Lee Majors

A back injury in college ended his NFL prospects. He had a tryout offer from the St. Louis Cardinals but chose acting instead, working as a rec director in North Hollywood while getting started. His big break came through The Big Valley, where he beat out 400 other actors, including Burt Reynolds, for the role. He turned down the lead in Midnight Cowboy to stay in it. The Six Million Dollar Man made him a global name, drawing 30 million viewers at its peak across 70 countries. He followed it with The Fall Guy, which he produced, directed, and sang the theme for, which is either dedication or an inability to let go of the remote.

At 86, he's still working. His cameo in the 2024 The Fall Guy movie is the clearest proof of his staying power. Ryan Gosling personally flew him to Australia and still texts him. The voice role as Big Mitch Baker in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2002 landed him with a whole generation who'd never seen the original show. He credits his current wife Faith with turning his health and outlook around after a rough stretch that included too much drinking. Heart bypass surgery in 2003 didn't slow him down. His hometown in Kentucky named the football field after him, which says more about how he's remembered than any awards ceremony could.

The origin of 'Midnight Train to Georgia' runs through Lee Majors' living room. Songwriter Jim Weatherly called his house, Farrah Fawcett answered and mentioned she was taking 'the midnight plane to Houston' to visit her folks. Weatherly rewrote it, changed the city, changed the transportation, and Gladys Knight turned it into a number-one hit. His backstory is equally unlikely: his father died in a steel mill accident before he was born, his mother was killed by a drunk driver when he was about 17 months old. A small-town Kentucky kid with a shattered football career ended up starring in a TV premise so simple every network tried to copy it.