Renowned as "The Hollywood Fashion Plate",[2] he was a one-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994.

His parents, Anna (née Szind)[5] and Jacob Blassie (né Blaszi),[6] were immigrants from Austria-Hungary who arrived in the United States in 1912 via Hamburg, Germany.

At the age of 13, after Jacob had beaten Anna again, Frederick threatened his father with a baseball bat; instead, he lived with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home.

[8] His career continued; he was hired by more established promoters, including Tom Packs in St. Louis and George Simpson in Kansas City.

[8] After the US entered World War II, Blassie enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific Theater for 42 months.

[9] He worked for Jack Pfefer, who he claimed would only employ people who looked like sideshow freaks at his shows, and whose wrestlers included Tor Johnson, who made movies with director Ed Wood, and Lillian Ellison, the Fabulous Moolah.

He also bleached his hair at this time, as many of the other stars of the era did, such as Gorgeous George, Johnny Valentine, and "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers.

[12] On June 12, 1961, Blassie defeated the "Flying Frenchman" Édouard Carpentier in a best-of-three-falls match for his first WWA World Heavyweight Championship.

[13] During that same title reign, in a match against Lord James Blears a fan threw acid on his back, and he had to return immediately to the locker room to wash it off; over the course of his career, he was also stabbed 21 times and lost vision in his right eye after being struck by a thrown hard-boiled egg.

After regaining the WWA Championship from Rikidōzan on July 25, 1962, Blassie lost the title two days later to the "Masked Destroyer" Dick Beyer.

[13] In 1963, Bearcat Wright defeated him to become champion, and it was quite a statement during the fight for civil rights that an African-American had won such a title.

[7] The final match of their series took place in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and set new California records for both attendance and gate.

After Blassie lost the WWA World Heavyweight Championship to Rikidōzan in Los Angeles, the two had a rematch on live Japanese television.

[15][7][dubious – discuss] While touring Japan in 1965, and by this point divorced, Blassie met the woman who would eventually become his third wife, Miyako Morozumi, at a train station.

He returned to the company in 1971, reaching the final of a tournament in January for the vacant WWWF United States Heavyweight Championship before losing to Pedro Morales.

[10] During this stint with the company, Blassie was managed by his future fellow "Wise Man of the East" and eventual nemesis, "Captain" Lou Albano.

[2] Blassie, Lou Albano, and The Grand Wizard were named "The Three Wise Men of the East", as the top three heel managers in the company.

Among the men he managed were Nikolai Volkoff,[13] The Iron Sheik,[13] Blackjack Mulligan,[13] High Chief Peter Maivia,[13] "The Crippler" Ray Stevens,[13] Adrian Adonis,[13] Jesse Ventura,[13] Dick Murdoch,[13] Swede Hanson,[13] Killer Khan,[13] George 'The Animal' Steele,[13] Professor Tanaka,[13] Mr. Fuji,[13] Ivan Koloff,[13] Tor Kamata,[13] Masa Saito,[13] Lou Albano,[13] Victor Rivera,[13] Kamala,[13] Hercules Hernandez,[13] Louis Cyr, and Hulk Hogan.

[17] Blassie led Sheik to the WWF World Heavyweight Championship over Bob Backlund on December 26, 1983, in Madison Square Garden.

On an episode of WWF Championship Wrestling, Blassie barged into the announcer booth to proclaim that he had sold half of the contracts of Sheik and Volkoff to a mysterious benefactor for a large sum of money.

He returned again in 1990 briefly to do color commentary for Prime Time in April with Vince McMahon, as an emergency fill-in after Tony Schiavone quit, playing a heel once again.

[23] The segment featured Blassie, his wife, and Raw co-General Manager Eric Bischoff, who was about to allow 3 Minute Warning to attack him, until Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Dudley Boyz stepped in.

[9] Blassie appeared in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show that featured a new dance craze called The Twizzle.

[24][13] Rose Marie's character Sally Rogers brought him on at the end of the episode claiming to have discovered another new dance sensation.

"Classy" Freddie Blassie also made a cameo appearance as himself, along with "Wrestling's Living Legend" Bruno Sammartino, and Ric Flair in the 1986 film Body Slam starring Dirk Benedict, "Captain" Lou Albano, and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

In it, Blassie is picked up at the Washington, D.C., airport by a limo full of young women, escorted around the nation's capital, gives his opinions and confronts tourists.