Jim Brown

Considered by many to be the single greatest player in the history of football, Jim Brown left a record-breaking nine years with the Cleveland Browns at the peak of his abilities to become the strong and silent hero of numerous action films in the 1970s and 1980s, including "The Dirty Dozen" (1968), "Slaughter" (1972) and "I'm Gonna Get You Sucka" (1987). A fierce, unstoppable combatant on the football field, Brown's athleticism and confidence carried over to his movies, most notably the "blaxploitation" films like "Slaughter" and "Black Gunn" (1972), which minted him as an action hero for the African-American community. Brown served that demographic both on and off the screen through a variety of social programs of his own devising, including the Black Economic Union and the Amer-I-Can Program, which supported black businesses and ex-convicts looking to start their lives over. As a sports hero, screen icon and civil rights activist, Jim Brown led one of the most accomplished lives of the late 20th century.