, playing Flash Gordon, shown here in 1936, as well as Buck Rogers and Tarzan.
Sonja Henie
Norwegian skater Sonja Henie won three Olympic gold medals and ten straight world championships. She then moved to Hollywood, where 20th Century Fox built a series of popular skating musicals around her in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Esther Williams
Esther Williams set national swimming records as a teenager, but World War II canceled the 1940 Olympics she hoped to swim in. MGM made her a star instead, and her lavish "aquamusicals" like this one filled theaters in the 1940s and 1950s.
Woody Strode
Woody Strode played football at UCLA and became one of the first Black players in the modern NFL in 1946. As an actor, he earned a Golden Globe nomination for playing the gladiator Draba in "Spartacus" (1960).
Jackie Robinson
Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Three years later he played himself in "The Jackie Robinson Story," and this photo was taken during the filming.
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors is one of the few athletes to play both pro basketball, with the Boston Celtics, and Major League Baseball, with the Dodgers and Cubs. He became a TV star as rancher Lucas McCain on "The Rifleman" (1958–1963).
Merlin Olsen
Merlin Olsen was a Hall of Fame defensive tackle with the Los Angeles Rams. He joined "Little House on the Prairie" in 1977 as farmer Jonathan Garvey and later starred in his own NBC series, "Father Murphy."
Alex Karras
Alex Karras played 12 seasons as a defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions. He made viewers laugh as the dim-witted Mongo in "Blazing Saddles" (1974) and later played the adoptive dad on the sitcom "Webster" (1983-1989).
Rosey Grier
Rosey Grier was part of the Los Angeles Rams' famous "Fearsome Foursome" defensive line. After football, he acted in TV shows and movies in the 1970s and surprised fans with an unusual hobby, needlepoint, seen in this photo.
Fred Williamson
Fred Williamson played for the Kansas City Chiefs, where he earned the nickname "The Hammer." In the 1970s he became an action movie star, leading films like "Black Caesar" (1973).
Bernie Casey
Bernie Casey was a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams. He appeared in films like "Brian's Song" (1971) and is fondly remembered as fraternity president U.N. Jefferson in "Revenge of the Nerds" (1984).
Bubba Smith
Bubba Smith was the first overall pick of the 1967 NFL draft and played in two Super Bowls with the Baltimore Colts. Moviegoers know him as gentle giant Moses Hightower in the first six "Police Academy" films.
Bob Uecker
Bob Uecker was a backup catcher in the 1960s who turned his modest stats into comedy gold. He played the dad on the sitcom "Mr. Belvedere" and announcer Harry Doyle in the "Major League" movies.
Tony Danza
Tony Danza was a professional boxer who won eight of his 11 fights before he was discovered for TV. He played cab driver and part-time boxer Tony Banta on "Taxi" and later starred in "Who's the Boss?"
Fred Dryer
Fred Dryer spent 13 seasons as a defensive end for the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams. His 6-foot-6 frame helped him land the lead in the NBC police drama "Hunter," which ran from 1984 to 1991.
Ed Marinaro
Ed Marinaro finished second in the 1971 Heisman Trophy voting at Cornell, then played in the NFL, where he posed for this 1975 boot ad. He later joined "Hill Street Blues" as Officer Joe Coffey from 1981 to 1986.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger won Mr. Olympia, bodybuilding's top prize, seven times, six of them in a row from 1970 to 1975. He turned that fame into a movie career, becoming one of the biggest action stars in the world.
Lou Ferrigno
Lou Ferrigno was a champion bodybuilder who was crowned Mr. Universe in the 1970s. He was cast as the green giant on CBS's "The Incredible Hulk," shown here filming in Los Angeles in 1978.
Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris won numerous martial arts championships before trying acting. After a string of action movies, he starred as Texas Ranger Cordell Walker in "Walker, Texas Ranger" on CBS from 1993 to 2001.
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain once scored 100 points in a single NBA game. In 1984 he traded the court for the movies, playing the warrior Bombaata opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Destroyer."
Howie Long
Howie Long was a star defensive end for the Raiders and entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. He also co-starred with John Travolta in the action film "Broken Arrow" (1996).
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. In 1996 he starred as himself in "Space Jam," teaming up with Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes for a basketball game.
Terry Crews
Terry Crews played linebacker and defensive end in the NFL for the Rams, Chargers and Washington. He later became a sitcom favorite, first as the dad on "Everybody Hates Chris" and later playing Sergeant Terry Jeffords on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."
Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson played on the University of Miami's 1991 national championship football team before becoming a wrestling champion as "The Rock." He is now one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars, seen here on the set of "Rampage" (2018).
Vinnie Jones
Vinnie Jones was a tough midfielder for Wimbledon, helping the club win the 1988 FA Cup. Director Guy Ritchie cast him in "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" (1998), which launched his career as a movie tough guy.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and retired as the league's all-time leading scorer. In "Airplane!" (1980), he played co-pilot Roger Murdock, who insists he is not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers played linebacker for the Oakland Raiders before turning to acting. He found fame as boxing champion Apollo Creed in the first four "Rocky" films, beginning in 1976.
