Lester Speight facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lester Speight
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Speight in 2016
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| Born | August 28, 1963 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Morgan State University | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Football player, wrestler, actor | ||||||||||
| Years active | 1991–1998 (wrestling) 1997–present (acting) |
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| Known for | Terry Tate: Office Linebacker My Wife and Kids Gears of War |
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Lester Speight (born August 28, 1963), also known as Rasta, is an American who has had exciting careers as a football player, a professional wrestler, and an actor. He became very well-known for playing Terry Tate: Office Linebacker in funny commercials for Reebok. These ads first appeared during the Super Bowl XXXVII. He also gained fame for his role as Augustus Cole in the popular Gears of War video game series.
Contents
Early Life and School
Lester Speight was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His parents were Gussie Watson and Walter Speight. He went to Old Mill High School in Millersville, Maryland, and graduated in 1981. He was so good at sports that he is in his high school's Hall of Fame for three different sports: football, track, and basketball!
After high school, he attended Morgan State University from 1981 to 1985. While there, he was an amazing football player, earning the title of Division 1 All-American Linebacker.
Sports Career: Football and Wrestling
After finishing college in 1985, Lester Speight tried to play professional football in the NFL. He also tried out for another league called the United States Football League (USFL) in the same year. During his tryouts, he ran incredibly fast, which caught the attention of the Baltimore Stars team.
He signed a big contract with the Stars, but unfortunately, the USFL stopped operating before he could play a single season. In 1987, he was with the New York Giants as a replacement player during a strike, but he didn't get to play in any games.
After football, Speight decided to try professional wrestling. He wrestled for groups like Global Wrestling Federation and Catch Wrestling Association. He was known as Rasta the Voodoo Man. However, by 1997, he stopped wrestling to start a new career in acting.
Acting Career
Lester Speight began his acting journey with smaller parts in movies. Some of these films include the football movie Any Given Sunday, 13 Moons, and Cradle 2 the Grave, where he played a club doorman. He also appeared in many TV shows. These include Malcolm in the Middle, Walker, Texas Ranger, NYPD Blue, My Wife and Kids, and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Famous Commercials
In 2003, Speight starred in a Terry Tate: Office Linebacker commercial for Reebok. This ad became super popular right away and is remembered as one of the funniest Super Bowl commercials ever. Being in this famous commercial helped him get more opportunities in movies, TV shows, and video games.
Television Roles
After the success of the Terry Tate ads, Speight had a regular role on Damon Wayans' ABC show My Wife and Kids. He played Calvin Scott, who was the father of Vanessa Scott. Speight also appeared as a guest star on the show Prison Break, playing a prison inmate named Banks.
In 2008, he was in a TV movie called Ring of Death. In this movie, Speight played "Milton Kennedy," a respected gang boss and undefeated champion of an underground fighting tournament in a prison. In 2009, he appeared in an episode of Bones, where he played a strongman named Magnum in a traveling circus.
Movie Roles
Speight had a small part in the 2006 movie Bachelor Party Vegas. In 2007, he joined the Eddie Murphy movie Norbit as Blue, one of Rasputia's three brothers. The next year, he appeared in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. In 2011, Speight played a character named "Hardcore" Eddie in the big action movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Video Game Voice Acting
Lester Speight is very well-known for his voice acting in video games. In the 2006 Xbox 360 game Gears of War, he voiced the character Augustus Cole, also known as Cole Train. Cole Train was a former "Thrashball" player, and Speight humorously used some of his own famous lines for the character. He even won an award for Best Voiceover in 2007!
Speight continued to voice Augustus Cole in many other Gears of War games. These include Gears of War 2 (2008), Gears of War 3 (2011), Gears of War: Judgment (2013), Gears of War 4 (2016), Gears 5 (2019), and Gears Tactics (2020).
Selected Filmography
Movies
- 1999: Any Given Sunday - Sharks' Security Guard
- 2003: Cradle 2 the Grave - Chambers Club Doorman
- 2007: Norbit - Blue Latimore
- 2008: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - Dr. Jonavan White
- 2011: Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Hardcore Eddy
TV Shows
- 2000: Walker, Texas Ranger - Flash Armstrong
- 2003-2005: My Wife and Kids - Calvin Scott
- 2003: Malcolm in the Middle - Samuel
- 2009: Bones - Magnum
- 2017: NCIS: Los Angeles - Max 'Champ' Champion
- 2018: Titans - Clayton Williams/Mr. Atlas
Video Games
- 2006: Gears of War - Augustus Cole
- 2008: Gears of War 2 - Augustus Cole
- 2011: Gears of War 3 - Augustus Cole
- 2013: Gears of War: Judgment - Augustus Cole
- 2016: Gears of War 4 - Augustus Cole
- 2019: Gears 5 - Augustus Cole
