best permorance by a real athlete in a movie (1 Viewer)

[Cary_H]

Ok. It was Kareem in Airplane.

 

[Richard Kim]

Or better yet, how about Kareem fighting Bruce Lee in Game of Death?

 

[Steve_Knutzen]

Against All Odds. Karras was pretty different from his role on Webster.

All the wreslters like The Rock and Andre were excellent in their roles. Another good wrestler cameo was The Big Show Paul Wight aka The Giant in The Waterboy as Captain Insano.

Anybody else laugh a little less while watching OJ in the Naked Gun movies since the tiral?

 

[Vickie_M]

There really aren't that many, are there?

Most of her career was/is on the stage, but gymnast Cathy Rigby has gotten a lot of kudos for her acting. She was nominated for a Tony, which counts for something. I must admit I've never seen any of her film/TV work.

Patrice Donnelly was once the third ranked pentathlete in the world. She only did 2 movies, but I thought she was pretty good in the only one I've seen, Personal Best. She was Mariel Hemingway's character's training partner, competitor, and lover in the movie.






On the other side of the aisle, the best performance of a pro athelete by a non-actor/non-athelete:

Mac Davis as Seth Maxwell in North Dallas Forty. It was his first acting role after being a singing star, and he nailed it. Cocky, brash, funny and poignant. It's too bad he's never gotten as good a role since.

"poot" I love the way he says that!

(I figure there may never be a thread titled "Best Performance of a Pro Athelete by a Non-Actor/Non-Athelete" so I'd better drop it in while I had the chance)

 

[Chris Harvey]

IMHO, we should be giving more kudos to ex-athletes who're playing parts totally unrelated to their sport, or even sports in general, than those who are brought in to essentially be themselves (a la Lawrence Taylor in ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, etc).

 

[Brook K]

Dr. J in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh which also features Kareem and Meadowlark Lemon as well as a ton of other players from the period like Connie Hawkins, Mychal Thompson, Alfred Beard Jr. and Bob Lanier.

Hey!
Have you heard?
About the fish that saved Pittsburgh
oh oh oh

 

[Scott Leopold]

How can anyone forget Rosie Greer in The Thing with Two Heads, or Bruce Jenner in Can't Stop the Music? Seriously. I'm asking because I'd really like to.

 

[Mark_vdH]

Vinnie Jones in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

O.J. Simpson in The Naked Gun (and during his trial ).

Eric Cantona in Elizabeth.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Jim Brown.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch in Unchained.

 

[RyanAn]

Ready to Rumble...

Nathan Jones starring in Troy!

Ryan

 

[Quentin]

Alex Karras in Victor/Victoria.

 

[Chad Ferguson]

Taylor in Any Given Sunday.

 

[Jason_Els]

Two who I thought were pretty good on the silver screen:

Esther Williams won 3 national championships in breaststroke and freestyle. She was on the 1940 US Olympic Swimming Team but WW2 prevented the games from happening.

Johnny Weissmuller won FIVE gold medals in swimming and broke three world records at the 1924 Olympics in Paris.

And from the same era came,

Sonja Henie, 3 gold medals for figure skating and 10 consecutive world championships. She may not have been as good an actor as the previous two but she was lovely to look at.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Buster Crabbe was another Olympic athlete. He might not have been a great actor per se, but he was terrific as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

 

[Malcolm R]

Mitch Gaylord in American Anthem.

Oh, sorry...you said "best" performance.

 

[Dennis Pagoulatos]

Dan Marino in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective"

And I'll take L.T. in "The Waterboy" over "Any Given Sunday" on any given Sunday:

"Don't.Smoke.Crack."

-Dennis

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

I was surprised how good The Rock was in RUNDOWN.

Sorta reminded me of the (albeit lesser) potential Roddy Piper exhibited in THEY LIVE before heading down that DTV highway in films like NO CONTEST (which wasn't really that bad).

And we musn't forget the "lovable" Mary Lou Retton as Tiny Tim in SCROOGED. Oops, I too forgot this was a "best" thread.

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

You can't mention Mitch without thinking of Kurt Thomas in GYMKATA (1985), another load from the never-great director of ENTER THE DRAGON, Robert Clouse.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Also from that same show, Michael Warren, who played Officer Bobby Hill, played varsity basketball at UCLA at the same time as Lew Alcindor, aka Kareem-Abdul Jabbar (of Airplane! fame).

BTW, Alex Karras's best performance was as Mongo in Blazing Saddles. "Mongo is just pawn in game of life".