Wrestling icon Hulk Hogan died Thursday at 71, his manager says.
Hogan, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, went into cardiac arrest at his Clearwater, Florida, home on Thursday morning. His manager, Chris Volo, told NBC Los Angeles that he was surrounded by family when he died.
Witnesses reportedly saw Hogan being carried out on a stretcher, but the WWE legend did not survive. CNN reports he was pronounced dead at Morton Plant Hospital. An official cause of death has not been released.
ADVERTISEMENT
Hogan’s death comes just two days after another one of his managers, Jimmy Hart, claimed that the star was “doing phenomenal” amid concerning health rumors. Hart said Hogan had done karaoke earlier this week.
Hogan’s wife, Sky, recently denied rumors that he was in a coma after he underwent surgery on his neck this spring.
The family of the transformative performer has yet to confirm his death. He is survived by his wife and two children, Brooke and Nick Hogan.
Hogan was born in Augusta, Georgia, on Aug. 11, 1953, but grew up in Tampa. He rose to national prominence in the 1980s with his flamboyant “Hulkamania” persona that transformed WWE, then known as the WWF, into an entertainment powerhouse.
Sports Illustrated wrote last year that Hogan was to wrestling what Babe Ruth was to professional baseball. In addition to his theatrics in the ring, he also starred in 15 movies, beginning with Rocky III in 1982, and was the central figure in the reality series, Hogan Knows Best, which ran for four seasons between 2005 and 2007.
“Hogan pushed the industry to new levels and created the multi-billion dollar business it is today,” Sports Illustrated wrote. “Without ‘The Hulkster,’ wrestling wouldn’t be where it is in the modern era.”
The performer was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 but was removed a decade later over his use of racial slurs while he was secretly recorded during a sexual encounter. Hogan sued Gawker, which surfaced the clip, and won the lawsuit, bankrupting the media organization and ultimately putting it out of business. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2020.
Hogan was a big supporter of President Donald Trump, whom he described as his “hero” in a speech at the RNC last summer. He celebrated Trump’s upcoming inauguration in January during an appearance on Jesse Watters’ show on Fox News.
“We’re already celebrating the inauguration, even before it happens, because we know we’re getting our country back!” he said. “It’s a new day, it’s a new country, and we’re gonna ‘Make America Great Again’ because we’ve got a real American President, brother!”
Hogan, who opened the interview by chugging “Real American Beer,” a brew he created, kept his shirt on during the appearance—but did close it by flexing his biceps along with Watters.
