Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
“I will remove all doubt, yes I am retiring….Yeah, Yeah…Yes I am retiring. Now I’ve made some mistakes friends, I ain’t apologizing for none of them.” – Roddy Piper (February 23, 1987)
And with those words, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper made it official…he was ending his wrestling career after what was at that point…17 years in professional wrestling. The announcement obviously shocked many WWF fans, who at that point, did not have access to information that we have today. The question remained was why? Roddy Piper seemed to be getting red hot as a babyface wrestler and to just be hitting his prime. Little did we know that Piper had stars in his eyes and was on his way to Hollywood.
Roddy had some previous experience in Hollywood as he had a small role in the 1978 movie ‘The One and Only’ and a much bigger role in the 1986 wrestling film ‘Body Slam.’ It was Body Slam that really gave Piper the acting itch. His first opportunity was a science fiction film called ‘Hell Comes to Frogtown.’ Piper was cast as the lead named Sam Hell who battled giant mutant toads in a post apocalyptic world. The producers of the film desperately wanted Roddy for the role and needed his wrestling star power to help the movie cross over to a better demographic. Piper took the role, but it was a box office dud.
Acclaimed horror director John Carpenter, who made such movies as Halloween, Christine and The Fog had just wrote a science Fiction film called ‘They Live.’ Carpenter was also a life long pro wrestling fan and thought that Piper would be perfect for the lead role. As excited as Piper was to star in a John Carpenter film…he insisted on auditioning for the role and even hired an acting coach to help him land it. Piper knew how he hated that an actor like Mr. T just waltzed into the wrestling world and did not want actors feel that way about him.
The movie was a box office hit and became a cult like phenomenon among fans. They Live should have launched Piper’s acting career to a new level, but Piper admittedly said that he surrounded himself with the wrong type of people. Individuals who just wanted to make money and not care about the quality of his work. Many in Hollywood resented him as being another dumb jock making an action movie.
Despite all the hatred from his Hollywood peers, Piper plugged on. He had a supporting role in a Robert Carradine comedy entitled ‘Buy and Cell. The bigger movie roles were simply not landing on his lap, so he tried his hand at television. Piper filmed a couple of pilots including ‘The Highwayman’ which was said to be a cross between Mad Max and Knight Rider. NBC President loved Roddy Piper and wanted to give him his own show…unfortunately none of the shows fit and it never happened for him.
With big movie and television roles not coming his way….Piper started feeling the economic crunch. He had a wife and four children to take care of. Piper made the really tough decision to temporarily turn his back on Hollywood and return to the world of wrestling. It wasn’t going to be easy, considering when he left the WWF in 1987…he did so against Vince McMahon’s wishes. There was a love/hate relationship between Piper and McMahon that always existed…but more so now.
Despite the bad feelings between the two…McMahon if nothing else put dollar signs over personal grudges. He took Piper back in time for Wrestlemania V. Roddy never did fully give up on his quest to make it in Hollywood. He continued taking guest starring roles in various TV shows and even filmed another TV pilot with fellow wrestler turned actor Jesse Ventura called Tag Team in 1991. Unfortunately, Roddy Piper never did get to become that big Hollywood star he wanted to become when he walked away from wrestling in 1987.
