Before They Were Famous: Celebrities Who Grew Up Tennis Stars
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What other sport could give you a match between Chandler Bing and Darth Vader?
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Talented people seem like they're good at everything. Ronald Reagan was an actor before he became our least-embarassing president of the past 50 years. Jim Brown was a legendary college lacrosse player before he made mincemeat of NFL defenses. Alan Thicke wrote the theme to "Three's Company" before he became the dad on "Growing Pains."
Not surprisingly, many future stars of screen, sound and stage competed athletically growing up. Of course, somewhere along the way, the acting bug, lure of heavy metal or the need to fight in the Clone Wars took over, and they deviated from the net to pursue other career options.
Here's a look at some of the more interesting tennis back stories of modern-day celebrities.
 Lars Ulrich: Before he started bitching about Napster and file-sharing, Ulrich (pictured at left with his dad) was a tennis prodigy whose father Torben was the top senior player in the world in 1976 and played for Denmark's Davis Cup team from 1948 to 1977. Father and son moved to Los Angeles from Denmark when Lars was 17 to train.
But fate intervened when Ulrich, a passionate drummer, put the following ad in a Los Angeles newspaper "Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang, Diamond Head and Iron Maiden."
Two other musicians - James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner -- answered Ulrichs' request, and two years later, the group recorded the pleasantly-titled "Kill'em All" album. With an estimated net worth of $175 million, it appears Lars made the right decision.
Matthew Perry: There's an episode of "Friends" when Chandler tanks a game  of tennis to kiss up to his boss (and royally pisses off uber-competitive wife Monica in the process). In real life, Matthew Perry wouldn't dare throw a match, particularly given that at age 13 he was the No. 2 ranked player in all of Ottawa. He eventually became the No. 17 singles player in Canada, and was ranked No. 3 in doubles.
He moved to California to pursue both acting and tennis, but in 1984 he suffered a devastating upset loss at a tournament, prompting him to quit the sport and focus on acting. Two hundred and thirty-eight episodes of friends later, and dalliances with WTA star Jennifer Capriati, Julia Roberts, Amanda Peet, Heather Graham, Elizabeth Hurley and Yasmine Bleeth later, and Perry still picks up the racquet for celebrity tournaments.
Shannon Elizabeth: Before she was the object of Jason Biggs' obsession in  "American Pie," or the murder victim of a killer snowman in "Jack Frost," (seriously, it's a real movie), the leggy model/actress was a potent high school tennis player in Waco, Texas.
Standing 5 feet, 9 inches tall, Elizabeth has told interviewers she had the ambition of going pro, possessing both a killer forehand and backhand.
But cursed with her ridiculous good looks, she instead had to settle for becoming a model and moving to New York, then becoming an actress and a lousy contestant on "Dancing with the Stars."
 Hayden Christensen: Raised in Vancouver, the 6-foot, 2-inch Christensen played hockey and tennis growing up. He began acting when he was 12 years old, and had been in five movies by the time he graduated high school in 1999. He was considering an academic and tennis scholarship from Harvard University when he got the fateful call that he had beaten out 350 other candidates for the role of Anakin Skywalker in the second and third Star Wars prequels. Tennis remains a big part of Christensen's life, as he has appeared as the featured model for LaCoste's cologne campaigns, and recently played an exhibition match against Mats Wilander.
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Posted by Nick on 8/10/2010 12:10:57 PM
Filed under: bing, celebrities, chandler, christensen, darth, elizabeth, famous, friends, hayden, lars, mats, matthew, metallica, perry, shannon, star, tennis, torben, ulrich, vader, wars, wilander
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