With the rubgy fuelled Invictus out in cinema on Friday, and after meeting Francois Piennar at the Invictus Premiere we’ve got to thinking about sport stars in films. Lots of sport stars have given a go at serious acting over the years – Eric Cantona in films like Looking for Eric and various French dramas or Vinnie Jones in Lock Stock and Snatch. However some sports stars are happy to feature in brief screen cameos – often as themselves but sometimes as characters within the films plot. However often in Hollywood films (and TV) there tend to be a lot of these cameos that us Brits don’t recognise with American baseball and football players. We’ve compiled a list of our top 5 funny sports star cameos.
1 – Mike Tyson in The Hangover
Boxer Tyson is not one to shy of the cameo appearances as himself, already being in films like Black and White and Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, but our favourite by far was in last years comedy hit The Hangover. The hungover protagonists wake up to discover Tyson’s tiger in their bathroom and they later visit his house to return it where he shows them a video of their drunken tiger thievery. Its a funny scene as it comes so out of the blue in the film and Tyson has some great lines.
2 – Lance Armstrong in Dodgeball
Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong also appeared in Owen Wilson vehicle You, Me and Dupree so is obviously a fan of the current American brat pack comedians. In Dodgeball he gives Vince Vaughn a hilarious pep talk about never quitting that is one of the films most side-splitting moments.
3 – John McEnroe in Mr Deeds
Tennis star McEnroe is probably the king of American TV cameos appearing in numerous American shows as well as films like Anger Management as himself يلا شوت. For me however his funniest performance is in Adam Sandler’s Mr Deeds when Deeds and McEnroe hang out together getting ridculously drunk and doing stupid things like throwing eggs at cars.
4 – Dan Marino in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Although Dan Marino isn’t a very big name here his performance had to get into this list as Ace Ventura is such a funny film. Again as a sports tar playing himself Marino is rescued by Ace after being الهدف لايف kidnapped by a vengeful ex teammate and he then has some great banter with Jim Carey.
5 – Kareem Abdul Jabbar In Airplane
The basketball great has appeared in many films including The Matrix and Uncle Buck. In Airplane he is a co-pilot who tires of being mistaken for himself in this great spoof film which has some of the most quotable comedic lines ever.
Other cameos and performances by sports stars that we love include boxer Lennox Lewis in Oceans Eleven, Michael Jordan playing basketball with the Looney tunes in Space Jam, David Beckham in the third Goal movie and we also noticed the Farrelly بث مباشر brothers often cast sports stars including tennis legend Anna Kournikova in Me, Myself and Irene and Brett Favre in There’s Something About Mary. Got any others we’ve missed? Post them in the comments below!
