(CNN) -- Hall of Fame football player and actor Merlin Olsen has died after a long battle with cancer, the St. Louis Rams said Thursday.

He was 69.

Known as much for his brain as his brawn, the 6-foot-5, 270-lb. defensive tackle also graduated summa cum laude and Phi Kappa Phi from Utah State University in 1962 and earned a master's degree in economics in the off-season during his 15-year career.

"Merlin Olsen was a coach's player. Punctual, steady, gifted, a quiet leader, a player you could always count on," says his biography on the National Football League Hall of Fame Web site. "He was a standout as a rookie and thereafter stood out in every game he played for the Rams in a 15-year career. Every game. Fifteen years."

Olsen played in 14 Pro Bowls, made two All-Decade teams and was a six-time All-Pro. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.

He accomplished all those feats while playing for an often less-than-stellar Los Angeles Rams team. The Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995.

"It was Olsen's hard luck to perform for many mediocre teams in Los Angeles -- he never won a Super Bowl -- but he had as much to do as any other individual with glamorizing defensive football in the NFL," his NFL biography says.

For many years, he was a member of the Rams' renowned "Fearsome Foursome" defensive line that included Deacon Jones, Roosevelt Grier and Lamar Lundy.

After his playing career ended in 1976, Olsen turned to acting, appearing in movies and more than 100 TV episodes.

He also did voice-overs in commercials for the floral delivery company FTD, as well as commercials for syndicated airings of "The X-Files" TV program.

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