Whatever happened to Alex Karras?

Alex Karras was a little before my time when he played football, but by all accounts he was a bad ass on the field. An University of Iowa and Detroit Lions football player, Karras 6'2" 255 pound stature was great for bruising people up on the field. But I remember Karras more for his roles in movies and TV.

The first role I remember him in was the god awful show Webster, I barely even remember it to this day, except the girl in the show had huge cans. It turns out the girl with the huge cans was Karras real life wife, Susan Clark. Also you know the show is good when Eugene Roche is in it.

While I finally grew older I remember watching Blazing Saddles with my dad. It still to this day remains one of my favorite movies. Karras played Mongo the dimwitted bad guy turned good, after Sheriff Bart tricks him "looney tunes" style. Just the pure size of Mongo in that movie is impressive.




Then came Porky's, the true adolescent male movie. If you're ages of 12-21 and never seen this movie, what is your problem? Karras starred in the move as Porky's brother and Sheriff of Wallacetown. Karras once again shows his inner bad ass in this movie, giving many quotable lines in it, to match the rest of the great movie. It also stars Karras wife, as Cherry Forever, in one of the more memorable scenes in the movie




But where is Karras now? I did some searching around but didn't find much. I did find out that he is also from Indiana along with us. But Alex Karras is a true man's man, and stars in two of the greatest comedies ever.