Roosevelt Grier

Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier (born July 14, 1932) is an American former football player, bodyguard, actor, singer, Protestant minister, and motivational speaker. He played professionally as a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL)

Grier played college football for the Penn State Nittany Lions, earning All-America honors and a place in the NCAA 100th anniversary list of 100 most influential student athletes. A professional player for 12 seasons, Grier was a member of the New York Giants and the original Fearsome Foursome of the Los Angeles Rams. He played in the Pro Bowl twice, was selected All-Pro three times, and won the 1956 NFL championship with the Giants.

After Grier's professional sports career, he worked as a bodyguard for Senator Robert Kennedy during the 1968 presidential campaign. Grier was guarding Ethel Kennedy when Senator Kennedy was shot. Although unable to prevent the assassination, Grier took control of the gun and subdued the shooter, Sirhan Sirhan.

Grier hosted his own Los Angeles television show and made approximately 70 guest appearances on various shows during the 1960s and 1970s.

Grier became an ordained Protestant minister in 1983. He founded American Neighborhood Enterprises, a nonprofit organization that serves inner city youth. He travels as an inspirational speaker.

Among Grier's hobbies are crocheting, knitting, needlepoint and macramé. In 1972, Grier wrote ''Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men'', a book that was published by Walker and Company on January 1, 1973.

Grier is the longest living former NFL player as of 2025.

Early life

Grier was born on July 14, 1932, in Cuthbert, Georgia, one of twelve children. He was named after presidental candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Education

Grier played football at Abraham Clark High School in Roselle, New Jersey, graduating in 1951.

Grier attended Penn State University, where he was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
He played football for Penn State, and was All-American. He was also captain of the track team.
In track, he won the IC4A and Penn Relays shot put and discus, as well as qualifying for the javelin finals, and was a Track & Field All-American in 1954 and 1955.

Professional football career

After playing college football at Penn State University, Grier was the 31st overall pick of the 1955 NFL draft, taken in the third round by the New York Giants. He played with the Giants from 1955 through 1962, which included an NFL Championship in 1956 and five Eastern Conference titles (1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962). Grier was selected for the Pro Bowl in 1956 and 1960, and was named All-Pro at defensive tackle in 1956 and 1958–1962.

After eight seasons with New York, Grier was traded in July 1963 to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for defensive tackle John LoVetere and a high future draft pick. He was part of the "Fearsome Foursome", along with Deacon Jones, Merlin Olsen, and Lamar Lundy, considered one of the best defensive lines in football history. His career ended in 1967 due to a torn Achilles tendon. Despite being the oldest member of the Fearsome Foursome, Grier is the last surviving member following the passing of Jones on June 3, 2013.

Post-football career

Television

After his retirement, Grier hosted the ''Rosey Grier Show'' on KABC-TV, a weekly half-hour television show discussing community affairs in Los Angeles.

Bodyguard

Grier served as a bodyguard for his friend, United States senator and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. He was guarding Ethel Kennedy, the Senator's wife, who was then expecting a child, the night that Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968. Grier and Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson heard shots fired ahead of them; Johnson rushed ahead to see what had happened. As Grier caught up he saw Johnson and sports-writer George Plimpton wrestling with gunman Sirhan Sirhan; Grier immediately jumped into the fray and Sirhan was overpowered, disarmed and subdued. Grier states, "So I see George Plimpton has the gun pointed at his face, and I'm concerned that it is going to go off, so I put my hand under the trigger housing and I pulled back the hammer so it couldn't strike. I wrench the gun from Sirhan. I find the pin and I ripped it out and held it. Now I have the gun in my hand, so I shove it in my pocket." Grier later said, "I grabbed the man's legs and dragged him onto a table. There was a guy angrily twisting the killer's legs and other angry faces coming towards him, as though they were going to tear him to pieces. I fought them off. I would not allow more violence."

USO

In December 1968, Grier accompanied Bob Hope on "Operation Holly," Hope's 1968 USO tour, Grier performed alongside headliner Ann-Margret and others at the U.S. bases at Long Bình, Cam Ranh Bay, Da Nang, Chu Lai, and Phù Cát, as well as aboard the carrier USS ''Hancock'' and the battleship USS ''New Jersey'', and at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base and U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield in Thailand, along with stops in South Korea and Guam.

Acting

Grier has appeared in a number of films and television shows. One of the first football stars to successfully make the transition to acting, he made about 70 television guest appearances. They include a role as one of the security contingent in "The Brain Killer Affair" episode of ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' (1964), as well as a cameo playing an athletic trainer in an episode of ''I Dream of Jeannie''. He became a regular cast member, starting in 1969, on the series ''Daniel Boone'', ''Make Room for Granddaddy'', and '' The White Shadow''. In one ''White Shadow'' appearance, he donned his No. 76 Los Angeles Rams jersey from his NFL playing days.

He appeared as a panelist on the television game show '' Match Game 74''. Grier starred in television shows and films including ''The Wild, Wild West'' (1967), '' Desperate Mission'' (1969), ''Carter's Army'' (1970), '' Skyjacked'' (1972), ''The Thing with Two Heads'' (1972), ''McMillan & Wife'' (1974), ''Sesame Street'' (1975), '' The Treasure of Jamaica Reef'' (1975), ''The Love Boat'' (1979), ''The Glove'' (1979), '' Roots: The Next Generations'' (1979) and ''The Seekers'' (1979). Grier appeared in the 1974–1976 NBC TV series '' Movin' On'' with Claude Akins, which was filmed in Grier's home state of Georgia. He appeared in a third-season episode of '' Quincy, M.E.'' titled "Crib Job" in which he played himself as the director of a group called Giant Step. He appeared in two episodes of ''Kojak'', one in the third season and one in the fourth season, as a bounty hunter named Salathiel Harms. He also appeared on a 1977 episode of ''CHiPs'' as a distraught motorist who, during a routine traffic stop, proceeds to destroy his car in frustration by pulling it apart piece by piece. He appeared as a celebrity contestant on '' Celebrity Bullseye'' during that program's 1981–82 season. In 1983 he also appeared in the series ''The Jeffersons'', (episode 10x9) as the owner of a pool hall in Harlem, who in the past had been a bully to George Jefferson at school. Grier also guest-voiced a 1999 episode of ''The Simpsons'' titled "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday".

Singing

Grier first released singles on the A label in 1960, and over the following twenty-five years he continued to record on various labels including Liberty, Ric, MGM, and A&M. His recording of a tribute to Robert Kennedy, "People Make the World" (written by Bobby Womack), was his only chart single, peaking at No. 128 in 1968. Grier sang "It's All Right to Cry" for the children's album and TV program ''Free to Be… You and Me''.

Politics

Grier spent his early life campaigning for Democrats before becoming a Republican in the early 80s. He appeared in the Democratic fundraiser "America Goes Public" on September 15, 1973 and regularly attended the Democratic National Convention, including the conventions at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago on August 28, 1968 and at Madison Square Garden in New York City on August 11, 1980.

Reagan

Grier was a featured speaker at the 1984 Republican National Convention; during its evening session on August 20, 1984, he endorsed President Ronald Reagan for re-election.

O.J. Simpson trial

In 1994, Grier visited O. J. Simpson in jail, who allegedly yelled out a confession to the crime.

2018 gubernatorial bid

On January 5, 2017, Grier announced his intention to run for governor of California as a Republican in the 2018 California gubernatorial election. He ended his candidacy in July 2017.

Author and speaker

Grier has written a number of books:
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Grier also works as a motivational speaker.

Community service

Grier is a cofounder of American Neighborhood Enterprises, an organization that works to help disadvantaged city dwellers buy homes and receive vocational training. Grier was ordained a Protestant minister in 1983, and the next year he founded his nonprofit resource center for inner-city teens, developing spiritual and educational programs for disadvantaged youths.

He is also on the Milken Family Foundation board of trustees and serves as its program administrator of community affairs.

Honors

He has been honored by Penn State as recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1974, and the Alumni Fellow Award in 1991. He was named to the NCAA's "List of the 100 Most Influential Student-Athletes" published to commemorate the NCAA's 100th anniversary. In 1997, he was inducted into the New Jersey Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2017, he was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Family

Grier has a daughter, Sherryl Brown-Tubbs, from an early relationship.
He married Beatrice Lewis in 1962. She had one child, Denise, whom Grier adopted. Grier and Lewis divorced in 1970. In 1973, Grier married Margie Grier; they had one son, Roosevelt Kennedy Grier, in 1972. The couple divorced in 1978. They remarried in 1981 and remained married until her death in 2011. Grier married Wichita school teacher, Cydnee Seyler, on April 30, 2013.
Grier's nephew, Mike Grier, followed his uncle's career in sports when he enrolled as a student at Boston University, but he played ice hockey instead of football; he subsequently had a 14-year NHL playing career and became the league's first black general manager with the San Jose Sharks.

Hobbies

Grier was well known in the 1970s for his hobbies of needlepoint and macrame. He authored ''Rosey Grier's Needlepoint for Men'' in 1973.

References

External links

Rosey Grier filmography
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Needlepoint for Men by Rosey Grier (1973)
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* Roosevelt Grier biography at All Music Guide
Image of Roosevelt Grier shakes hands with children at the Watts Summer Festival, Los Angeles, California, 1971.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grier, Rosey
1932 births
Abraham Clark High School alumni
African-American male actors
American Christian clergy
American football defensive linemen
American male film actors
American male television actors
Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Black conservatism in the United States
California Republicans
College football announcers
Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players
Liberty Records artists
Living people
Los Angeles Rams players
New York Giants players
Penn State Nittany Lions football players
People from Cuthbert, Georgia
People from Roselle, New Jersey
Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state)
Players of American football from Union County, New Jersey
Penn State Nittany Lions men's track and field athletes
American male shot putters
American male discus throwers