10 Jan 1949 - 21 Mar 2025 (76 years)

George Edward Foreman was an American professional boxer, entrepreneur, minister, and author. In boxing, he competed between 1967 and 1997 and was nicknamed "Big George". He was a two-time world heavyweight champion and an Olympic gold medalist. As an entrepreneur, he was known for the George Foreman Grill.

After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up amateur boxing and won a gold medal in the heavyweight division at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Having turned professional the next year, he won the world heavyweight title with a stunning second-round knockout of the then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. He defended the belt twice before suffering his first professional loss to Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. Unable to secure another title opportunity, Foreman retired after a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977.

Following what he referred to as a born again experience, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later he announced a comeback, and in 1994 at age 45 won the unified WBA, IBF, and lineal heavyweight championship titles by knocking out 26-year-old Michael Moorer. He dropped the WBA belt rather than face his mandatory title defense soon after, and following a single successful title defense against Axel Schulz, Foreman relinquished his IBF title as well on June 28, 1995. At 46 years and 169 days old, he was the oldest world heavyweight champion in history. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76 wins (68 knockouts) and 5 losses, one of the famous losses coming at the hands of Muhammad Ali who hit him with a lightning fast 1-2 combination which was "the fastest punch" Foreman had ever seen.

Foreman was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2002, he was named one of the 25 greatest fighters of the past 80 years by The Ring. The Ring ranked him as the ninth-greatest puncher of all time.

Outside boxing, Foreman was a successful entrepreneur and known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill.
He was approached by Salton, Inc., which was looking for a spokesperson for its fat-reducing grill. As of 2009, the George Foreman Grill has sold over 100 million units.

Although Foreman never confirmed exactly how much he has earned from the endorsement, Salton paid him $138 million in 1999 for the right to use his name. Prior to that, he was paid about 40% of the profits on each grill sold (earning him $4.5 million a month in payouts at its peak), yielding an estimated total of over $200 million just from the endorsement through 2011, substantially more than he earned as a boxer.

Foreman was married 5 times.
He had 12 children in total and all of his 5 sons are all named George.