Did O.J.’s Acting Skills Help Him Get Away With Murder?

Football great O.J. Simpson did not wait for retirement before embarking on a second career as an actor, which turned out to be a successful side gig (though not as successful as the NFL)! The Juice appeared in everything from the lauded miniseries “Roots” to the disaster movie “The Towering Inferno” to the little-seen sci-fi gem “Capricorn Once” and the hit “Naked Gun” cop farces. He even started his own production company, Orenthal Productions, to make TV movies. NBC was considering airing Simpson’s “Frogmen” (pictured) when his arrest for the murder of his ex wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, sank that project. Here, The National ENQUIRER samples Juice’s long career on the big and small screens. Just how good an actor was he?

In 1974’s “The Klansman,” a young white woman is raped in a small southern town, and the white town immediately declare that the attacker was black, and pin the blame on Garth, played by Simpson. Garth knows he’s not going to get a fair trial, so he takes off, with a Ku Klux Klan lynching party on his heels.

Simpson is joined in the “Klansman” cast by acting heavyweights Lee Marvin (pictured with Juice) and Richard Burton, who were both said to have consumed jaw-dropping amounts of alcohol during production — so much, in fact, that it’s believed Burton’s character was filmed sitting or lying down so much because the actor was unable to stand!

“The Towering Inferno,” which opened in 1974, is a classic of the 1970s disaster flicks — a “towering” achievement, if you will. Produced by disaster maven Irwin Allen, the movie focuses on a fire that breaks out in a state-of-the-art San Francisco high-rise during the opening ceremony attended by a host of A-list guests. And the flick features an A-list cast, including Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Fred Astaire! Oh, and Simpson as security officer Jernigan.

In  1976’s “The Cassandra Crossing,” Simpson played an FBI agent traveling aboard a train undercover as a priest while pursuing a heroin dealer portrayed by Martin Sheen. Also aboard the train is a stowaway: a terrorist infected with a deadly plague! The U.S. military orders the train redirected across a rickety old bridge (the titular crossing) that may not hold up under the train’s weight.

This film was designed as vehicle for Sophia Loren, with whom O.J. would re-team in 1979's "Firepower." There’s a lot of moralizing about life and death in "Cassandra Crossing," and who has the right to gamble with fate. The American colonel thinks it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if the bridge collapses and the terrorist is killed — but what about everyone else on the train?

“Capricorn One” was a 1977 sci-fi thriller in which the U.S. government fakes a landing on Mars by launching an unmanned rocket to the red planet and forcing the astronauts — including Simpson — to film “Mars” footage in a studio.

When the faked Mars spacecraft Capricorn One burns up on reentry to Earth, NASA realizes that its captive astronauts can never be released or the hoax will be exposed. Of course the would-be Mars explorers figure out something went wrong and escape. But where can they go?

In “Goldie and the Boxer,” Simpson portrayed a losing boxer in the 1940s who gets a new manager in the form of his ex-partner’s orphaned daughter, Goldie, played by Melissa Michaelsen. The film was shepherded by O.J.’s Orenthal Productions.

The 1979 TV-movie’s eclectic cast included the legendary Phil Silvers, as well as Judy Landers and Gordon Jump. It spawned a sequel in 1981 called “Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood,” in which Melissa and the Juice reprised their roles.

Simpson getting squeaky clean as PI Michael Brenner in the 1983 TV-movie “Cocaine and Blue Eyes.” Simpson also executive produced (through Orenthal Productions) this story of a San Francisco private eye who gets dragged into a drug-smuggling operation while searching for the girlfriend of a dead client. This movie was actually a pilot, but it wasn’t picked up for a series.

The “Police Squad!” movies of the late 1980s-‘90s were slapstick spoofs of police procedurals from the makers of the “Airplane!” films, and based on a TV series that ran for just six episodes. Simpson played the bumbling Detective Nordberg, who was always getting himself into painful situations and suffering comic physical injuries.

Simpson did not just appear in movies — as a popular sports superstar and Hollywood insider, he also gave out awards. Here he is with actress Marisa Berenson preparing to had out the Oscar for Best Short Film (Live Action) on March 29, 1976, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles.

Simpson and his adorable little costar Melissa promoted "Goldie and the Boxer" together!