Celebrity Name : Hulk Hogan

Celebrity Real Name :  Terry Gene Bollea

Date of Birth : August 11, 1953

Birth Location : Augusta, Georgia

Biography of Terry Gene Bollea :
Hulk Hogan (born Terry Gene Bollea on August 11, 1953), is an American professional wrestler, entertainer, actor and TV star. He is one of the most successful and popular professional wrestlers in history, with a large, long standing fanbase called “Hulkamaniacs”. He currently stars on the VH1 reality show Hogan Knows Best.

Early Life and Career :
Born in Augusta, Georgia, Hogan was the third child of Italian American Pete Bollea, and Ruth Bollea, who is of French, Italian and Panamanian descent. Early in life, Terry Bollea was a standout in minor league baseball and also spent ten years playing bass guitar in several Florida-based rock bands, including Ruckus and Infinity’s End. Many of the wrestlers who competed in the Florida territory at that time would visit the bars in which Bollea was performing.
Bollea’s impressive physical stature soon caught the attention of former top-drawing wrestler Jack Brisco and his brother Gerald, both of whom convinced Bollea to give wrestling a try. Bollea had been a wrestling fan since childhood and was eager to give it a chance. He trained for nearly two years under the watchful eye of Hiro Matsuda, a hard-nosed taskmaster who casually (and to instill respect, purposefully) broke Bollea’s leg during their first training session.
Bollea wrestled his first professional match in Tallahassee, Florida on August 19, 1977 as The Super Destroyer, wrestling B. Brian Blair. Terry also used other ring names early in his career, including Terry “The Hulk” Boulder and Sterling Golden. In those formative years, Bollea would go on to win his first wrestling championships, the National Wrestling Alliance Southeastern Heavyweight Championships recognized in Alabama and Tennessee, respectively. Bollea even had an early shot at the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, with its holder generally recognized as the industry’s #1 wrestler, in January 1979, facing NWA kingpin Harley Race.

Awards :
* Hogan was inducted to the 2005 WWE Hall Of Fame.
Hogan is one of the very few to be inducted into both the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame (2003) and the WWE Hall of Fame (2005).
* He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in April 1985. Next to the swimsuit issue, the magazine was the year’s best seller.[citation needed] He is one of only two professional wrestlers to ever appear on the cover of SI; the other is Danny Hodge.

Books :
* Hollywood Hulk Hogan (Pocket Books (WWE Copyright), 2003)

DVDs :
* nWo: Back In Black (WWE Home Video, 2002)
* Hulk Still Rules (WWE Home Video, 2002)
* Hulk Hogan: The Ultimate Anthology (WWE Home Video, 2006)[wikipedia]