Hulk Hogan, Pro-Wrestling Superstar and TV Personality, Dies at 71

The WWE legend’s televised debut was in 1979, and he retired in 2012.

Hulk Hogan, pro-wrestling’s 12-time world champion and TV personality, who helped transform the WWE into the behemoth it became, has died at age 71, the WWE confirmed.

In statement shared with PEOPLE on Thursday, July 24, the wrestling company said, “WWE is saddened to learn WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan has passed away. One of pop culture’s most recognizable figures, Hogan helped WWE achieve global recognition in the 1980s. WWE extends its condolences to Hogan’s family, friends, and fans.”

TMZ was first to share the news, and said that medics were sent to Hogan’s home in Florida after he reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest. The outlet said he was taken out on a stretcher.

Hogan, the boastful wrestling icon, film and reality TV star, was a two-time inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame. He was first inducted in 2005 by his friend Sylvester Stallone, then in 2020 as part of a wrestling team. At 6′ 6,” or 6′ 7,” or maybe 6′ 8″ he loved tall tales and weighing more than 300 pounds, Hogan was anointed “Wrestling’s Top Banana” in a 1985 Sports Illustrated cover story spotlighting both him and “Mat Mania!”

“Hulk Hogan is to pro wrestling what Babe Ruth was to baseball,” SI noted in 2025. “Hogan pushed the industry to new levels and created the multi-billion dollar business it is today…. Without ‘The Hulkster,’ wrestling wouldn’t be where it is in the modern era.”

For 35 years, until his retirement in 2012, Hogan was known for his theatrics. With his “24-inch pythons” (biceps), Hogan could make a dog’s chew toy out of his nemeses, including Sgt. Slaughter, André the Giant and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

A perennially tanned and oiled-up Florida boy with peroxide hair and a matching handlebar mustache, Hogan entered thousands of rings around the world with the confidence of an oncoming Mack truck. Sporting a costume that sometimes included a red boa swung around his neck, yellow spanky pants and an itsy-bitsy red tank top, he was wrestling’s version of Met Gala-ready.

A popular presence on screen, Hogan starred in 15 movies, beginning with Rocky III (1982). His pal Sylvester Stallone gave Hogan high praise for his performance in the film. “He threw the most amazing punches,” Stallone recalled. “Because he was bare-fisted, Icould actually feel his punch touching my skin, yet he knew just when to pull back.”

Hogan showed up at the 1985 Grammys on the arm of singer Cyndi Lauper as her bodyguard. He made over 200 appearances on everything from The Love Boat (1986) to wrestling fare including, WWE Raw. From 2005 to 2007, Hogan and his wife Linda and their children Brooke and Nick starred on VH1’s reality series Hogan Knows Best.

“People are locked into this one-dimensional view that Hulk Hogan is just a wrestler with a bald head that screams and body-slams people,” he said in a 2005 episode. “(They) don’t realize that I go to soccer games, play frisbee, watch The Lion King and start crying.”

One month after the show’s finale, Linda Hogan filed for divorce after 24 years of marriage, citing the Hulk’s “infidelities,” including his affair with their teenage daughter’s close friend. The scandals and lawsuits only grew from there. A flawed hero, he lied about steroid use, was involved in a notorious sex-tape scandal and was exposed using racist language which tarnished his reputation as wrestling’s “good guy.”

“I have a ton of scars,” Hogan told the Los Angeles Times in 2019. “I’m not perfect, but it’s about standing up, owning it and moving forward.”

He was born Terrence Gene Bollea on August 11, 1953, in Augusta, Ga. His father Pete Bollea, was a construction foreman, and his mother, Ruth (née Moody), was a dance teacher and stay-at-home mom. The family moved to South Tampa, Fla., where young Terry was full of shenanigans. ”I guess Terry gets lots of his showmanship from me,” his mother told PEOPLE in 1991.

Teased in elementary school for having “the largest head,” Hogan said he was also bullied for his weight. At the age of 12, he weighed 195 pounds. “I wouldn’t take my shirt off at the beach,” he recalled.

While at Robinson High School, Hogan found his clique with classmates who shared a passion for wrestling. “We lived for Dusty Rhodes,” he told Sports Illustrated. “If Dusty was not on TV on Saturday or Sunday morning here in Tampa, we were pissed off.”

The thought of entering the sport petrified him. In 2014, Hogan told Vice, “As a kid, I was scared to death of them because back in the day wrestlers were very protective, and if you called wrestling fake, they would punch you in the face.”

After high school, Hogan studied business at a community college and worked as a bank teller and stevedore. He joined a local wrestling gym and began slamming the mats in tiny-tank-town matches across the Southeast as “Terry Boulder,” “Sterling Golden” and “The Super Destroyer.”

In 1978, he met bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who was then starring on TV’s The Incredible Hulk as the title character, while both were guests on a Memphis talk show. “I was actually bigger than he was,” Hogan told Forbes in 2011. “I went back to the dressing room and all of the wrestlers started calling me Terry ‘The Hulk’ Boulder.”

One year later, Hogan was wooed by Vince McMahon Sr., a well-known promoter and the founding father of World Wrestling Entertainment, who later sold the corporation to his son, Vince McMahon. Vince Sr. was so impressed with Hogan’s physical prowess that he gave him a contract to join the WWE.

Vince Sr. came up with a storyline for the young wrestler to act out in the ring. He decided his recruit would take on the persona of a tough Irishman and gave him the surname “Hogan.” He also told Hulk to dye his hair red. Hogan whose hair was already thinning declared, “I’ll be blond Irish.”

Hulk Hogan made his professional wrestling debut in November 1979. Onemonth later, he was strutting his size-17 (his claim) boots into Madison Square Garden. “I’m the man that made wrestling famous,” he said repeatedly.

In 2015, the WWE terminated his contract and scrubbed Hogan from their website for a years-earlier racist slur. Then in 2018, after he completed an apology tour and spent countless hours volunteering with kids, the WWE reinstated him in its Hall of Fame.

“Eight years ago, I used offensive language during a conversation. It was unacceptable for me to have used that offensive language. There is no excuse for it, and I apologize for having done it,” Hogan said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.

In a 2014 interview with the WWE, he expressed hope for his alter ego to live on. “The character of Hulk Hogan is impeccable. The Hulk Hogan character has brought me, Terry Bollea, and made me a much better person.”

Albeit one who suffered greatly in the name of the sport. “It isn’t easy brother,” Hogan told Rolling Stone in 2009. “My tailbone is bent from landing on my ass 400 times a year, twice on Sat­urdays, twice on Sundays. My back’s got all kinds of problems. I’m crippled. My legs get numb…. My hands are numb. My forearms are numb. My neck, too. I’ve got arthritis and scoliosis. I’m 6’4.” I used to be 6’7.”

Away from the ring, Hogan was a self-described beach bum who enjoyed chilling with his chihuahuas in Clearwater, Fla., while strumming his bass guitar. He owned several restaurants and bars and in 2024, released a beverage, Real American Beer. His good friend, President Donald Trump, (a known non-drinker) touted Hogan’s beer on Truth Social: “Great looking can and logo.”

Of his legacy, Hogan said, “I promised each and every Hulkamaniac when I went to that great battlefield in the sky, I would bring the WWF title with me.”

Hogan is survived by his third wife, Sky Daily, and his two children.