Top 10 Wrestlers in Movies

To celebrate the release of Recoil, the latest action vehicle for former six time WWE champion Stone Cold Steve Austin which is released on Blu-ray & DVD from April 16th, we bring you the top ten wrestlers on film...

10. Mike Mazurki

A talented athlete in high school, Mike Mazurki competed professionally as a wrestler, basketball player and American footballer. But it is as a towering heavy in a string of movies during the 1940s and 50s that he is best remembered now. None was better than Farewell My Lovely (1944) aka Murder, My Sweet, a Raymond Chandler tale that cast him as the lovestruck goon Moose Malloy opposite Dick Powell€™s sharp witted private detective Philip Marlowe.

9. Tor Johnson

A Swedish born wrestler, billed as The Super Swedish Angel, Tor Johnson occupies a very particular place in screen history. Not so much for the supporting performances he delivered with varying degrees of menace in films like The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) and Carousel (1956) but for the part of the police inspector turned zombie he played in Ed Wood€™s compellingly awful Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) €“ a film considered by some to be the worst ever made.

8. Andre The Giant

7. John Cena

A 10 time World Wrestling Entertainment champion, John Cena has tried his hand at music €“ he is a sometime hip hop artist €“ and dabbled in movies too. Films such as The Marine (2006), 12 Rounds (2009) and the cultish Fred: The Movie (2010) dominate his CV and have performed respectably on DVD.

6. Harold Sakata

An unsmiling but memorable Bond villain, Oddjob in Goldfinger (1964) was memorably embodied by Hawaiian born wrestler Harold Sakata. Sakata actually won a silver medal in a weightlifting event at the London Olympics of 1948, but in the following decade turned to professional wrestling under the name the Great Tosh Togo. A regular on ITV€™s Saturday afternoon wrestling coverage, Sakata was spotted by director Guy Hamilton and invited to test for the role of Goldfinger€™s mute but deadly chauffeur.

5. Brian Glover

Another wrestler familiar to British grapple fans, Leon Aris (the Man From Paris) soon became better known under his own name Brian Glover (1934-1997) thanks to his rich Yorkshire accent and scene stealing performances in a range of films and tv programmes. Too many to list here, one of the best was overbearing games master Mr Sugden in Ken Loach€™s Kes (1969), most notably in the football scene. €˜And that, boys, is how to take a penalty,€™.

4. Rowdy Roddy Piper

A Canadian born wrestler and 2005 inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame, €˜Rowdy€™ Roddy Piper might not have been the most successful exponent of his sport, but he can claim the distinction of being the star of a genuine cult classic. John Carpenter directed They Live (1988) and cast Piper as the drifter hero of the piece, a man who discovers a special pair of glasses that reveal the true alien form of the elite members of society whose malign rule we suffer as they live among us.

3. Stone Cold Steve Austin

A six time WWF champion, Steve €˜Stone Cold€™ Austin made his way into acting via small roles in television series, and increasingly in action movies that played to his physicality and intimidating ring persona. He appeared in Adam Sandler€™s remake of The Longest Yard (2005), played the lead in The Condemned (2007) and featured in the testosterone fuelled tale The Expendables (2010). Increasingly active in cinema, he takes the lead in the bruising action thriller Recoil (2012).

2. Hulk Hogan

When he first made a cameo appearance as comically vain Thunderlips in Rocky III (1982) Hulk Hogan announced his larger than life star quality to a wider audience. Having spearheaded the rise in popularity of the World Wrestling Federation he clearly felt movies were the next target and for a while Terry Hogan filled a family friendly niche with middling hits such as Suburban Commando (1991), Mr Nanny (1993) and Santa With Muscles (1996).

1. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

He was born Dwayne Johnson but wrestling fans recognised him as The Rock the world over. He segued from the villainous Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns (2001) and in fairly short order carved out a productive career in simple action flicks like Walking Tall (2004). But he showed admirable ambition to stretch himself in Be Cool (2005) while also delivering family friendly fare such as Race To Witch Mountain (2009). RECOIL is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Entertainment One on 16th April 2012.