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Bruce Jenner Biography

Athlete / TV Personality

Bruce Jenner first came to fame as an American decathlon champion, a gold medalist in the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics. His victory coincided with the American bicentennial celebration, and Jenner's good looks and modest demeanor helped make him a national symbol and celebrity. Jenner used that celebrity to carve out a career as a media personality -- a few film appearances and a long-standing gig with NBC as a sports commentator -- and to embark on various entrepreneurial projects. He pulled away from the spotlight during the late 1980s, but resurfaced in the 2000s, his career in part rejuvenated by his third wife, Kris Kardashian. Jenner found a new career on fringe television, from I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! to Pet Star and Dancing with the Stars . His sons from a previous marriage, Brandon and Brody Jenner, starred in a short-lived 2005 TV show, The Princes of Malibu, and Jenner himself became a regular in a reality series highlighting one of his step-daughters, Kim Kardashian (2007's Keeping Up with the Kardashians).

Extra credit: Jenner competed in the 1972 Olympics in Munich and came in 10th in the decathlon... Kris Kardashian is the ex-wife of Robert Kardashian, one of the lawyers who represented O.J. Simpson in his 1994 murder trial... Jenner and Kardashian married in 1991; they each have four children from previous marriages and together have two daughters, born in 1995 and 1997.