Stepping out of his golf cart, Weissmuller – then 54 – gave his best impression of the trademark yell he had devised to accompany his many film appearances as Tarzan of the Apes.

According to the anecdote related in the book by Weissmuller's son Johnny Jr, entitled Tarzan, My Father, the soldiers immediately recognised the cry and gave him an escort back to his hotel, shouting "Es Tarzán! Es Tarzán de la Jungla!"

That role, and indeed that cry – which he once explained had involved recordings of three vocalists spliced together to get the effect‍ – are the things for which Weissmuller, who died in 1984 aged 79, is best remembered.

Weissmuller instinctively understood the ideal means of communication at that perilous moment, although it was by no means his only claim to fame.

On Christmas Day 1928, the Illinois Athletic Club officially announced that its most decorated member was giving up as an Olympic swimmer, having earned five gold medals and numerous landmark world records in an unbeaten freestyle career.

In 1950, the Associated Press named Weissmuller as the top swimmer of the first half of the century. In 2000, Swimming World Magazine named him second for the century behind multiple 1972 Olympic champion Mark Spitz.

Were there to be a poll for the most successful sportsperson who went on to become the most successful film actor, then Weissmuller's name would surely be top of the list, albeit that many have since followed the same route.

After the Amsterdam 1928 Games, Weissmuller was 24 and a multiple Olympic champion. 

He did not have a single loss to his name in the freestyle discipline since he had begun competing in 1921. He was the first swimmer to break a minute for the 100 metres freestyle and his world records for that discipline and the 100 yards – two out of 67 he had set – would stand for nine and 10 years respectively.

However, he was still living with his mother, with hardly any money to his name, and dependent on expenses provided for him by the Illinois Club and his coach and later manager, William Bachrach.

His first thought after his second Games, following the Paris 1924 Olympics, was to follow in the steps of former swimmers such as Norman Ross and Helen Wainwright and make a living as a professional, giving exhibitions. French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen had gone down a similar route.

So he wrote a letter to his club, letting them know of his decision to withdraw from amateur swimming.

Soon after embarking on his exhibition tour, Weissmuller signed a lucrative deal with BVD swimwear company to endorse their products.

Needing to stay in shape for his swimwear, he signed up for the Hollywood Athletic Club, and after a workout in August 1931 was approached by another member – Cyril Hume, who worked for MGM studios.

In Heroes & Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports, by Michael K Bohn, the process whereby Weissmuller switched from unbeatable athlete to inimitable actor was described thus:

"Hume went on to explain that the studio had assigned him to create a script for a new film, Tarzan, the Ape Man. He described the producer's criteria for the Tarzan role – 'young, strong, well-built and reasonably attractive'. The ability to appear comfortable in a loin-cloth was also important."

The next day, Weissmuller accompanied Hume to the studios. Soon after he had a seven-year contract as the sixth actor to play the hero of the Edgar Rice Burroughs books, and the first to do so in a talking picture.

The story of the English peer raised by apes in the African jungle required little speaking from Weissmuller, although there was some meaningful interaction with the film's lead female, Maureen O'Sullivan.

Weissmuller wrestled with lions and alligators – or appeared to – and swung on vines.

He went on to make 10 Tarzan films with MGM, six for RKO, and then became another eponymous character, Jungle Jim, as he made 13 more films for Columbia Pictures.

Weissmuller was quoted later as saying: "Tarzan was right up my alley. It was like stealing money. There was swimming in it, and I didn't have much to say. How can a guy climb trees, say 'me Tarzan, you Jane' and make a million?"

It was a transition to which generations of sportsmen and women have since aspired – although it surely remains unmatched.

Weissmuller played a part in the arrival of another swimmer, Esther Williams, to the world of film. Williams set multiple national records as part of the Los Angeles Athletic Club during the late 1930s, but her ambition of competing at the planned Tokyo 1940 Olympics was ended by the Second World War.

Instead, she took on the star role vacated by Olympic champion swimmer Eleanor Holm in Billy Rose's Aquacade – a touring and highly popular music, dance and swimming show – where the male star was Weissmuller.

Williams' performances caught the eye of MGM scouts, and she was soon established in a film career with most of her work being in "aqua musicals" which featured synchronised swimming and diving. She also played Australian swimming star Annette Kellerman in Million Dollar Mermaid.

At the first Olympics after the Second World War, the 1948 London Games, the silver medal in the light heavyweight weightlifting competition went to Harold Sakata of the United States.

Sakata, who was born in Hawaii, went on to become a professional wrestler and actor in film and TV. His most famous role was as Oddjob, the man with the deadly steel-rimmed bowler hat, who was bodyguard to the eponymous villain in the James Bond film Goldfinger, which came out in 1964.

There is a case for saying that the actor who played Bond in the first five – and two later – films, Sean Connery, also fits into the sportsman-turned-actor genre.

As a teenager he took up bodybuilding, appearing in competitions, and he was an impressive footballer, being offered a trial by Scottish professional team East Fife. 

There is also a report that he was offered a contract to join Manchester United after being spotted playing by their manager Matt Busby. Connery later said he was tempted to accept but added: "I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves."

Connery also turned down the offer of a promising career as an undertaker.

In terms of fame, Weissmuller has, one could argue, been matched in more recent years by Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

This Austrian-American man of many talents took up bodybuilding as a 15-year-old and won the Mr Universe title aged 20, going on to win the Mr Olympia contest seven times. He has also given his name to one of the main events on the bodybuilding calendar, the Arnold Sports Festival.

Schwarzenegger broke through in a big way as an actor in action movies when he appeared in the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian. In 1984 he played the title role in The Terminator – with the famed line "I'll be back" – and went on to do a series of hugely successful sequels.

Unusually, Schwarzenegger's genre switched from action movie to comedies, and his appearance in Junior, co-starring with Danny DeVito, brought him his second Golden Globe nomination – this time for "Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy".

Schwarzenegger also served as a Republican Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

One of Schwarzenegger's former rivals in professional bodybuilding competitions, Lou Ferrigno, has appeared in such films as The Incredible Hulk and Hercules.

Dwayne Johnson – who made his name as The Rock in an eight-year World Wrestling Federation career – has gone on to become one of the most successful and highest-grossing box office stars, appearing in films such as Pain & Gain and two hugely popular franchises – Fast & Furious and Jumanji.

American football has provided the film world with a number of high-profile actors.

Carl Weathers, who appeared for NFL side Oakland Raiders in the early 1970s, is best known as the boxer Apollo Creed in the Sylvester Stallone Rocky franchise.

He has also appeared in films such as Predator and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as on the TV series Arrested Development.

Jim Brown, considered as one of the greatest players in NFL history in an honour-laden career with Cleveland Browns from 1957 to 1965 that included an NFL title in 1964, went on to become a very successful film actor.

He made his first appearance in the 1964 western Rio Conchos, and then played a strong supporting role as convict commando Jefferson in the 1967 Second World War action film The Dirty Dozen, alongside the likes of Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland and Ernest Borgnine.

Brown, now 83, has been appearing regularly in films for more than 50 years, with other notable credits being the 1987 adaptation of the Stephen King story, The Running Man, and the 1999 film Any Given Sunday.

OJ Simpson was famous before he became infamous. He was a Heisman Trophy winner and NFL Hall of Fame member who began an acting career before he retired as a player, appearing in the 1974 movies The Towering Inferno and Klansman, then The Cassandra Crossing in 1976 and Capricorn One in 1978.

Between 1988 and 1994 he starred as the hapless detective Nordberg in the comedy trilogy The Naked Gun.

In June 1994, Simpson was charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, who were found stabbed to death outside her apartment.

An estimated 100 million people nationwide tuned in to watch or listen to the verdict after an 11-month high profile trial, and Simpson was declared not guilty.

The families of the victims subsequently filed a civil suit against him and the court awarded a $33.5 million judgment against him in 1997 for the victims' wrongful deaths.

In 2007, Simpson was charged with armed robbery and kidnapping and was sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment the following year. He was released on parole in 2017.

Burt Reynolds was a star running back for Florida State, although his promising football career was ended by a car crash which prompted him to seek an acting career.

After appearing in TV series such as Gunsmoke, Reynolds – who died last year aged 82 – broke into film with Navajo Joe in 1966 and had key roles in the 1972 film Deliverance and, two years later, The Longest Yard.

In the 1970s and 1980s he was in the Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bear franchises, and also featured in Sharky’s Machine, made in 1981, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, made the year after.

Reynolds was voted the world's number one box office star for five consecutive years from 1978 to 1982 in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a record he shares with Bing Crosby.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance in the 1997 film Boogie Nights.

Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith was a 6ft 7in defensive end for NFL sides Baltimore Colts, Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers in the 1970s, winning a Super Bowl ring in 1971.

He moved into TV and film after retiring and appeared in six Police Academy movies as the character Moses Hightower.

Bill Romanowski had a tumultuous 16-year NFL career that involved him being sued for damages after attacking a team-mate and fracturing his eye socket with a punch.

In 2005, the year after he retired, he admitted on the 60 Minutes show that he had used steroids and human growth hormone supplied to him by Victor Conte, who ran the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.

Romanowski has since appeared in films including The Longest Yard, in 2005, The Benchwarmers, in 2006, and Get Smart in 2008.

Professional martial arts exponent Bruce Lee was a massive hit and then an influential director in the early 1970s as he appeared in such films as The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon before his premature death in 1973.

In 1972, Lee invited his friend and fellow martial arts master Chuck Norris, who had previously served with the US Air Force, to play one of the main villains in Way of the Dragon.

Norris developed his career through numerous martial arts and then general action films, including Missing In Action in 1984, Code of Silence in 1985 and The Delta Force in 1986. He also played the lead role in the TV series Walker, Texas Ranger from 1993 to 2001.

The action film profile of Britain's Jason Statham is high and still rising.

He made his breakthrough in the 1998 film directed by Guy Ritchie, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, appearing two years later in Snatch and making a huge impact in the 2002 film The Transporter and its sequels.

He was also involved in The Expendables, from 2010 to 2014, and in the Fast and Furious franchise, establishing a reputation as one of the industry's most bankable stars.

Statham was a diver on the British national team for 12 years, competing at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland and at the World Championships.

He was also a good footballer, growing up with Vinnie Jones, alongside whom he would later act.

Jones also made his breakthrough in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

By that time he had established a reputation as a hard man while playing for a combative Wimbledon side that, most famously, upset Liverpool to win the 1988 FA Cup final.

Jones has appeared in nearly 100 films since 1998, including Snatch and X-Men: The Last Stand.

Frenchman Eric Cantona earned a career as a hugely influential, if occasionally wild, forward for Leeds United and Manchester United, where his career was interrupted by a lengthy ban after he had attempted to drop-kick a barracking Crystal Palace fan after he had been sent off.

The ever enigmatic Cantona later moved into a serious acting career. In 1998 he played the French ambassador in the English film Elizabeth. In 2002, he directed a short film, Apporte-moi ton amour. He guest-starred as a mysterious bar room philosopher in independent British film Jack Says. 

Mike Tyson, one of the most formidable of world heavyweight boxing champions, has subsequently appeared in film, playing himself in Rocky Balboa and the 2009 movie The Hangover.

Mickey Rourke appeared to have performed the sportsman-to-actor path in reverse.

In 1991, after a decade appearing in successful movies such as Diner, Rumble Fish, Barfly and Angel Heart, he took part in eight professional boxing bouts, winning six of them, with four knock-outs and two draws.

But Rourke had started as a boxer, establishing a 27-3 record before going into acting.

He returned to films, putting in an Oscar-nominated performance in 2000 picture The Wrestler.

Like the NFL, the National Basketball Association has also provided Hollywood with some hugely well-known operators.

Michael Jordan, considered by many as the greatest basketball player of all time, appeared in the 1996 film Space Jam.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the 7ft 2in player who made a huge impact with the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Los Angeles Lakers, appeared most famously in the 1980 comedy Airplane!

Another very large and very famous former Lakers player, Shaquille O'Neal, has appeared in big budget movies such as Steel and Kazaam, where he plays a genie.

Jason Lee, who has appeared in such films as Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky and played the title role in the TV comedy series My Name Is Earl, was a professional skateboarder in the late 1980s and early 1990s and shared with the sport's legend Tony Hawk the distinction of being the only other man to have a signature skating shoe produced by Airwalk.

George Clooney might have been one of the biggest names in the sportsmen-turn-actor stakes. But, despite being a good baseball player, he failed to pass the first round of cuts after trying out with his local team, the Cincinnati Reds. He still supports them.