Remember those books he wrote about his experiences? Looks like Hollywood was paying attention. In 1933, one of his books was turned into the film Eskimo, and told the tale of a fictional Inuit warrior’s adventures in the Arctic. Freuchen helped write the screenplay, translate the dialogue into Inuit, was an interpreter on set, helped the film crew survive and played the film’s villain – The Captain. The film ended up winning an Oscar for “Best Editing.”

As a hilarious side note to his badassery, at the premiere of the film, he encountered Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl (who was Hitler’s personal filmmaker) and ended up lifting her over his head, laughing his ass off and twirling her around. He hated it.