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Tommy 'Tiny' Lister
Age: 51
Height: 6' 5"
Birth Place: Compton, California, USA
Born: Jun. 24th, 1958
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Tommy 'Tiny' Lister's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: If you ever want a 6' 5", muscle bound, broad shouldered, shaven-headed actor to play a terrifying bodyguard, a soldier of fortune or a fearsome gangster, then Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr. is the man you want. This African-American basketball player turned actor first popped up in minor roles such as a prison guard in Runaway Train (1985), as Andy Garcia (I)'s bodyguard in 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) and Powers Boothe's bodyguard in Extreme Prejudice (1987). "Tiny" Lister also had a stint in both the WWF & WCW professional wrestling circuits in the late 1980s appearing under the name "Zeus" and "ZGangsta". His wrestling exploits can be seen on Summerslam (1989) (V), Survivor Series (1989) (V) and "WWF Superstars of Wrestling" (1984).
However, unlike many muscle bound athletic types, "Tiny" Lister is a reasonable actor, and he has managed to notch up appearances in nearly 80 movies, expanding upon his original "fierce bodyguard" roles to now include comedic and rather quirky performances in films such as Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), the African-American western Posse (1993), as the Federated Territories President in the science fiction epic The Fifth Element (1997), the cult comedy Friday (1995) and its sequel, Next Friday (2000).
Lister has also recently appeared on screen with Adam Sandler (I) in Little Nicky (2000), and with Mike Myers (I) in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), plus he's been seen in a slew of B-horror films including Soulkeeper (2001), Hellborn (2003) and Dracula 3000 (2004) (TV). Tom "Tiny" Lister may not be an A list star, but he's certainly one of Hollywood's most instantly recognizable and busiest character actors.
TRIVIA:
- Is blind in his right eye.
- He has commonly been listed as 6' 7", especially back in his wrestling days, but is actually about 6' 5".
- Was the 1982 Division II Shot Put Champion while attending Cal State University Los Angeles.
- During his brief stint in the World Wrestling Federation in 1989, Lister was promoted as frustrated with being billed below 'Hulk Hogan' (qv) in that year's _No Holds Barred (1989)_ (qv), and thus wanting to get his revenge in a real-life wrestling confrontation (in the movie, Hogan's character defeats Zeus at the end). The "feud" parlayed into a series of tag-team matches, pitting Lister -- who wrestled as his movie character Zeus -- and his partners (usually 'Randy Savage' (qv) [aka "Macho Man"] and 'Ted DiBiase' (qv) [aka "Million Dollar Man"]) vs. Hogan and 'Ed Leslie' (qv) (aka "Brutus Beefcake"); when not wrestling, he sometimes came down as a menacing second for either DiBiase or Savage in their matches against Hogan or Beefcake, interfering at every opportunity. During his WWF matches, Zeus "no sold" his opponents' wrestling moves (that is, pretended like an opponent's moves didn't hurt the wrestler in the least) to generate fan heat and create the impression Zeus was invincible. His in-ring finisher was the neck-wrencher, which he ostensibly used to "break" opponents' necks and set them up for an easy pin fall loss. Lister's wrestling career only lasted for about six months.
- Weighed 300 lbs at the time of _Universal Soldier (1992)_ (qv).
- Played Klaang in the first episode of _"Enterprise" (2001)_ (qv). Klang was the first Klingon (even though it was in a prequel) that Starfleet ever encountered.
- A movie buff, he enjoys the films of Frank Capra and Burt Lancaster, and has even been a guest host on TCM's The Essentials.
- Career got started by actor/ director 'Jimmy Bridges' (qv) (older brother of actor 'Todd Bridges' (qv)) when Jimmy introduced Tiny to his father, Jim Bridges, who was a talent agent in Hollywood after which Tiny worked in 3 movies his first year in the business.
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