Dick Butkus retired from the NFL in 1974, more than four years before I was born. Yet, it feels like I grew up watching him.
Well, because I did. Butkus was on television a lot during my life — just not as a football player.
The Chicago Bears legend and Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker died Thursday at the age of 80. He was one of the most feared players of his era, but those from later generations know him for his many appearances in film, television and commercials.
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Chicago Bears legend Dick Butkus dies at 80
IMDb lists Butkus as having 62 acting appearances to his credit from 1971 until 2014. As great as he was on the field, he managed to build a lengthy and impressive resume as an actor — one that stretched four decades. Butkus began acting at a time when former NFL players like Jim Brown, Bernie Casey and Fred Williamson found fame and riches in front of cameras, being led by directors and scripts rather than coaches and playbooks.
Chicago Bears players stand on the sidelines as a moment of silence is observed to mourn the passing of Dick Butkus. (Geoff Burke / USA Today)Injury forced Butkus to retire from the NFL at 31, but the foundation for a successful career in front of the camera had been laid before he stopped playing football.
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Butkus became a pitchman in 1970, appearing in a Prestone antifreeze commercial during Super Bowl IV and helping to launch what would become today’s norm — star athletes in a commercial during pro football’s biggest game of the year. That Prestone ad gave Butkus the chance to use a very fitting tagline: “Because plugging holes is my business.”
Some of Butkus’ most memorable work was in commercials with the late Bubba Smith, the former defensive end who would also make me laugh as part of the “Police Academy” movie series. You didn’t have to be a beer drinker to get a laugh out of Butkus and Smith in their hilarious Miller Lite commercials in the 1970s and ’80s. The duo also acted together in the 1990 film “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.”
Butkus told the Chicago Tribune in 1998 those commercials with Smith were key to his lengthy acting career.
“I was worried about making a mistake, because people would say, ‘He’s just a football player,’ so I was harder on myself to do it right,” Butkus said. “Then I learned from the Miller Lite commercials, ‘Who cares if you blow a line?’ It doesn’t matter if you do it in one take or 100 takes, if I can do it better each time.
“The end result is what people see. Working with Bubba, I was able to add things with facial gestures and stuff. … I could play off him and add something. It didn’t matter if I got the laugh.”
Dick Butkus was a legend who embodied what it means to be a Chicago Bear. Our hearts go out to his family and friends. pic.twitter.com/8UEVuuZLwi
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) October 5, 2023
Butkus’ foray into films started by playing himself in the 1971 television film “Brian’s Song,” which remembered the life of his Bears teammate Brian Piccolo, who was diagnosed with cancer in 1969 and died in June 1970. TV continued to be a part of Butkus’ acting lane, as he appeared in numerous shows, starting in 1974 with one-off appearances on “Emergency!” and “McMillan & Wife.”
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He’d later become a regular on shows like “Blue Thunder” in 1984, then “My Two Dads” for two seasons (1987-89) and “Hang Time” for three seasons (1998-2000). He also appeared on shows like “MacGyver,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “The Love Boat,” “Night Court” and “The Bernie Mac Show.”
It wasn’t uncommon for Butkus to play himself, especially when the role involved football. There were those films that allowed Butkus to lean into his NFL background, such as “Necessary Roughness” in 1991, in which he was part of the prison football team competing against the Texas State University Fightin’ Armadillos with several other Hall of Famers, including Jerry Rice and Earl Campbell. He also was in a movie with Brown, as he played a coach in “Any Given Sunday” in 1999.
Those who got to see Butkus play football will remember him one way. But those of us who didn’t will happily remember him another way. The fact remains: Whether it was on the field or the big screen, he was enjoyable to watch.
(Top photo by Dylan Buell / Getty Images)
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