Floyd Simmons

For the American football player, see Floyd Simmons (American football).
Olympic medal record
Men's athletics
Representing the  United States
1948 London Decathlon
1952 Helsinki Decathlon

Floyd Macon Simmons (April 10, 1923 – April 1, 2008) was an American athlete and actor who competed mainly in the decathlon. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Biography

Raised in Charlotte, Simmons was the son of a builder and former football coach of Davidson College. Nicknamed "Chunk" by a nurse for his size when still a baby, Simmons played football for Central High School where he graduated in 1942.[1]

During World War II he was wounded in action in Italy whilst serving with the 10th Mountain Division.

He competed for the United States in the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London, England in the decathlon where he won the bronze medal. He repeated this feat four years later in the 1952 Summer Olympics held in Helsinki, Finland, where he again won the bronze medal. He died in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In addition to competing in sports Simmons was contracted to Universal Pictures alongside Rock Hudson and John Gavin. Simmons guest starred in many television shows and appeared in over a dozen films most memorably in South Pacific (1958). He was considered for the role of Brick in the film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. as Allan Quatermain in 'Watusi[2]> and was signed to play Mr. Roberts in a Joshua Logan television series of the same name that was unmade.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/4FKYev4LYbU
  2. ↑ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2300/Watusi/notes.html
  3. ↑ p.11 Corsicana Daily Sun 26 December 1957


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