Sports Of The Stars

Tom Van Riper

 
 
Justin Timberlake is a scratch golfer. Cameron Diaz is an avid surfer. And Matthew Perry knows a bit about how to use a tennis racket.

To many on Hollywood's A-list, athletics provide more than an outlet to blow off steam. For these multi-talented folks, sports are a passion. To some, they're even a second career.

Consider Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, who recently elevated his car-racing hobby to part-time gig. When he isn't entertaining fans as Seattle Grace's Dr. Derek Shepherd, the father of three hits the racetrack.

He's competed in both the 24 Hours of Daytona and the Baja 1000, and placed sixth in last year's 38-car Grand Am Koni Challenge in Miami. Additionally, Dempsey owns a piece of Vision Racing, and IndyCar team that produced a dozen drivers since its 2005 launch.

But the ABC series star isn't the first actor to be lured by the track. Veteran actor Paul Newman got the auto racing bug while training for the 1969 flick Winning, in which he portrayed an Indy 500 driver.

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Off-screen, the Butch Cassidy star placed second in his first professional event--the 24 Hours of La Mans--in 1972. Racing well into his 80s, Newman secured several other victories on the circuit, including four Sports Car Club of America titles.

"I have no physical grace, and I was able to find something where I had that smoothness," he told The Guardian of the sport last fall. "I get my feet crossed up playing tennis and skiing, and I'm much too light to be a football player."

Malcolm in the Middle's Frankie Muniz has taken to the sport as well. In fact, following his successful Fox sitcom, he took a break from his acting career to race professionally. The 22-year-old became a licensed driver in 2001 and raced in a Pro-Celebrity event at the Long Beach, Calif., Grand Prix just three years later. By 2006, he had signed on with Jensen Motorsport, racing in that year's BMW USA championship.

Earlier this year, he voiced his confidence to the press: "I don't want to sound conceited," he said, "but I don't think there has been an actor or celebrity-turned-racecar driver that has made it as high up on the racecar circuit as I have."

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Charlie Sheen may have shared the same fate--or confidence, at least--on the baseball field had he stuck with the sport. Before finding success in Tinseltown, the Two and a Half Men star scored rave reviews as both star pitcher and shortstop at California's Santa Monica High. The tabloid target showed off his nearly perfect baseball mechanics in the 1989 comedy Major League.

Former Friends star Matthew Perry is a real off-screen athlete as well. In fact, the actor was a highly ranked junior tennis player in his native Canada during the 1980s. Though the professional circuit is no longer an option, he picks up his racket for the occasional charity events, including two appearances at Chris Evert's Pro-Celebrity Classic in Boca Raton, Fla.c