Smoking Barrels.
He has a wide acting range whether he is playing a very hard bloke from London in Snatch, a very hard bloke from London in X-Men: The Last Stand, or a very hard bloke from London in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.
MIKE
TYSON
Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has appeared in 12 films, including The Hangover and Entourage.
It’s unclear if he was actually cast in any of the films or if no one had the guts to tell a convicted criminal boxing champion that they didn’t want him.
The people who had the easiest ride with Tyson on set were the caterers, who only had to provide food that was nicer than Evander Holyfield’s ear.
ARNOLD
SCHWARZENEGGER
Arnie’s world famous for his appearances in movies like the Terminator films, Total Recall and The Expendables, but you may not realise that he started out as a champion bodybuilder.
Interestingly, Arnie was overdubbed in his early films. So although low-budget film-makers didn’t think he sounded good enough for their straight-to-video dross, the people of California thought he sounded good enough to be in charge of the world’s sixth largest economy.
MICHAEL
JORDAN
The world’s greatest ever basketball player made a big-screen appearance in Bugs Bunny film Space Jam.
Michael’s performance was very impressive as despite acting alongside cartoon characters Daffy Duck and Porky Pig he was still the most one dimensional.
DWAYNE
‘THE ROCK’ JOHNSON
Former wrestler ‘The Rock’ has carved out a great career as an action star in films like The Mummy Returns and The Fast and Furious series.
However, I can’t help thinking that the 6ft 5in muscle man may’ve been badly cast in the upcoming biopic of Warwick Davis.
BORN: 24 May 1966, Marseille, France
PLAYER: Auxerre, Marseille, Montpellier, Nîmes, Leeds United, Manchester United and France
1) Even from an early age, Cantona managed to mix on-field genius with a combustible personality that often saw him fall foul of the football authorities. He made a name for himself as a forward at Auxerre as well as a handy fighter after decking a team-mate.
2) His electric performances for the French club and the national side, including a hat-trick against England at the 1988 U21 European Championships, saw his boyhood club Marseille pay a French record fee for his services. Sadly, the move and his career in France stalled.
3) After Sheffield Wednesday boss Trevor Francis turned down the chance to sign him, most probably after seeing his disciplinary rap sheet from France, Leeds stepped in and he helped them win the title before going on to become a Manchester United legend for five years.
4) His infamous kung-fu kick on Palace fan Matthew Simmons saw him banned and fined, but in 2011 Cantona admitted it was ‘a great feeling’ and a memory for fans to treasure. So, why not get Simmons’s nipple from Eric’s studs and put it in the national football museum?
DID YOU KNOW: The Frenchman went into acting after he retired, but his most famous role was playing himself in Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric. The F-word is used around 200 times in the film – just less than Simmons used it after getting that karate kick.
And here he is playing the lead role in a new film
called Neil Ruddock: The Movie
When you add up the hours spent actually competing, sports stars only spend a fraction of their week in combat. How do they chill out, then, in between the occasional training session?
GLEN JOHNSON
Liverpool right-back Johnson is not like your stereotypical footballer when it comes to chilling out between training and games. Instead of spending hours glued to the screen playing video games, he studied for a maths degree. The England star spends two hours a day poring over Open University algebra and trigonometry, and often gets his team-mates to test him on coach journeys to matches. The former Portsmouth player explained, ‘I’ve always liked maths so I thought, “Why not? There’s not a job in the world that maths can’t help you with.” My teachers used to say, “You ain’t going to achieve anything.” The last thing they’d expect me to do is a maths degree. But anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it.’
JAN VERTONGHEN
Tottenham’s defensive lynchpin is a dab hand at pub quizzes and liked nothing better than to hit the boozer each week in Amsterdam for a thorough brain workout during his trophy-fuelled Ajax days. The Belgian international revealed, ‘I love to do it because I can’t really go out. It’s my version of going out. I don’t go to drink beer. My best subject is sport, but I think I also know something about the world. I haven’t found a pub in England which does a good quiz yet. At the moment, I think the questions might be too English-based for me.’
PEP GUARDIOLA
The Bayern Munich manager is not your conventional top-flight boss. Former Spanish international Guardiola is a keen poet in his time away from the goldfish bowl of managing the Bundesliga giants and often recites his poems in public. Pep plucked up the courage to recite one at a charity event alongside singer Lluís Llach. One such line from the poem ‘Life Is a Journey’ reads like this: ‘I hold a stone in my hands and every night I let it fall into the deep well of the sun and I take it out the next day, soaked in life.’ Cantona would be proud.
BORN: 6 January 1989, Gateshead, England
PLAYER: Newcastle United, Liverpool, West Ham and England
1) Carroll became the youngest ever player to represent Newcastle United in Europe aged 17 years and 300 days when he replaced cult Peruvian Nobby Solano in a 1–0 win over Palermo in November 2006. He made his Premier League début against Wigan in February 2007.
2) The giant striker soon made a name for himself on Tyneside by banging in the goals with his noggin and left peg. After racking up 31 goals in 80 games, Liverpool came calling with a humungous £35 million bid that the Magpies snapped up in the January 2011 transfer window.
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