The Boxing Legend Was Also An Entertainment Icon

As we mourn the loss of George Foreman, the two-time heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist, who passed away on Friday, March 21, we also remember an entrepreneur and an entertainment icon outside of the ring.

Foreman, of course, is the namesake of the George Foreman Grill, which since its introduction in 1994 has sold over a reported 100 million grills. And he dabbled in acting, including headlining the ABC sitcom George, which aired for nine episodes in the 1993 to 1994 TV season. At the time, ABC comedies Home Improvement, Roseanne and Grace Under Fire ranked among the top 5 rated shows in primetime and the alphabet network was hungry to expand its family niche.

In George, George Foreman played a retired boxer who ran an after-school program for troubled kids. His TV wife was Sheryl Lee Ralph, pre-Abbott Elementary and after It’s a Living. The sitcom aired as the Saturday 8 p.m. ET anchor and was replaced by a weekly movie in midseason.

Earlier in his side acting career, George Foreman appeared as a guest star in The Six Million Dollar Man and sitcoms Sanford and Son, Good Sports, Home Improvement, and The Larry Sanders Show. He bowed on the big screen in a cameo as a factory worker in the 1975 comedy, Let’s Do it Again.

Foreman also made the rounds as a talk show guest, including on The Mike Douglas Show, Larry King Live, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tony Danza Show and Martha. He made multiple appearances of game show The Hollywood Squares. He hosted NBC’s Saturday Night Live in 1994. And he voiced Vicious Vic in the animated film Dawgtown.

Inside and outside of the ring, we remember the legendary George Foreman.