Rafer Johnson

Rafer Lewis Johnson (born August 18, 1935) is an American former decathlete and film actor. He was the 1960 Olympic gold medalist, after getting a silver in 1956 and a gold in the 1955 Pan American Games. He was also the flag bearer at the 1960 Olympics and lit the Olympic Flame when the Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984. In 1968, he, football player Rosey Grier and journalist George Plimpton tackled Sirhan Sirhan moments after he had fatally shot Robert F. Kennedy. After the Olympics he turned his celebrity 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),The Six Million Dollar Man, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), and the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill, opposite Timothy Dalton.