Maybe #1—but that would take some research.
It is true that you cannot trust everything, indeed most things, that you read on the web, and thus should approach all supposedly factual statements with skepticism and ready access to Google. That does not excuse websites that recklessly and irresponsibly spread misinformation however, or that through their own laziness and ignorance spread ignorance among others.
A slick sports website called Rant Sports provided a particularly galling example this week, when it presumed to post a list it called “Top 25 Athletes Turned Actors of All Time.” All the sports sites draw traffic with this kind of trivia-mongering, but even trivia-mongering demands a modicum of research, care, and fact. This may be an opinion piece, but it isn’t the opinions that are problematical. Renae Juska, the fraud who created the list, obviously engaged in no research at all, so her”Top 25″ really was “First 25 I was able to jot down on a piece of paper.” As I will now demonstrate, Juska, on a site dedicated to sports, made an assertion that is demonstrably and objectively false, and under color of authority, misleading readers but just as wrongly, unfairly neglecting many athletes who would have to be ranked on any such list that was given the amount of research expected of a seventh-grader’s term paper.
Here are some examples of how misleading and poorly researched the list is:
- To begin with, all but one of the “top athletes” are male. Wrong. One of the greatest athletes-turned actresses died just last month, the great Esther Williams, a record-setting competitive swimmer who was unable to compete in the Olympics because of World War II. She was an athlete IN her movies, the most famous of which were aquacade spectaculars featuring Williams swimming, diving, doing what was later called synchronized swimming (she is credited with helping to create the sport), all while smiling and looking drop-dead gorgeous in a one-piece bathing suit. Does Williams qualify as a “Top Actor” over Number 16 on Juska’s idiotic list, the immortal Stacy Keibler, the only woman he deems worthy? Here are her credentials, as Juska cites them: “She began acting in 1998 and was a professional wrestler from 1999-2006. Her most well-known appearances have been in WWE Judgement Day, Summerslam and WrestleMania XX. She has also had guest appearances on How I Met Your Mother, Mayne Street and Samurai Girl.” Esther’s credits are here, and you can see her in action here:
To say there is no contest is not an opinion, it is fact. Of course, Juska probably never heard of Esther Williams, which means that she has no business making this list at all.
Believe it or not, it gets worse…
- The arbitrariness of the list is mind-boggling. At #20 is Kareem Abdul Jabaar, once known as Lew Alcindor. Except for some cameos on TV shows, his primary “acting” gig was playing himself in “Airplane.” Not included on the list was Alcindors’ fellow all-American and UCLA basketball teammate, Michael Warren, both members of the 30-0 1967 and 29-1 1968 Bruin teams that won two NCAA championship titles under legendary coach John Wooden. Warren was a great athlete, and is a real actor. Here is a sample of his credentials, courtesy of Wikipedia:
“Warren would go on to work as an actor in television. In addition to his starring role on Hill Street Blues, he had an earlier role on The White Shadow, and a co-starring role on the CBS television series City of Angels, and a recurring role on the Showtime television series Soul Food.Guest Star as Jason on Marcus Welby, M.D. Before Hill Street Blues, in 1974, he played the role of park ranger P. J. Lewis on the NBC adventure series Sierra, and in 1979, he starred as police officer Willie Miller on the CBS crime drama Paris, which was the first effort by Hill Street Blues executive producer Steven Bochco. He guest starred in “In the House” opposite LL Cool J as Debbie Allen’s ex-husband. He also guest starred on the Fox sitcom Living Single as Khadijah’s father, and later portrayed Joan’s father on the UPN/CW sitcom Girlfriends. Warren played Darrin Dewitt Henson’s boss on the Showtime show, Soul Food, in which he played hustler-turned-entreprenuer, Baron Marks. Warren had a recurring role on the ABC Family series, Lincoln Heights, as Spencer Sutton, Eddie’s father. Warren appeared as Virgil Tibbs’ former longtime police partner, Matthew Pogue on the episode of In the Heat of the Night “The Hammer and the Glove” in 1988. In 1996, he was on the Early Edition episode Hoops. In 2002 he appeared in “Normal Again”, an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a psychiatrist trying to convince Buffy Summers she is delusional.”
Yet Warren’s fellow “Hill Street Blues” cast member, Ed Marinaro, a less talented and less successful actor who starred in Ivy League (read: low level) college football and was an undistinguished NFL player for a while, was listed all the way up the list on #8! Why? Because the list was pulled out of the air by someone ignorant of both sports and acting.
- Renae Juska, in fact, doesn’t even know what an athlete is. Among the most talented athletes in the world are professional ballet dancers, and nobody who has watched them would deny that they are elite athletic specimens—they train like athletes, look like athletes, and can do things even most athletes can’t do. So where on the list is Alexander Gudunov, a star of the Moscow who had major roles in both “Witness” and “Die Hard,” where he played the toughest and most deadly of Alan Rickman’s henchmen? Nowhere—but weighing in at #6 is actor Jason Lee, who “used to be a professional skateboarder.” Also qualifying as athletes are acrobats….like Burt Lancaster, one of the greatest of all Hollywood stars. His athleticism was essential to many of his early roles, some of which employed his circus partner, Nick Cravat. But Lancaster doesn’t make the “Top 25.” Carl Weathers, a.k.a Apollo Creed is, thanks to some action movies and a mediocre professional football career…at #3!
- “All-Time” is an outright lie, for obviously Juska hasn’t seen any movie made before 1970. She’s obsessed with wrestling, and includes pro wrestlers Andre the Giant (one acting role!), Dwayne Johnson, Keibler and that celebrated thespian Hulk Hogan on his list but never discovered that all-time Hollywood great Kirk Douglas was star wrestler in college and also wrestled professionally, in a circus, before embarking on another of film’s most stellar careers. The total acting output of all four of Juska’s wrestling actors wouldn’t be fit to scrape off of Kirk’s shoe, but he doesn’t make the list, while they do.
- Juska’s ignorant of both fields her list involves, sports and acting. To my amazement, Juska did include Chuck Connors, “The Rifleman,” at #12. Connors was a first baseman for the Dodgers, and would belong on any legitimate list of top 25, though he would be embarrassed to be included on this one. But another major league player who was a better baseball player than Connors, though arguably not quite as stellar an actor, wasn’t included: John Beradino. Beradino was a utility infielder for the 1948 World Series winning Cleveland Indians (I have his Strat-O-Matic card!) and went on to star as Dr. Steve Miller on the incredibly successful soap “General Hospital” for 36 years! Gee, Renae, do you think Beradino was more “top” than, say, third-string catcher Bob Uecker, #7, who dabbled in acting and whose most memorable of his few movie appearances was playing a baseball radio play-by-play annnouncer in Major League…while he was employed by the Milwakee Brewers as a baseball radio play-by-play announcer? That was some acting there Bob…Renae was completely convinced.
- Juska likes football almost as much as she likes wrestling; the woman just doesn’t know how to check on football careers. Mark Harmon, star of “NCIS” and many other TV series, makes the list at #5 because he briefly played football at UCLA. Now, ace character actor Ed O’Neill of “Modern Family” and, of course, “Ed Bundy” fame, was a real college football star, a defensive lineman for Youngstown State in the 1960’s good enough to be signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969. O’Neill has had a comparable acting career to Harmon, was a much better athlete, but still didn’t make the list.
There is another actor who had college football career that was more distinguished than Harmon’s but also cut short, at USC, which he attended on an athletic scholarship. His name at the time: Marion Morrison, but you know him as John Wayne, the most popular movie star of all time, an American icon, and the star of more bona fide classic films than any actor alive or dead. Mark Harmon, a fair and intelligent man, would not want his career to be compared to the Duke’s in any way. Wayne’s athleticism is also in evidence in his movies (Harmon’s is not) —on a real list, he’d have a good case for being #1. Juska apparently never heard of him.
- Juska also likes bodybuilders, as long as he’s heard of them. He places Lou Ferrigno, whose primary acting exploits consisted of wearing a fright wig, being painted green and grimacing, as #18. Nowhere to be found is the original bodybuilding cross-over, Steve Reeves, who caused a sensation in a series of Hercules movies, and also used his stardom to help launch the fitness craze. Reeves actually could deliver lines, made more and more successful films than The Hulk ever did, and won the same number of bodybuilding titles as Lou, without steroids. If Ferrigno belongs on the list, so does Steve Reeves. There is, however, a former amateur bodybuilder who competed in the sport before moving on to bigger things in films. Recognize him?
Why, it’s 007 himself, the great Sean Connery!
Juska has another bodybuilder ranked at #1, in fact: The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s one of her few intelligent and defensible choices, and Arnold would rank high on a legitimate Top 25, as both an acting superstar and a stand-out in his sport. The fact that I would choose another athlete/actor over Arnold for the top spot isn’t important; what is important is that this iconic Hollywood star who arose from the world of sports isn’t on the list at all, and that’s unforgivable, the smoking gun proving that there was no due-diligence applied to a list claiming to be authoritative, and that its author was lazy and irresponsible.
That athlete was the great Johnny Weismuller.
He was probably a greater athlete than anyone on Juska’s list. A competitive amateur swimmer, Weissmuller broke the world record on the 100-meters freestyle in 1922. As a member of the U.S. swimming team at the 1924 Summer Olympics, he won the gold in that event, as well as the 400-meters freestyle and the 4 x 200 meters relay. He also won a bronze medal as a member of the US water polo team. He won two more swimming gold medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, making a total of five Olympic gold medals and one bronze. He won fifty-two United States National Championships, and set sixty-seven world records. In 1950, he was selected by the Associated Press as the greatest swimmer of the first half of the 20th Century.
Thus a national celebrity, he was signed to become the talkies’ first Tarzan, and he was both the first and the most famous. His Tarzan yell is still imitated and used today. After that movie series played out, Weismuller created the character of “Jungle Jim” on both the large and the small screen. Like Arnold, he was an action star. Like Arnold, he will forever be identified with one role. If Arnold is #1, Johnny is a close second.
But you would have to know something about the history of film and the Olympics to know that. Or take the time to do something called “research.”
Also omitted from the list is the lesser-Weismuller, Buster Crabbe, who should also rank high—certainly higher than such dumb choices as #17, Brian Bosworth, #22, Terry Bradshaw, and #25, reality show personality Bruce Jenner, but probably in the top 5. He was an All-American swimmer who also competed in two Olympic Games, winning the bronze medal for the 1,500 meters freestyle in 1928, and the gold medal for the 400 meters freestyle in 1932. Moving to Hollywood. he took over the Tarzan job from Johnny, then was in more than 100 films. He is famous in our pop culture history for creating the roles of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in film serials.
The lesson for websites like Rant Sports and would-be writers like Juska is this: you can post any silly opinion you want, but it is unethical to make claims for it that are untrue and misleading. “Top 25 Athletes Turned Actors of All Time” was not by any stretch of the imagination what it claimed to be, because the author didn’t bother to investigate what the pool of candidates were. (If she had looked in the pool, she surely would have found Williams, Weismuller and Crabbe!) This list was really nothing more than “Renae Juska’s Top 25 Actors He Has Heard Of Who Were Athletes in Sports She Follows.”
But who would want to read that?
[Note: in the original version of this post Juska was erroneously identified as male.]
Ethics Alarms 
Great list you’ve compiled, Mr. Marshall. As a student of classical ballet for many years (alas, many years ago) I thank you for giving props to the dancers. Might I add Oscar nominated Mikhail Baryshnikov to the list? His credits are here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000864/.
Yes, I debated whether to mention the great Mikhail as well. Despite the Oscar nod, I’d call his acting career a true sidelight, as he played a dancer, and never really pushed to do much else. But he certainly had legitimate credentials, unlike about half of those on the Rant list
Uh Jack Renae looks like a nice young woman, who is a student clerk at the U of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and a Blogger on Rant Sports. Before that she was a formalwear consultant.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/renae-juska/3a/88/337
Not sure she should be judged harshly, or judged at all.. For all we know she comes home after a night of partying and blogs random thoughts, high on Taco Bell and string cheese.
Still, the purpose of any “Best of” list is to provoke thought and reaction, and she seems to have done that successfully.
It is entirely possible that I met this girl at some point at ICC.
I feel like I let all of you down by not taking the time to make sure she knew precisely how stupid she is…
Nice young woman, unethical and lazy and disrespectful blogger who presumes expertise that she does not possess. You can spark discussion by saying women don’t deserve to vote and the moon is made of cheese, too. That’s not responsible blogging. And saying a list is “all time” without bothering to consider the first half of the 20th Century is false labeling.
Agreed. This is the downside of social media and the internet – anyone can pretty much post anything they damn well please with minimal accountability. This is in some respects as bad as the article by the fellow who bugged Mitch McConnell, in the sense that it’s putting material out there that hurts, not helps the national discourse, though of course on different levels.
The idiot doesn’t even include OJ Simpson!
Is there a phone number I can call to mock her or something?
I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of OJ, but he’s filed in my brain under All-Time Athletes Turned Actors Turned Cold-blooded Killers.”
I could understand leaving him out if you say “Look, I refuse to include on this list people we all agree probably killed his ex wife and a waiter, later acted to hide assets to prevent himself from having to pay on a civil judgement, and then committed other felonies trying to get back stuff that he should have sold ages ago to PAY for that judgement”…
But to simply ignore his contributions to comedy via the Police Squad series and then the Naked Gun movies is to hate America.
hear hear
Capricorn One. Simpson was in the movie Capricorn One also.
Frank: Nordberg, it’s me, Frank. Now, who did this to you?
Nordberg: I… love… you.
Frank: I love you, too, Nordberg. Who were they?
Nordberg: Ship… boat.
Frank: That’s right, Nordberg. A boat. Now, when you’re better, we’ll go sailing together on a boat. We’ll take a cruise just like last year.
Nordberg: No… Drugs…
Frank: Hey, Nurse! Quick! Give this man some drugs! Quick! Can’t you see he’s in pain? Give him a shot quickly!
Nordberg: No… no… Heroin… Heroin, Frank!
Frank: Uh, Nordberg… that’s a pretty tall order. You’re gonna have to give me a couple of days on that one.
Yeah, that is definitely one sorry list. In addition to the old-school names you mentioned (Douglas, Crabbe, Wiesmuller, Reeves), I would think Paul Robeson would make the cut. No offense to Fred Williamson (Black Caesar is a great movie), but Show Boat alone towers over Williamson’s entire career. I would have settled for a footnote stating Robeson was excluded for being a filthy Stalinist apologist.
With a few exceptions, it would seem that Juska is unaware of athletes in other nations. Jet Li was a Chinese wushu (martial arts) champion and he did a few movies, I think.
Also, where’s Randall “Tex” Cobb?
ARGGHH!!! ROBESON!!! FRED WILLIAMSON MAKES THE LIST AND THE GREAT ROBESON IS FORGOTTEN! Now I’m angry. He was a great actor, a great singer, a great athlete, and a great man. I wasn’t trying to make an exhaustive list of my own, but that omission is as bad or worse than any of the others.
You see, this exemplifies what is offensive here—it’s not just sloppy and misleading–it’s an insult to the legacy of great Americans, and Robeson is one of the greatest.
Thank you.
Seems to me, if she were to have approached this at all responsibly, she would have HAD to narrow her choice of sports for inclusion on her list lest she spend weeks in research. I’d have no problem with that, but of course that necessitates indicating in her title that it isn’t a list of EVERY athletic activity, or at least clarifying in her opening paragraphs.
Additionally, she says “Top Athletes” turned “Actors”.
Now she’s indicating that these were at the top of the sports she has chosen to chronicle.
The flipside, she never qualifies the term “Actors”. I don’t think she necessarily needed to include “Top Actors”, but should she have meant at least “professional” actors only? (I would think so). I don’t think actors appearing in mere cameo roles or bit parts would suffice to truly chronicle the notables who took acting to a serious level.
Yeah, her list is haphazard at best and ought to be relegated to those annoying ad-laden, bandwidth eating, spy-ware infested, pop-up storming websites of lists.
Funny you should say that…
Because it really looks like it already is.
Yeah. I didn’t investigate the link. I took Jack’s word for it.
That site is an abomination and is, frankly, proof as to the absence of a loving God.
How could she leave out Kurt Thomas — whose Olympic dreams were dashed by Jimmy Carter’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow games — the star of Gymkata?!?
OK, that one I understand leaving out…
The man should have been burned at the stake for that travesty…
Ouch. This woman obviously made the mistake of unwittingly walking smack-dab into the center of your wheelhouse, Jack: actors and athletes.
Just not sure the topic is worth your time. Isn’t this just noise?
Jack doesn’t believe the small stuff is a waste of time.
I think OB was teasing…
Oh…
Actually, I was serious.
As I thought.
Could you at just try – for a one day – to not go full retard?
Just 24 hours… All I ask…
In one respect, sure–lists are trivia. But history is important, and lives matter, and cavalier dismissals of lives of distinction, talents and achievements diminish them and our cultural legacy.
And while this is a trivial example, the principle that the internet should be used to enhance knowledge, not to obliterate or distort it, is a crucial one, creating an obligation for all of us to avoid polluting the web with lies and misconceptions.
Granted. However, I just think your time is better spent making this point when the obliteration and distortion is being done by people who have a significant audience and are likely to be deferred to. You know, people like U.S. Presidents or congressional leaders or even The Huffington Post. Or the Washington Post or the New York Times, for that matter? Isn’t there enough obfuscation occurring at that stratum of the internet to keep your days full, Jack?
What is Chuck Norris too good an athlete for the list or too good an actor – if pro-wrestlers are athletes then Martial Artists should qualify too.
Yup… he’s another dumb omission.
I do have a hard time being annoyed at the inclusion of Andre.
I do so love that man in Princess Bride.
I’m with you. But if one film an actor makes, then Babe Ruth was an actor too, and he’d really belong on the list.
You ignorant bastard you take that back he never had a role that required rhyming that ended with “does anyone want a peanut”!!!!
I WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH HERESY!!!
True but Andre became beloved by a lot of people because of that one role and he is the best thing in it, not that everyone else is bad its just that he is wonderful because he isn’t “acting” , hes just saying the lines.
Would John Wilkes Booth be appropriate for the list?
An accomplished fencer and skilled athlete at horsemanhip prior to becoming one of the nation’s very celebrated actors?
A strict reading of her title should not limit this list to movie actors only.
Maybe but it could be argued that the horsemanship was necessitated by having to know how to ride just to get around, and the fencing was part of his training to be an actor.
I agree with most of your post, but this makes no sense. If we include ballet dancers, why not include other professional dancers, like Gene Kelly? (Ballet dancers aren’t the only dancers who are in physically amazing shape, as anyone who has seen “Chicago” on Broadway can attest).
Worse, you don’t even suggest a reason a professional skateboarder shouldn’t be on the list. Skateboarding is an actual competitive sport, and including a skateboarder on such a list is far less of a stretch than including a ballet dancer. And Lee’s acting career has been far more successful than Gudunov’s was.
The difference between gymnasts and ballet dancers is too thin for me to draw. The Nicholas Brothers, Fred and Gene, Donald O’Connor, Ben Vareen, Eleanor Powell, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Juliet Prowse, Gwen Virdon—they were all jocks. To be honest, I nearly listed Gene. I didn’t want to get into the dancer vs. athlete argument, but when you can run up walls like O’Connor, you’re an athlete.
You’ll note that I didn’t say a skateboarder wasn’t an athlete. I suggested that Lee is a lame choice for #6, and I think that case is made.
If it was worth the time, I would ranks sports by athletic content, give points for one’s dominance and success in the sport, and also points for quantity, quality, popularity and success of the subsequent performing career. Weismuller, Arnold and Paul Robeson would probably reach the top three.
I would not say that Lee’s career was superior. We’re talking two dubbed martial arts films and a role on a lousy TV show, “The Green Hornet.” Gudonov had major roles in two major, high-quality, general audience US smashes, one of which may the best action movie of all. Both died young.
I think you’re mixing up Jason Lee, the two-time golden-globe nominated star of “My Name Is Earl,” who has acted in over 30 movies and played the lead in two TV series, with Bruce Lee. Jason Lee is no Dustin Hoffman, but I can’t imagine any reasonable measure in which his acting career wouldn’t be called more successful than Gudunov’s.
Yikes—that’s EXACTLY what I did—I was juggling the Bruce Lee post and the Jason Lee post at the same time. Still, I’ll stand. Gudunov died, and still has two more major, serious, A-movie successes on his resume than JASON Lee, who is light-weight, mostly TV actor. It’s quality vs. quantity; I LIKE Jason Lee, by the way. Would you say Lee’s career was clearly superior to say, James Dean (4 films)?
I’d stack “The Incredibles” up against “Die Hard” any day – it’s an equivalent artistic success (arguably the best computer-animated film yet made), made more money in theaters, and Lee’s part was much larger than Gudunov’s.
James Dean is a rarity, someone up there with Marilyn and Wayne for being not just a fleeting star but an icon. There’s no way Jason Lee can match that – but neither can Gudunov (to say the least).
Most of Jason Lee’s acting credits are in movies, including some major releases like “Almost Famous.” But that aside, the “movies count more than TV” snobbery is nonsense – there are countless TV actors who have made far more money, gained more mainstream and critical recognition, and had longer-lasting careers than Gudunov.
If he had lived, Gudunov might have become a major actor. But as it is, playing a secondary villain in “Die Hard” was his career peak. By a large number of objective measures – number of roles, size of roles, award nominations, money made, name recognition – Jason Lee’s career has been much more successful.
I’ll give you this one, Barry. I just have a fond spot for Alexander, who had a tough life and who showed real talent and charisma on screen, only to die so early. But I agree about “The Incredibles” (I like Nemo better, but just a bit). And where is THAT sequel, instead of sequels to comparative dreck like “Monsters, Inc.” and “Cars”?
There’s a rumor that we’ll see Incredibles 2 in 2015, but who knows?
Oooh! Good news!
The IMDB website says that Lou Costello was an amateur boxer In Paterson, NJ who won 32 straight fights before being knocked out, and that the loss ended his career.
Most interestingly, the IMDB website also says that Costello “invented the very first [comment: I guess that is what inventors invent, usually] commercial automatic ice machine. He planned to market it but lost money on the deal.” Off to research patents presently…
Jack, thanks for this topic; it’s a perfect catalyst for some play between me and my wife who is currently out of town. I copied the Sean Connery photo and mailed it to her, Subject line “Recognize anyone in this photo?” and with message: “Hint: Not Dean Martin, and not Rod Serling.” (I just named those guys to throw her off the trail. Sean is her favorite, and when I do his voice, she goes crazy in a mutually delightful way.) If she can’t spot Sean after that hint, when she comes home, I’m going to give her a good talking-to…
Wiki notes that Lou also set a free throw record in basketball. He was obviously an athlete—most of those slapstick comics were, but Costello especially so.
Lou looked like a boxer, but I never would have connected him with basketball. I do remember Michael Warren’s hoop skills very well.
I would rate Sean lower than the guy on his right. (She named him. Shucks! I’ll have to use my best James Earl Jones voice on her instead – if I can ever reach that octave again. I don’t think she even knows who Barry White is/was.)
I feel like I’m butting in. Oh well, here goes…
How about Peter Lupus? Bodybuilder in the Mission Impossible TV series.
Also the original “Nordberg” in “Police Squad”! Yes, good one.