Johnny Unitas is arguably responsible for professional football being as popular as it is today. Prior to the media spectacle that was Johnny Unitas there rarely was a quarterback that garnered the attention of a celebrity like Unitas did. On top of his drawing personality, Unitas was also the quintessential blueprint for the modern-day quarterback, his pocket precision, laser for an arm, and ability to read defenses caused trouble for many defensive coordinators and game planners. The Pittsburgh-bred athlete attended the University of Louisville from 1951 to 1954. Despite only weighing 145lbs during his freshman season, Unitas led the Cardinals to a 5-5 record as a freshman. After the university de-emphasized sports and Unitas was forced to take a square dancing class an elective, the Cardinals went 7-18 during Unitas' tenure with the team.
Despite Unitas lackluster collegiate football career, he was selected 102nd overall in the ninth round of the 1955 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers but was cut from the team before the season started. In 1956, Johnny Unitas joined the Baltimore Colts where in his NFL debut he went 0-2 and threw one interception. It wasn't until 1957, Unitas picked up steam throwing an NFL-high 2,550 yards for 24 touchdowns. After establishing his confidence, Unitas led the Baltimore Colts to three NFL Championships (1958, 1959, and 1968), a Super Bowl victory (Super Bowl V), became a 10x Pro Bowler, and 3x NFL MVP. Unitas led the league in passing touchdowns for four consecutive seasons (1957-1960) and held the record for most consecutive games with a passing touchdown for 52 years before Drew Brees broke it in 2012. Sadly, Johnny Unitas passed away at just 69-years-old in September 2002 after suffering a heart attack. Never to be forgotten and always remembered, Johnny U.
Celebrities are no strangers to changing their looks for a role. And in some instances, they have to get pretty extreme. From 500-calorie-a-day diets to drinking pints of ice cream, Actors and actresses know what it takes to change their bodies in preparation for a new film.
Charlize Theron is no stranger to gaining and losing weight for movie roles, as we remember her transformation in Monster. Charlize Theron gained close to 50 pounds for her role as Marlo in Tully. Theron said that “for the first time in my life I was eating so much processed foods and I drank way too much sugar. … I remember having to set my alarm in the middle of the night in order to just maintain the weight.”
You’re used Chris Hemsworth's hulk-like figure in Thor, but In the Heart of the Sea required a totally different diet. The movie required the cast members lose a ton of weight to make their stuck-at-sea plight more believable. Chris Hemsworth said there were days when all he ate was one boiled egg, a couple of crackers, and a celery stick.
Anne Hathaway wanted to get serious for her role in Les Misérables, as she was playing Fantine, a starving prostitute with tuberculosis. So Anne Hathaway went on a diet of “rabbit food” to drop 25 pounds. Hathaway explained her diet was essentially just starving herself, but she didn’t want to give details, as she doesn’t want to encourage anyone to copy her emaciated look. She did note that she “just had to stop eating for a total of 13 days shooting,” however. And at one point, her bones became so frail that she reportedly broke her arm.
Matthew McConaughey's portrayal of Ron Woodruff in Dallas Buyers Club, a man with HIV/AIDS, was spot-on, earning him the title of best actor at the Oscars. But it also required a serious physical transformation. Matthew McConaughey said he lost 38 pounds for the role. During filming, he said he lost a lot of energy from eating so little — and he hit plenty of plateaus along the way. Finally, with a strict diet, he got down to 143 pounds. And while he did cardio to help with the weight loss, he said it was 90% what he was eating and portion size.
Hilary Swank had to put on 23 pounds of pure muscle for her role as a boxer in Million Dollar Baby. The process doesn’t sound easy, however. “I started working out five hours a day — I had to eat 210 grams of protein a day,” Swank said. She also mentioned that she had to consume 60 egg whites per day, and when that proved too difficult, she had to drink them. And to keep the muscle on, she would get up and drink protein shakes in the middle of the night.