9 Black Pro Athletes Who Jumped Into Successful Acting Careers

Terry Crews Crews played six years in the NFL after being selected in the 11th round of the 1991 draft. He is perhaps best known for playing Julius on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris and for his appearances in Old Spice commercials, as well as films such as Friday After Next, White Chicks, Bridesmaids, Idiocracy, Gamer, and The Expendables. Crews starred as Nick Kingston-Persons in the TBS sitcom Are We There Yet? and as himself in the BET reality series The Family Crews. As of 2014, he plays NYPD Sergeant Terry Jeffords on the Fox sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine and hosts the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. O.J. Simpson Simpson was the first NFL football player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, a mark he set in 1973. Simpson was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. Even before his retirement from football and in the NFL, Simpson embarked on a successful film career with parts in films such as the television mini-series Roots (1977), and the dramatic motion pictures The Klansman (1974), The Towering Inferno(1974), The Cassandra Crossing (1976), Capricorn One (1978), and the comedic Back to the Beach (1987) and The Naked Gun trilogy (1988, 1991, 1994). Rick Fox He won three championships with the LA Lakers during his 13-year basketball career. As an actor, Fox has appeared in movies such as Blue Chips, Eddie and He Got Game and the HBO series Oz. He has appeared in many television series, including Kevin Hill, Love, Inc., One Tree Hill, Ugly Betty, The Game, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, Single Ladies and Hit the Floor. Kareem Abdul Jabbar One of the greatest players of all time and the NBA's all-time leading scorer, Jabbar has had many acting roles. He appeared in such films as the Bruce Lee's Game of Death, the comedy Airplane!, Fletch, Troop Beverly Hills and Forget Paris, and television series such as Full House, Living Single, Amen, Everybody Loves Raymond, Martin, Diff'rent Strokes, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Scrubs, 21 Jump Street, Emergency!, Man from Atlantis, and New Girl. Bubba Smith At Michigan State University, he twice earned All-American honors and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1988. He played nine years in the NFL with the Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers, winning Super Bowl V with the Colts. He was named to two Pro Bowls. During his acting career, his best-known role was as Moses Hightower in the first six Police Academy movies. Jim Brown Perhaps the best NFL player of all time, Brown has had many acting roles. His most famous have been in The Running Man, The Dirty Dozen, Any Given Sunday and Dream Street. He is considered Hollywood's first Black action hero. Fred Williamson He played his eight-year career mainly in the AFL, with the Raiders and the Chiefs. He personified an action hero in films, acting alongside Jim Brown in films such as 1974's Three the Hard Way, 1975's Take a Hard Ride, 1982's One Down, Two to Go, 1996's Original Gangstas and 2002's On the Edge. Williamson co-starred with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in 1996's From Dusk Till Dawn. Roosevelt Grier Known as Rosey, Grier was a standout for Penn State before playing in the NFL with the New York Giants and Los Angeles Rams as an original member of the Fearsome Foursome who appeared in the Pro Bowm twice. He was one of the first football stars to successfully transition to acting, making about 70 television guest appearances in such series as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie and The White Shadow. Grier starred in films including The Thing with Two Heads (1972), The Glove (1978), and The Seekers (1979). Carl Weathers He played with the Oakland Raiders, playing seven games in 1970 and one in 1971. He joined the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League in 1971 and played until 1973, 18 games in total. He retired in 1974, and pursued an acting career. He is best known for portraying Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films, Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore and Little Nicky, and himself in the television series Arrested Development.

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