Hulk Hogan, the veteran professional wrestler known for his massive physique and signature horseshoe mustache, and whose flamboyance helped transform the wrestling industry, has died. He was 71.
TMZ reported on Thursday, July 24 that the bandana-loving WWF champion passed away in his Clearwater, Florida home.
Medics were dispatched to his residence early in the morning, and the outlet further reports that he was treated for an apparent cardiac arrest.
Hogan had been marred with rumors of ill health in recent weeks, however his wife Sky Daily, who he married in 2023, denied recent speculation that he was allegedly in a coma.
Hogan was born Terry Gene Bollea in Augusta, Georgia on August 11, 1953, to father Pietro "Peter" Bollea, a construction foreman, and his mother Ruth V. (née Moody), a homemaker and dance teacher.
He developed an affinity for wrestling at an early age, looking up to wrestlers such as Dusty Rhodes and frequenting training gyms.
Though in recent months Hogan was largely in the news over his support of Donald Trump — and his viral appearance at the Republican National Convention last year, during which he raised eyebrows for enthusiastically ripping his shirt off — in the 1980s, he helped usher in the decades' professional wrestling boom.
He signed with WWF, now WWE, in 1983, and headlined the first eight of its flagship annual event, WrestleMania.
Ten years later, he briefly put the ring aside to pursue a career in film and television, which was most prominent during the 1990s, with credits including Rocky III, Suburban Commando, No Holds Barred, and Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
He was married three times, first to Linda Claridge from 1983 to 2009, with whom he shares two kids, daughter Brooke Hogan, 37, and son Nick Hogan, 34.
Linda filed for divorce in 2007, claiming infidelity on Hogan's behalf, which he acknowledged but denied in his 2009 autobiography. He later started dating Jennifer McDaniel in early 2008, and they married in December 2010, though they divorced in 2022.
In addition to his children, he is survived by his wife Sky, 45, a yoga instructor, who he proposed to at actor Corin Nemec's wedding reception in July 2023 and married the following December.