Jim Brown, football great, actor and civil rights activist, dies at 87

LOS ANGELES — Jim Brown, regarded by many as the greatest football player of all time who quit the game at the height of his career and became a successful Hollywood actor and influential activist at the peak of the civil rights era, has died at his home in Los Angeles.

Brown died late Thursday at 87. His wife Monique was by his side, a family spokeswoman said.

A multitalented athlete cast in the mold of the legendary Jim Thorpe — he’s in three halls of fame — Brown was known best as a football player. Perhaps the football player. A fullback for the Cleveland Browns, he stepped away from the game after only nine seasons while on the set of “The Dirty Dozen,” saying he needed greater mental stimulation in his life.

In his career, though, the Browns won the National Football League championship in 1964 before the creation of the Super Bowl and he led the league in yards rushing eight times, failing to gain 1,000 yards only in his rookie season, He was the league MVP three times and, at retirement, held records, among many others, for single-season yards rushing, 1,863 in 1963, and career