RALEIGH - In his wrestling prime, Tab Thacker would grab opponents by the waist, toss them in the air and collapse on their chests like a falling piano -- a move he called "The Souffle."

But anyone who knew Thacker, once the NCAA champion wrestler for N.C. State University, knew he carried a heart bigger than his 447-pound body.

Thacker died Thursday night at 45 after a long illness complicated by diabetes.

As an athlete, he just missed the Olympics in 1984 after a perfect 31-0 record.

Later, he found parts in several Hollywood movies, notably an underdog football hero in "Wildcats," which starred Goldie Hawn as coach.

Friends, though, mostly remembered Thacker on Friday as a kindly behemoth, easygoing and relaxed while everyone stared up at him.

"I don't want to walk around all the time being tough and mean," he told The News & Observer in 1984. "I'm so big, I'd be intimidating. I wouldn't have any friends at all. No girl would want to be around me."

Born Talmadge and nicknamed Tab, Thacker thrived as a high school wrestler in Winston-Salem, weighing 311 pounds as a ninth-grader.

He jokingly attributed his weight to having eaten a bottle of vitamins as a boy.

At N.C. State, he honed his skills with daily jogs and weight lifting, growing to 447 pounds in 1984 -- his championship season. Opponents would sometimes size Thacker up and forfeit rather than risk broken bones.

"He was a team leader and very well-liked, a very hard worker and an exemplary athlete," said Bob Guzzo, who coached Thacker at N.C. State.

Thacker wrestled in an unlimited weight class and kept wrestling under a grandfather clause when collegiate weight limits were adopted, Guzzo said.

He dreamed of joining the 1984 Olympic team after he beat the Russian heavyweight champion in his international debut. But those same weight limits kept him out. Thacker blamed Olympic politics and favoritism.

"He actually talked about that a couple weeks ago," said Sharon Thacker, his wife of seven years. "He just said he missed his opportunity at the Olympics because they didn't want nobody his size."

His size got him into movies that same year when Clint Eastwood saw his wrestling picture in Time magazine and judged him perfect for a tough guy role in "City Heat," a 1930s-era cops-and-robbers comedy that co-starred Burt Reynolds.

That led to "Wildcats" and then roles in the last two "Police Academy" movies as Officer Tommy "House" Conklin.

Thacker returned to Raleigh and started a remodeling business. He also opened Heavyweight Bail Bonds.

He found his way into headlines again in 1996 when the city, in a controversial move, closed a nightclub he owned, TabLou's off Wake Forest Road, after a gunfight there. Even that failed to stir Thacker's emotions.

"He was like a teddy bear, a giant teddy bear," said Annette Etheridge, a friend from the nightclub period.

Thacker left three children, Tahj, Raven and T.J.

Services were being arranged by Lea Funeral Home Friday.

(Staff researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)