If you’re a child of the mid ‘80s, you probably came down with a bad case of Hulkamania. No matter how many prayers you said and no matter how many vitamins you took, you probably couldn’t shake the infectious excitement caused by the hunky, sun-kissed (tanning-bed Frenched?) wrestler and entertainer extraordinaireHulk Hogan. Born as Terry Bollea in Augusta, Georgia, the blonde beefcake hit the gym and the beach to bulk up and bake his trademark twenty-four inch pythons. Though he made his splash in the WWF in late 1980, the brick wall of muscle hit Hollywood as the over-the-top Thunderlips in Rocky III (1982), battling it out with Sylvester Stallone inside the ropes. As with his “real-life” ring matches, the movie features him wearing nut-hugging Speedo-like briefs, showing off oiled-up muscles galore. He never gave up his wrestling persona, but when he wasn’t delivering atomic leg drops and neck-snapping clotheslines in the ring, Hulk continued to try his hand at acting…on the big screen. Hulk starred in the action comedy flicks No Holds Barred (1989) as Rip, played Shep Ramsey Suburban Commando (1991), and was Sean Armstrong in Mr. Nanny (1993). He also found some fame as Randolph J. “Hurricane” Spencer in a series of Thunder in Paradisemovies in 1993, 1994, and 1995, as well as a TV series of the same name in 1994. In the late ‘90s, he did a quick name change to Hollywood Hogan, but eventually made it back to the Hulk. He starred as The Dean in China, IL from 2011-2015, but has since stuck with WWE and WWF matches. And of course, reality TV.
