15 Athletes Who Made It in Hollywood

Athletes who cross over into film and television aren’t always a hit. Case in point, Ryan Lochte’s appearances on both 30 Rock and 90210, which were totally cringe-worthy. But sometimes it doesn’t matter if an athlete is a great actor or not because they have a je ne sais quoi about them—a certain X-factor—meaning that they already have a strong fan base that is willing to watch them in anything, and everything.

Though rare, there are athletes who happen to be good actors. More importantly, they are selective with their options and only choose the right movies to appear in. They’re like Halley’s Comet—coming around just once every 100 years. Except there are a few of them, so maybe that metaphor isn’t so great. Anyway, here’s our list of 15 Athletes Who Made It in Hollywood, for better or worse.

Fox makes great sense as a starting point for this list because he, not only enjoyed success on both the basketball court and in front of a camera, but he did so simultaneously. After being drafted 24th overall by the Boston Celtics in 1991, Fox found himself on the big screen in a trio of basketball-themed movies: Blue Chips (1994), Eddie (1996), and He Got Game (1998). In the midst of a late-career run with the L.A. Lakers that yielded three NBA Championships, he landed a recurring role on the hit HBO series OZ. He has continued a healthy acting career since retiring from basketball in 2004.

Weathers was a professional football player for only about four years before he retired and took up acting full time. He appeared in Predator, Happy Gilmore, and Blaxploitation films, but the silver screen will always remember him as Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies.

Nobody ever mentions that Jason Statham didn’t start off as a badass action star. In fact, once upon a time, he most likely shaved his legs for the sport that put him on the map: diving. He was on the British National Diving Squad for 12 years. Now, he’s one of the most recognizable guys who can, and would probably enjoy, beating someone up.

Let’s put the Chuck Norris jokes aside—they’re too reminiscent of middle school and they’re as played as out “Yo Mama” jokes. Is he deserving of them? Yes, of course! Norris made Tae Kwon Do history when he was given the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt Grand Master. At a martial arts demo, he met Bruce Lee and played his nemesis in Return of the Dragon, which certainly got his foot in the door. Chuck Norris is now best remembered as Walker, a Texas Ranger in Walker, Texas Ranger, and also for giving a thumbs-up in Dodgeball.

The six-time MVP and 19-time All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played for two legendary teams, the Bucks and the Lakers, before retiring from his 20-season-long career in which he made the playoffs 18 times. He’s highly considered to be the best center of all time, but in many hearts, he’s actually the best co-pilot of all time, after appearing in Airplane! He made his film debut in Bruce Lee’s Game of Death, which boasts one of the greatest stills in cinema history: these two athletes standing side-by-side ready for their fight

It’s still kind of weird to think that the guy encouraging a bunch of chipmunks to cut a record in Alvin and the Chipmunks is Jason Lee—the guy who started skating at 13, and by 18, was already a professional skateboarder. Do a quick YouTube search of “Blind Skateboards Video Days,” and enjoy some retro boarding featuring Lee. In fact, that video was directed by Spike Jonze, who helped him get his first acting gigs.

Eventually, Lee quit skating to become a full-time actor and starred in a bunch of ’90s Kevin Smith classic films, including Chasing Amy and Mallrats. He became a household name after starring in his hit NBC show, My Name is Earl.

Lou Ferrigno was really successful as a bodybuilder; he won Mr. America and Mr. Universe twice. However, he’s probably better known for playing the Hulk about 1,200 times. Ferrigno appeared as the green monster with a heart of gold, but not its human counterpart (that was played by Bill Bixby), in The Incredible Hulk (1977-1982), Amazing Stories (1985), The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988), The Trail of the Incredible Hulk (1989), The Death of the Incredible Hulk (1990-Oh, God! the death?), and the cartoon The Incredible Hulk (1996-1997). And then, of course, he has appeared in every movie that The Hulk has been in since, either as a cameo or as the voice of the Hulk. This dude just loves Hulking out.

Shaquille O’Neal’s basketball history is as long and vast as his 7-1 frame. During a 19-year NBA career in which he was renowned for superior post play, he also honed his skills as a TV personality and media darling. O’Neal had stellar roles, like Neon in Blue Chips, but for any child who lived through the 90’s, his magnum opus will always be Kazaam. He played a genie, which, if given the chance, would have been our first wish anyway.

His charisma is so great that much of his Hollywood career has involved simply showing up. He’s only got 14 or so legitimate “acting” credits to his name, and most are just petty one-sceners. But, according to IMDb, Shaq boasts 146 appearances as himself. So yeah, he pretty much has made it in Hollywood.

Gina Carano becoming an action-movie star was a no-brainer. The MMA fighter kicked ass constantly in the ring and she had the charms to woo an audience. Her fighting records are 12-1-1 in Muay Thai and 7-1 for WMMA. In 2011, she starred in her own movie, Haywire, and joined in on Fast & Furious 6 in 2013.

Before he stole every White Chicks’ heart by singing Vanessa Carlton, Terry Crews was a professional football player for the Rams, Chargers, Redskins, and Eagles. Thankfully he retired and became one of the funniest guys working in TV and film, like his work in Everybody Hates Chris, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Expendables, not to mention his wonderfully viral ad campaign for Old Spice.

It may be impossible to find anyone on this blue planet who is more loved than Bruce Lee. People would first talk smack about their mothers before they would on Bruce Lee, and he’d likely hit you just as hard for doing so. He is widely known as the world’s most skilled fighter, but his legacy as one of the kindest fathers and incredibly modest men might be his greatest skill of all. If you Google “Are there any bad stories about Bruce Lee?” the search yields zero results.

As an athlete, he was nearly unparalleled. In his entire life, he lost one fight—and that was when he was 13. At 18, he was a Hong Kong Cha-Cha dancing champion and in the same year, he won the 1958 Boxing Championship by knocking out his opponent.

Oh yeah, and he’s made some of the most entertaining and iconic kung fu movies ever, like Way of the Dragon and Fists of Fury.

Was DJ Khaled’s song, “All I Do Is Win,” inspired by the Austrian Oak? Because it seems like Schwarzenegger just can’t lose. The professional bodybuilder began training when he was 15, and five years later, won Mr. Universe. On top of that, he won Mr. Olympia seven times, won worldwide fame as an action hero, and also won the vote for governor of California.

His film roles, of course, include Terminator, Conan the Barbarian, and The Expendables. But we believe Kindergarten Cop and Jingle All the Way are two of the greatest classics of American cinema.

When “The Rock” was ruling the WWE, kids around the playgrounds would exclaim, “Do you smell-ell-ell-ell-ell what The Rock is cooking!?” before they pile-drove their friend all the way to the nurse’s office. What does that even mean? It doesn’t matter! He was a crowd favorite who followed in the footsteps of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, eventually retiring to try to make it in Hollywood.

Johnson has always been an actor, though true fans of wrestling would attack us for saying that it’s fake, so his first movie wasn’t a sloppy romp of learning the ropes of a new career. The Scorpion King earned him $5.5 million, the biggest paycheck of any Hollywood newcomer.

Johnson has always been smart with his career moves too, focusing on his biggest fans: children. They’re the perfect audience. They don’t really care what your movie is about, they get disposable income from their parents, and if they like you, they will project you into stardom. He appeared on numerous Disney channel shows, like Wizards of Waverly Place, hosted the 2009 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards, and made a few kid-friendly films like Tooth Fairy and Race to Witch Mountain.

In 2013, he was named Forbes’ top-grossing actor and now he’s starring in the epic Hercules. So, to all you Juilliard-trained actors, looks like you should hit the gym, practice your Russian leg sweeps, and maybe you too can be a silver screen sensation. Still, the question remains: what was The Rock cooking for all those years?

Brown is still considered to be one of the best professional athletes ever—like, not even just the best football player (he played for the Cleveland Browns and set a lot of records that should make you feel bad about yourself). He’s considered one of the best athletes ever. Like, all the baseball players, gymnasts, Olympians, and all those losers don’t even hold a candle to Jim Brown. Be it football, lacrosse, track, basketball or baseball, it always seemed like Brown was a man playing amongst boys.

Brown first busted into the Hollywood scene in The Dirty Dozen, where he played a convict sent to France to kill some German officers before D-Day. After that, he starred in a number of action movies and is often called the first African American action star thanks to his film Ice Station Zebra and his films alongside Fred Williamson like Three the Hard Way and On the Edge. His supporting role opposite Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx in the Oliver Stone hit Any Given Sunday helped make that film become arguably the most significant football movie since Rudy.

Everyone knows that Jordan is the best basketball player ever. Children who don’t even know what basketball is yet can tell you that. His shoes still retail for hundreds of dollars and he hasn’t played a minute on the court in over 10 years. People still wear his beautiful No. 23 Bulls jersey. If you were a kid in the ’90s and subscribed to Sports Illustrated Kids, chances are that you ripped out every poster of the man to hang on your wall. He was the most heavily marketed player that the NBA has ever produced.

And Hollywood ate it up. In 1996, Warner Bros., with whom Jordan had already enjoyed a lot of success, released Space Jam, a classic family comedy in which Bugs Bunny and crew must defeat a team of aliens in order to avoid becoming slaves in an interstellar amusement park. Set during his brief retirement in the 1994 season, the film was a not-so-subtle reminder to the world that Number 23 was the best, period. Jordan may be the greatest actor of all time because his work with Looney Tunes cast was seamless, maintaining a deadpan composure with a cast that literally wasn’t there. It’s a shame that MJ didn’t go on to do more films, but unlike his basketball career, he ended his tenure as an actor on top.