VIDEO : HOLLYWOOD CASHES IN ON OLYMPIC GOLD.Byline: Robert Bianco Special to the Daily News Will Hollywood strike gold at Atlanta's Olympics? If history's any guide, it will certainly try. Like Hollywood itself, the Olympics have a knack for turning lifelong unknowns into overnight stars. It's only natural for Hollywood to try to adopt a few of those stars as its own. The transition doesn't always take, of course. There is a difference between acting and athletics - though anyone who only attends summer blockbusters could be excused for thinking otherwise. The movie record books are filled with Olympians who didn't quite make it to the stardom finish line - folks like Glenn Morris This article is about U.S. track and field athlete. For American academic and Native American activist, see Glenn T. Morris. Glenn Edward Morris (June 18, 1912 – January 31, 1974) was a U.S. track and field athlete. (``Tarzan's Revenge''), Carol Heiss Carol Elizabeth Heiss Jenkins (born January 20, 1940 in New York City) is an American figure skater. She is the 1960 Olympic Champion and 1956 Olympic silver medalist. Biography Heiss grew up in Queens, New York, where she started skating at the age of 6. (``Snow White and the Three Stooges''), Mitch Gaylord Mitchell ("Mitch") Jay Gaylord (born March 10, 1961) is an American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist. He was born in Van Nuys, California to a Jewish family. While attending UCLA, he won the All-Around in the 1983 & 1984 U.S. (``American Anthem'') and Kurt Thomas Kurt Thomas may refer to:
Still, you can't blame them for taking a shot - and odds are, so will someone from Atlanta. And who knows? Maybe one of this year's Hollywood hopefuls will be as successful as some of the former Olympians named below. Johnny Weissmuller Johnny Weissmuller (June 2 1904 – January 20 1984) was an American swimmer and actor who was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven world records. : When it comes to making the big-screen move, Weissmuller remains the Olympian role model. Five gold medals as a swimmer in the 1924 and 1928 Olympics led to 12 movies as Tarzan, including his first and best, ``Tarzan, the Ape Man'' (1932, MGM/UA; $19.98). Weissmuller's ``Tarzan'' isn't as faithful to Edgar Rice Burroughs' creation as some later versions are. (All that ``Me Tarzan. You Jane'' stuff was very un-British). It is, however, vastly more entertaining. Buster Crabbe Buster Crabbe (February 7, 1908 – April 23, 1983) was an American athlete turned actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s. Birth He was born as Clarence Linden Crabbe II : Though his gold-medal-winning time in the 1932 Olympics broke one of Weissmuller's records, he wasn't able to break Weissmuller's lock on the Tarzan role, despite getting a shot in ``Tarzan, the Fearless'' (1933, Sinister; $19.99). Sure, he looked good in a loincloth loin·cloth n. A strip of cloth worn around the loins. loincloth Noun a piece of cloth covering only the loins Noun 1. , but it was a spacesuit that made him a star - as ``Flash Gordon'' (1936, Video Yesteryear yes·ter·year n. 1. The year before the present year. 2. Time past; yore. yes ; $29.95), king of the sci-fi serial heroes. Bruce Bennett Bruce Bennett (May 19 1906 - February 24 2007) was an American actor and Olympic silver medalist shot putter. During the 1930s, he went by his real name of Herman Brix. : As Leonard Maltin once said, it sometimes looks like everybody at the 1932 Olympics got a movie contract. Bennett (who competed as a shot-putter under the name Herman Brix) was handpicked by Burroughs to star in the author's ``The New Adventures of Tarzan'' - a shortened version of which is out on video as ``Tarzan and the Green Goddess'' (1935, Hollywood, $19.99). Bennett didn't have much luck with Tarzan, but he did have one of the best acting careers of any of the Olympians, landing supporting roles in such films as ``Mildred Pierce,'' ``A Stolen Life,'' ``Dark Passage'' and ``The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Sierra Madre, city, United States Sierra Madre (sēĕr`ə mä`drā), residential city (1990 pop. 10,762), Los Angeles co., S Calif., at the foot of Mt. Wilson; inc. 1907. There is some light manufacturing. .'' If those films seem too unsportsmanlike, you can also see him as an Olympic decathlete de·cath·lete n. An athlete who participates in a decathlon. in ``A Million to One'' (1937, Video Yesteryear; $19.95). Sonja Henie: For sheer, if brief, star power, it's hard to top Henie, the figure skater who won gold medals in 1928, 1932 and 1936. She made her film debut in ``One in a Million'' (1936, Fox; $19.98). (This is not to be confused with Bennett's ``A Million to One'' - not that you could.) It's no better or worse than most of her other films, all of which struggle mightily to hide the fact that their star can't sing, act, dance or speak English. Audiences used to the powerful athleticism of modern skaters may not even think she can skate, but that just shows how much the sport has changed over the last 50 years. Bruce Jenner: This 1976 gold-medal-winning decathlete, perhaps the most famous of modern winners, should serve as a warning to 1996 winners: Choose your debut vehicle carefully. Jenner chose ``Can't Stop the Music'' (1980, Republic; $14.98), and pretty much stopped his film career dead. I doubt anyone's going to offer any of the Atlanta Olympians a film with the Village People - but just in case they do, turn it down. And, as an added bonus: Esther Williams: All right, she doesn't really belong on this list, since she lost her best shot at the Olympics when the 1940 Games were canceled. But if they're going to make us watch synchronized swimming on TV anyway, wouldn't you rather see it done with better production values? Try ``Million Dollar Mermaid'' (1952, MGM/UA; $19.99). It isn't her best picture, but it does keep up the Olympian ``millionaire'' theme. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Olympic champion swimmer Buster Crabbe shows off his physique in a scene of nefarious torture from one of his ``Flash Gordon'' pictures. |
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