Hulk Hogan obituary

The Guardian

3 days ago

Hulk Hogan, who has died of a cardiac arrest aged 71, was the most famous personality in the world of wrestling, a flamboyant figure whose deep tan, blond horseshoe moustache, bright bandanas and heavily muscled body were known across the globe, even to those who had little interest in the sport.
As the most recognisable face of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the US, Hogan helped to build what had initially been a fairly parochial brand into a hugely lucrative phenomenon, watched on television by millions.
Though the wrestling was all fakery, Hogan held the WWF's title belt a number of times across those boom years, including over a four-year stretch in the mid-1980s. Thereafter he largely maintained his dominance, while switching between the WWF and various other competitions over the next two decades.
During a typical bout he would soak up blow after blow from his opponent until defeat seemed inevitable, only to suddenly snap into a fury that would turn the encounter around, often finishing things off with a trademark leg drop by bouncing off the rope, leaping into the air and then landing, leg first, on to his foe.
Perhaps his most acclaimed performance came during 1987 in the third iteration of wrestling's annual WrestleMania event, in front of 93,000 fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, where he won the world heavyweight championship against the 2.24m (7ft 4in), 220kg (35st) André the Giant, who was said to have been unbeaten in the ring for almost 15 years. The bout set pay-per-view television records at the time, and confirmed Hogan's position at the centre of WWF's money-making machine.
Hogan was born Terry Bollea, in Augusta, Georgia, the son of Ruth (nee Moody), a dance teacher, and Peter Bollea, a building site foreman. Growing up in Tampa, Florida, where he went to Robinson high school, he first worked as a dockworker while developing his showmanship as a bass guitar player in local rock bands.
After a short period at the University of South Florida, he dropped his studies in 1977 to pursue wrestling. Eventually taking the Hulk moniker, after the muscle-bound comic book character The Incredible Hulk, at 2m (6ft 7in) and 137kg (21st) he was certainly built for the name, to which he added the alliterative Hogan in 1979 when he joined the WWF. He came to wider attention in 1982 after a memorable appearance in the film Rocky III as the combative wrestler Thunderlips, who matches Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in a charity fight.
Having initially been branded as a bad guy in the ring, by the mid-80s Hogan had been recast by the WWF as the opposite, and he was striding into the ring to the song Real American by Rick Derringer, fighting for national pride against sinister 'foreign' rivals such as the Iron Sheik, nominally representing Iran, and Nikolai Volkoff, supposedly appearing on behalf of the Soviet Union.
Soon the US was subject to a long period of 'Hulkamania' as Hogan reached even wider fame, selling out stadium events, commanding massive TV audiences and appearing in further wrestling-related film roles, including in No Holds Barred (1989) and Mr Nanny (1993), while also starring as a mercenary in the television series Thunder in Paradise (1994). He lent his name to video games, a chain of restaurants and a merchandising empire that was turning over $1.7bn by 1991.
In 1994, around the time he confessed that he had used steroids, Hogan moved to a new franchise, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), with whom he adopted a more villainous but equally popular persona. He was WCW's star performer for several years until returning to the WWF (by then renamed WWE) in 2002, after which he left and returned several times, wrestling for other entities in between.
He was still taking part in occasional bouts into his 60s, but by then was more frequently in the public eye for other reasons, including from 2005 to 2007 in the reality TV series Hogan Knows Best, which looked in on his family life.
In 2012 Hogan sued the Gawker website for posting a video of him having sex with a friend's wife, claiming invasion of privacy. Four years later a court awarded him $140m in damages, although he eventually settled for $31m as the website's owners filed for bankruptcy. In 2015 the release of another section of the same video showed him using racist language, for which he apologised unreservedly.
In recent years he had been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, and last year he appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, tearing off his top in typical Hulk style to reveal a Trump/Vance shirt underneath.
Hogan was married three times and divorced twice. He is survived by his third wife, Sky Daily, two children, Brooke and Nick, from his first marriage, to Linda Claridge, and two grandchildren.
Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea), wrestler, born 11 August 1953; died 24 July 2025