Haye to join sports stars in Hollywood

FANS of trash talk have been dealt a Hayemaker blow with the news that the bespoke T-shirt-wearing, hollow-taunt-mongering former boxing champion David Haye is hanging up his gloves for good. But fear not, he has no plans to leave the spotlight.

"I want to go into action films", said Haye, who has been getting tips from Sir Michael Caine.
 
If he needs any more inspiration, here is a cast list of athletes who have made the leap from stadium to screen.

Eric Cantona

Always magnetic on the pitch, for the ball and the cameras, the French virtuoso was born to perform. He had barely retired when we was stealing scenes from Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett in the 1998 period drama Elizabeth. Cantona followed up with a series of accomplished performances before winning the critics' heart in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, which was nominated for the top prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. No shallow glamourpuss, Cantona also swapped the Theatre of Dreams for the real thing when he made his stage debut in Paris last year for Face au Paradis.

O J Simpson

Of course it was neither sport nor cinema for which Simpson is chiefly remembered, but rather his brushes with the law. In 1995 he was acquitted of murdering his wife after a trial that generated more publicity than any Hollywood blockbuster. But the accusations didn't stop there and in 2008 he was sentenced to 33 years in prison for a variety of offences including kidnapping and robbery. But for the record he had distinguished careers in the former two occupations. Simpson played running back for the Buffalo Bills and the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League, and was named NFL Player of the Year in 1973. He earned the 'OJ' moniker by dint of his supreme energy, or as Americans call it, juice. After retiring, Simpson made 'em laugh alongside Leslie Nielsen in the classic slapstick series The Naked Gun.

The Rock

"Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?" Dwayne Johnson used to say, and it turned out it was preparing a stellar Hollywood career for the 'People's Champ'. We may be riling the purists by classifying wrestling as a sport, but in WWF nobody was a bigger star. The contrived storylines for which wrestling is known stood the Rock in good stead to crack the film industry, and led to box-office hits including The Scorpion King. Not afraid to show his sensitive side, Johnson also appeared in the popular children's TV show Hannah Montana.

Vinnie Jones

Nobody ever said that the ultimate symbol of 'Crazy Gang'-era Wimbledon was a great footballer. Jones' career is largely remembered for sudden outbreaks of violence, most famously when he seized a young Paul Gascoigne's testicles while deviously looking the other way. It was more of the same after he retired, although he was praised for repeatedly slamming an unfortunate villain's head in a car door in Guy Ritchie's breakthrough geezer classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Jones has gone on to several roles in big studio productions and must now be top of the list when Hollywood execs need a stock thug.

Kareem-Abdul Jabbar

A bona fide basketball legend, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards playing for the Milwaukee Bucks and then the LA Lakers. Not too cool to laugh at himself, he then pitched up in the comedy classic Airplane playing himself as a pilot. In a memorable scene a young boy wanders into the cockpit, recognizes Abdul-Jabbar and then tells him he doesn't "work hard on defense". He has also appeared in Bruce Lee's Game of Death and TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. ·