Manly Words

Fun Facts About Manly Men

• Before playing The Man with No Name and Dirty Harry, actor Clint Eastwood worked as a lifeguard and reportedly saved several lives.
• A 26 year-old George S. Patton competed in the inaugural modern pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. He finished 5th out of 42 competitors.
• Studio executives felt the name Marion Robert Morrison was too feminine for a leading Western star. So it was changed to John Wayne — a name now synonymous with rugged masculinity.
• Teddy Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in 1912. Moments after being shot, he gave a 90-minute speech with the bullet lodged in his chest.
• Before finding Hollywood fame, Chuck Norris established a successful chain of karate schools in Los Angeles and taught martial arts to celebrities like Steve McQueen, Bob Barker and Priscilla Presley.
• A struggling 25-year-old Sylvester Stallone sold his dog for $40 because he couldn't afford to feed him. After selling the script for Rocky (1976) he tracked the buyer down and bought the dog back for $15,000.
• Hulk Hogan was originally a bass player in a Florida-based rock band before transitioning to wrestling in 1977.
• Before becoming a tough-guy movie star, Lithuanian-American actor Charles Bronson grew up in extreme poverty. He was one of 15 children and had to work in a Pennsylvanian coal mine at a very young age.
• In 1948 Robert Mitchum spent 43 days in jail for marijuana possession. The scandal surprisingly boosted his bad boy Hollywood image.
• Before becoming an actor, Burt Lancaster was a professional circus acrobat. This explains how he was able to perform many of his own physical stunts in films.
• Steve McQueen narrowly avoided being a victim of the Manson Family murders in 1969, by choosing to skip a planned visit to Sharon Tate's home.
• Following the death of his wife in a plane crash while she was selling war bonds, Clark Gable enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces at age 41 and flew combat missions over Europe.