The best athletes turned actors

Garnett has had only one real role, and it was as himself in "Uncut Gems." However, KG (you're hearing that in Adam Sandler's voice, aren't you?) is genuinely really good in the film. His acting skills are real, and he brings a ton of intensity in an intense movie.

Matuszak was a massive defensive lineman who played the bulk of his career with the Raiders, winning two Super Bowls in the process. He went on to play a lot of roles calling for a giant, but the most famous of those is certainly his performance as Sloth in “The Goonies.” Unfortunately, Matuszak died at the age of 38 from a drug overdose.

Dryer was a two-time All-Pro and the only player who ever picked up two safeties in one game. Interestingly, the football star was almost cast as Sam Malone in “Cheers,” which would have made Sam a former football player as opposed to a former baseball player. Instead, Dryer had to settle for being the star of the ‘80s cop drama “Hunter.”

If we consider professional wrestlers athletes — and Bautista does have a little MMA experience on top of that — he’s one of the most successful people at both his athletic career and his acting career. Bautista, who wrestled in WWE as “Batista,” was a champion many times over. Now you know him as Drax the Destroyer from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Uecker was not a great player, as the former catcher retired with a .200 batting average. However, he found his knack when it came to announcing, where he is a Hall of Famer. He’s also had a delightful acting career. In addition to his role as Cleveland’s announcer in “Major League,” Uecker was one of the stars of the sitcom “Mr. Belvedere.”

Carano helped put women’s MMA on the map, and something about her must have intrigued Steven Soderbergh. He made her the star of his film “Haywire,” mostly due to her ability to perform fight scenes. For that film, it certainly worked, and she has had supporting roles where she plays muscle since, including in "The Mandalorian."

Before he was the biggest pro wrestler in the world, Johnson was a college football player at Miami. Then he became The Rock. Now, we just know him as a bona fide movie star who seemingly has a half-dozen films out every year.

Convy was best known as a game show host, but he also did some acting. For example, he’s in the pilot episode of “Murder, She Wrote.” Before that, though, he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies out of high school and played a couple of years of minor league baseball.

Amos starred in the sitcom “Good Times,” on which he was overshadowed by Jimmy “J.J.” Walker and his catchphrase, “Dy-no-mite!” He also appeared in “Roots.” His athletic career wasn’t quite on that level. Amos played football in college and also in some minor football leagues that no longer exist. On top of that, he was a Golden Gloves boxing champion. Basically, he’s not a guy you want to mess with.

You know about LeBron’s athletic exploits. He’s just the best basketball player of his generation is all. However, he’s shown that he has a knack for acting once he’s done with his Hall of Fame career. Basically everybody who saw “Trainwreck” agrees that James stole the spotlight in that one. Now he's starring in the "Space Jam" reboot.

Irving is a great player, but he doesn’t seem to like talking to the media. As such, it’s a little odd that he starred in a movie. Maybe it’s because when he plays Uncle Drew he’s under makeup as an old man. Despite starting as a Pepsi ad, “Uncle Drew” got decent reviews and also gave a few basketball players acting roles.

Shaq always had interests outside of basketball. He rapped, he had a video game about him as a martial artist and of course he acted. While nobody is going to speak too highly of his films “Kazaam” or “Steel,” he’s still a former athlete who starred in multiple movies. Also, he was good in “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as himself.

Olsen had plenty of success on the football field and made the Hall of Fame for his defensive line work. He didn’t rest on his laurels, though, as he turned to acting after he retired. Olsen had big roles in both “Little House on the Prairie” and “Father Murphy,” the latter of which he was the star.

What is it about former NFL defensive linemen turning to acting after they retire? Karras is certainly one of the more prominent former athletes who acted. He starred in “Webster,” and, of course, he memorably played Mongo in “Blazing Saddles,” where he punched a horse.

Connors was a truly amazing athlete, playing in both the NBA and MLB. Sure, it was in the ‘40s, but that was still impressive. If you want a further sense of how old-timey Connors’ life was, he then started a career acting in television Westerns. Most notably he was the star of “The Rifleman,” which ran for 168 episodes.

If you see Crews acting on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” you wouldn’t be surprised to find out he’s a former professional athlete. The muscle-bound thespian played in the NFL in the ‘90s, though he never found his footing in the league. Acting has certainly worked out better for him.

Henie was the best figure skater in the world in the ‘20s and ‘30s, making her famous enough to become an actress. While her acting seemed to involve an unusual amount of figure skating, she still became a bona fide movie star. In fact, at her peak she was reportedly one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood.

Brown’s exploits on the football field (and the lacrosse field) are well known. He was the top running back in the world when he was in his prime. Brown then turned to acting, appearing in blaxploitation movies and also nabbing a role in “The Dirty Dozen.”

Bob’s brother Mike is more famous due to his work on ESPN radio for decades. However, Bob had the better career on the field, as he was a three-time Pro Bowler. Plus, Bob’s the one who got to co-star in “Saved by the Bell: The College Years.” His character’s name? Mike.

Grier was a formidable football player known for both his prowess on the gridiron and his fondness for things like macramé and needlepoint. After that he became one of the first NFL stars to be a successful actor. Grier appeared on dozens of TV shows in guest roles and was a regular on a couple of shows as well.

Marinaro finished as the Heisman runner-up, and then the running back had a few years in the NFL. These days, though, he’s best remembered for playing Officer Joe Coffey on “Hill Street Blues,” a role he had from 1981 through 1986.

Sure, the “Police Academy” movies aren’t the greatest achievements in cinema. However, Smith appeared in a whopping six of those films as Moses Hightower. That’s a true acting career, and he had more roles as well. Before that he was a two-time All-American at Michigan State, becoming the first overall pick in the 1967 NFL Draft.

It’s not surprising that the son of Denzel Washington may not want to try his hand at acting right out the gate. That’s a lot to live up to. As such, Washington played football instead, including four seasons with the vaunted Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League. Acting seems to be working out for him, though, if his starring role in “BlacKkKlansman” is any indication.

Weathers didn’t just play an athlete in Apollo Creed. Before he became a well-known actor, the future co-star of several “Rocky” movies also was a football player. He never really caught on in the NFL, but he did play a couple of seasons up in Canada.

Williamson is known as “The Hammer,” which is a good nickname for a former football player. However, that’s not where he earned the nickname. Instead, he owes it to starring in the film “Hammer,” which is one of several blaxploitation films he was in.

Kareem is still the highest-scoring player in NBA history, at least until if and when LeBron overtakes him. Abdul-Jabbar is a true renaissance man, though. In addition to being a novelist, he’s done some acting. Of course, the only role people really seem to care about is Roger Murdock in “Airplane!” Who can blame them?

We’ve been watching the former Steelers quarterback on TV for years as a talking head for FOX’s football coverage. He’s done some acting as well. A lot of it has been as himself, a role that Bradshaw is clearly comfortable with, but he’s also played characters in films such as “Failure to Launch."

Schrempf had a fine NBA career, including being named Sixth Man of the Year twice. His acting work is mostly limited to playing himself three times on “Parks and Recreation.” The German showed a knack for comedic timing, though. His size alongside Aziz Ansari made for some good sight gags as well.

Hibbert was the poster boy for "verticality" right before the NBA changed and turned big men like Hibbert into liabilities. He could turn to acting if he wanted to, though. Like Schrempf, Hibbert appeared in three episodes of “Parks and Recreation” and was fun and charming. He also appeared as himself once on “The Eric Andre Show,” which clearly shows that he’s a good sport.

Neely made the Hockey Hall of Fame despite not having terribly gaudy numbers, mostly owing to the fact that injuries cut his career strikingly short. His time with the Bruins seemed to strike a chord with the Farrelly brothers, though. They put him in three of their movies as the character of Sea Bass. He also appeared in hockey fan Denis Leary’s show “Rescue Me."

The Farrellys must have a thing for athletes, as Neely isn’t the only sports star to appear in their films. Favre, the legendary gunslinging quarterback, shows up as himself memorably in “There’s Something About Mary.”

Before becoming a successful pro wrestler, Piper was a legit fighter, winning a Golden Gloves boxing championship. Perhaps he put some of that to use in the memorable fight scene from the film “They Live.” It’s certainly the peak of Piper’s acting career. No disrespect to “Hell Comes to Frogtown.”

Rousey was the biggest MMA star in the world for a time, and recently she had a run as a champion in WWE. In between, she’s done a bit of acting. Mostly she’s had roles in action films that play on her ability to fight and be intimidating. Rousey is also in an episode of “Drunk History,” but even in that she’s playing an infamous female bouncer.

Andre never really tried his hand at “legit” sports, but his gigantism may have made that hard. Indeed, by the end of his legendary wrestling career, he could barely move around. That issue lingered into his acting career, but he still had the chance to make the memorable turn as “Fezzik” in “The Princess Bride.”

You probably remember Nash best as a pro wrestler, including as a member of the nWo, a group that helped change wrestling. Before he tried his hand at wrestling, though, he played basketball at the University of Tennessee, and he played in Germany briefly as well. Nash has done quite a bit of acting in recent years. You may recognize him from “Magic Mike” or “John Wick.” You may not know he was also the Super Shredder in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.”

Like Terry Bradshaw, Long has been on TV for years doing work on FOX. Before that happened, he tried his hand at becoming an action star. Though he got to star in films like “Firestorm” and “Broken Arrow,” his acting career never quite took off. Well, he’ll always have his eight Pro Bowl appearances.

Early Hollywood was weird. Williams was a competitive swimmer, but that can only take you so far. MGM wanted someone to compete with Sonja Henie, the figure skating movie star. So the studio decided to make a bunch of movies that featured Williams swimming, though she did some non-swimming acting as well. Her skills in the pool made her one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Also, Cary Grant got Williams into using LSD for therapeutic purposes at a time when that was still possible. Like we said, early Hollywood was weird.

Before his name was Earl and before he appeared in “Mallrats,” Lee was a pro skateboarder. Now this was back in the ‘80s and ‘90s before skateboarding was a terribly lucrative way to make a living, but he appeared in skateboarding videos and had his own company, Stereo Skateboards. From there, somehow he would end up playing Dave in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies.

Jordan was a great basketball player, perhaps the best ever. He was also a superstar celebrity. That was enough to get him a chance to star in a movie. That movie, is, of course, “Space Jam.” He only had to play himself, but it was still an athlete in his prime starring in a major motion picture. That’s quite impressive. Let’s not talk about the quality of the film.

Cena technically played college football, but at the Division III level. He’s here because of his time as the biggest star in pro wrestling. Now he seems to be trying to follow in Dwayne Johnson’s footsteps. So far, so good. Cena seems to mostly stick to comedies, though, and he was quite good in the 2018 movie “Blockers.”

Danza may seemingly only ever play characters named “Tony,” but he did it on some big-time sitcoms. He was part of the ensembles at the core of both “Taxi” and “Who’s the Boss,” earning himself four Golden Globe nominations. He never won, but he could have won a Golden Gloves one assumes. Danza was a professional boxer for a time, posting a 9-3 record.

Weissmuller won five gold medals as a swimmer and then threw in a bronze in water polo for good measure. The dude set world records left and right! Then he got the much-coveted role as Tarzan, which led to him playing that character in several films.

Jones is one of soccer’s famous “hard men,” the kind of tough-nosed player who fans certainly cling to. Think of them as soccer’s equivalent of enforcers. The Welshman’s intimidating demeanor has lent itself well to the world of acting, though. He has played tough guys over and over, starting with Guy Ritchie’s first two films, “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch.”

Cobb has a name that feels like it belongs to a tough guy, and he had the reputation to match. Tex posted a 9-2 record as a kickboxer, and he had a black belt in karate before starting a legitimate career as a heavyweight boxer. We’re talking about a guy who posted a 42-7-1 record and once fought Larry Holmes for the WBC title. He had a limited, but memorable, acting career, with his best-known role probably being in the Coen brothers’ “Raising Arizona.” He also appeared alongside Bubba Smith in one “Police Academy” movie.

Fox won a few titles with the Lakers. While he was never a key cog, he also was more than a hanger-on. He’s been acting since he was still a player, including a recurring role in HBO’s “Oz,” but he has had more time for acting since retiring. He’s become something of a character actor, which feels fitting given that he was basically a character actor kind of player in the NBA.

McHale doesn’t have the same “athlete look” as some of the people on this list. He’s tall and thin, and he’s known for his comedic work on shows such as “Community.” However, not only was he a college athlete, but he also played football. McHale was on the Washington Huskies football team for a couple of years before getting into comedy.

O’Neill’s most famous character, Al Bundy from “Married…with Children,” was always going on about his high school football glory days. The actual O’Neill had slightly more success than that. He played football at Ohio University and then Youngstown State University. After that, he failed in a tryout with the Steelers and turned to acting.

Russell has been acting since he was a kid, but he’s also the son of Bing Russell, a former professional baseball player who also owned an independent minor league team the Portland Mavericks. Kurt played for his father’s team when he was younger. However, he ended up there because while he was playing Double-A ball in El Paso, he suffered a torn rotator cuff that basically put the kibosh on his baseball career. Good thing he had his pre-existing acting career to fall back on.

People make fun of the fact nobody under the age of 60 watches “NCIS,” but the show has still been on forever at this point, with Harmon as the lead. Some of those 60-year-olds also probably remember Harmon’s athletic career. Before he became an actor, Harmon was the starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins.

Maybe bodybuilding is a sport. Maybe it isn’t. All we know is that we’re not about to argue against it, given the insane musculature of the people involved. There is a lot of weightlifting involved, after all, and that’s an Olympic sport. Arnold is, of course, the most famous body-builder of all time, and for a while he was also arguably the biggest actor in the world.

If you saw “Pumping Iron," you know that Ferrigno was Schwarzenegger’s top rival in the bodybuilding world. If you didn’t see that documentary, though, you still assuredly know Ferrigno from his time playing the Hulk on “The Incredible Hulk.” He also had a part on the comedy "King of Queens."

Like his father, Kurt, and Kurt’s father, Bing, Wyatt Russell tried his hand at being a professional athlete. However, baseball wasn’t his game. Instead, he was a hockey goalie. After playing in college, Russell played professionally around the goal in the minor leagues, but he never got close to the NHL. He then decided to give the whole acting thing a try, and it’s working out much better. You may have recently seen him starring in AMC’s underappreciated “Lodge 49.”

Barkley has mostly played himself, but he’s played himself a lot. He also tends to do a good job acting as “himself.” Additionally, he recently acted in an episode of “The Goldbergs” not as himself, so he’s branching out. Chuck is also one of the more well-received athletes to serve as a host on “Saturday Night Live.” And for what it’s worth, he was probably the best athlete acting in “Space Jam.”

Look, at this point nobody thinks of O.J. as an excellent running back or a successful actor. His personal life, criminal activities and Ford Bronco escapades have overshadowed everything else, and rightfully so. That being said, he was legitimately a working actor for several years. Unfortunately, that means watching the “Naked Gun” films has gotten harder.

Hogan has been wrestling since he was 16, so he never really had a chance to try his hand at any other sports. Of course, when you go on to become the biggest wrestler in the history of time, that seems like a fair trade-off. The Hulkster was so beloved as a wrestler, he was able to then become a movie star. Nobody is going to give an Oscar out for “Mr. Nanny” or “Santa with Muscles,” but you can’t argue that he didn’t have a legitimate career as a headlining movie star.

Much like Vinnie Jones, Statham’s first two film roles came thanks to Guy Ritchie. While he’s known as a tough guy in movies now, Statham wasn’t a soccer hard man like Jones. He was actually a competitive diver, including competing for Britain at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

Reynolds was a star in the ‘70s, thanks to films like “The Longest Yard” and “Smokey and the Bandit.” Acting wasn’t his first plan in life, though. He intended to play football and was in fact a running back at Florida State. Alas, he suffered a knee injury as a sophomore and then suffered more injuries in a car accident. He never regained his old football form.

Allen has made more three-point shots than anybody in NBA history, though that’s a record destined to fall soon given the way the league works now. He’s been known for his obsessive tendencies but not for his personality. As such, it’s a little surprising that he was willing to star in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game.” Even more surprising was that he was generally praised for his performance. Even Roger Ebert lauded his acting.

Houston had some big years with the Knicks before an injury hindered his career and also left him as a big contract on the books for New York. Hey, don’t blame him for that; he was an All-Star-caliber player in his prime. He’s also done some limited acting. Interestingly, outside of “Blue Chips,” he’s been in only a couple of movies, and they didn’t have anything to do with basketball.

Marino would probably prefer to be known as something other than the best quarterback never to win the Super Bowl. Maybe he would prefer to be known as the guy in a Hootie & the Blowfish music video? He’s done some actual acting beyond that, though, mostly as himself. You probably remember him in “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.” Marino did voice a character named “Garth Sinew” in an episode of “Magic School Bus," his one foray into playing somebody other than himself.