While many Rugby players go into punditry, coaching after hanging up their boots, some take the rather unconventional route of becoming actors.
Here we look at nine rugby players turned actors.
1. Martin Bayfield
Since retirement, Bayfield has worked as a journalist, an after-dinner speaker and has since appeared in all of the Harry Potter films playing the half-giant Hagrid, as Robbie Coltrane’s body and stunt double. He also appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as a young Rubeus Hagrid. Continuing the acting theme, he also played a cyclops in Jonathan Liebesman’s Wrath of the Titans, the sequel to 2010 movie Clash of the Titans.
2. Joe Naufahu
A former Glasgow Warriors player, he starred as Khal Moro in the sixth season of the HBO fantasy TV series Game of Thrones.
3. Ian Roberts
Roberts finished playing professional rugby league in 1998, and began studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney. In 2003 he moved to the United States in search of acting opportunities. Roberts made a very brief cameo in the 2002 film Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones as a bartender before playing a bigger role in Superman Returns.
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4. Adam Fogerty
Beginning around the same time as his rugby league career, Fogerty began acting and has played supporting roles in several films such as Shooting Fish and Played, as well as the unlicensed boxer, Gorgeous George, in the Guy Ritchie crime caper Snatch.
5. Daniel Cudmore
The older borther of Jamie, he is a former forward for the Capilano Rugby Football Club in Vancouver. He since turned to acting and stuntman work and is perhaps best known for his roles as the mutant Piotr Rasputin / Colossus in the X-Men film franchise, and as the Volturi Felix in the Twilight Saga films.
6. Juan Soler
As a teenager he played rugby union and became part of the Argentina national team, winning four caps and scoring five tries. He later became a model and started acting in plays and TV in Argentina.
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7. Rex Richards
The Wales international played for Cross Keys RFC until 1955 before heading to Hollywood to try to make his fortune as an actor.
8. Rahul Bose
He is an Indian film actor, director, screenwriter, social activist, and rugby player. Bose has appeared in Bengali films such as Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, Kalpurush, Anuranan, Antaheen, Laptop and The Japanese Wife. In 1998, Bose was part of the first Indian national rugby team to play in an international event, the Asian Rugby Football Union Championship. He has played both scrum-half and right-winger positions.
9. Ray Gravell
He announced his retirement from international rugby in 1982, taking up acting. In 1985, he joined the BBC taking the leading role in Bonner, a BBC Cymru film for the Welsh Language broadcaster S4C. He appeared in the BBC TV movie Filipina Dreamgirls, and this led to a role in the 1992 Louis Malle film Damage as the chauffeur of the character played by Jeremy Irons.
