Decathlon / Film Actor

Rafer Lewis Johnson is an American decathlete and 1960 Olympic Champion and former world record holder.  He was also the Olympic silver medalist in the 1956 Olympic Games. He was the flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic Flame when the Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984. 

In 1968, he and football player Rosey Grier tackled Sirhan Sirhan moments after he had fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy.

After the Olympics he went into acting, sportscasting and public service, and was instrumental in creating the California Special Olympics. His acting career included appearances in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961), the Elvis Presley film Wild in the Country (1961), Pirates of Tortuga (1961), None but the Brave (1965), two Tarzan films with Mike Henry, The Last Grenade (1970), Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill, opposite Timothy Dalton.