Dick Butkus: A bear on field and screen

Dick Butkus as Ski Butowski in the television series "Blue Thunder" in1984.

Source: https://variety.com/2023/film/obituaries-people-news

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He was a ferocious football player on the field, but I came to know Dick Butkus on the small screen. He may have been a Bear on the gridiron, but with that stern look, and intimidating persona he was a bear of a different kind on screen.

I was watching Thursday Nnight Football yesterday where the Chicago Bears were playing the Washington Commanders. As the Bears put the finishing touches on their first win of the season, announcer Al Michaels said it was a big victory on the night they were mourning the loss of one of the greatest Bears – Dick Butkus.

He died on October 5. He was 80 years old.

Typecasting
The first two times I saw Dick Butkus on screen, the characters he played had a football connection.

The first time was in an episode of “The Six Million Dollar Man” called “One of Our Runningbacks in Missing”. The title character, Steve Austin, has this friend who is a professional football player, a star runningback in fact. He is kidnapped on the eve of a big game to prevent him from playing, so Austin infiltrates the group to break him out. They end up playing a game of football against their captors and escape. One of the criminals was played by Dick Butkus. Steve’s friend, the star runningback, was played by Larry Csonka, who was also a decorated professional football player in real life.

The second time was in the movie “Gus”. It was a Disney movie with one of those improbable, bordering on ridiculous, plots. The California Atoms, a hapless professional football team, finds success when they discover a mule who can kick deadly accurate field goals. Butkus plays the antagonist, a member of the Atoms who thinks the whole idea is ludicrous. He ends up getting hurt and blaming Gus the mule. He joins another team, the Michigan Mammoths, who the Atoms ultimately face for the championship in the climax of the movie.

I would see him in a lot of other football movies such as “The Longest Yard”; “Necessary Roughness”; “The Last Boy Scout”; and “Any Given Sunday”. He also played himself in “Brian’s Song.”

My friend Bubba
Another memory was how often Butkus appeared with Bubba Smith, another retired professional football player.

Butkus played Ski Butowski in “Blue Thunder” in 1984, with his partner “Bubba Kelsey”, played by Bubba Smith. They were, essentially, the ground crew for a super helicopter piloted by James Farentino and his partner played by a very young Dana Carvey. They appeared in 11 episodes before the series was cancelled.

A year later, in 1985, Butkus and Smith played bodyguards Beau and Kurt in “Half Nelson”. It was a show about a diminutive former cop working as a private security guard for the rich and famous while trying to get his big break as an actor. Nelson is played by a young Joe Pesci. The show lasted a total of seven episodes before it was cancelled.

I also saw them make appearances together in other places, such as awards shows.

Guest starring
Dick Butkus was a prolific guest star in TV shows. Often it had some football connection or tie in too. In the 1980s those included “Fantasy Island”; “Vegas”; “Magnum P.I.”; “Matt Houston”; “The Greatest American Hero”; “Simon and Simon”; “The Love Boat”; “Murder, She Wrote”; “Blacke’s Magic”; “Night Court”; “Matlock”; “Growing Pains”; “Kate and Allie”; and “My Two Dads”.

He would keep on acting well into the 21st Century, with his last role coming in 2014, according to Wikipedia.

Parting thoughts
Dick Butkus retired from pro football when I was three years old, so I never actually saw him play. I came to know him as an actor, then learned more about him as a player.

The first time I saw footage of him play was in a package of profiles by NFL Films called “The Professionals”. It showed just how relentless, tenacious and tough he was. There is one play where he tackles the opposing runner so fast and so hard, the guy’s legs are still moving in the air after Butkus lifts him off the ground.

Beyond being a hard tackler, he was a smart player, as illustrated in one play by the way he read the play, dropped back in coverage and made an interception.

The profile also drove home the point that, although he enjoyed a lot of personal success, his team, the Chicago Bears were just not that good, and he rarely came close to playing for a championship team.

I learned a lot more a few years ago when I read his autobiography “Stop Action”, which takes us right from growing up through college and the pros. There he was wooed by both the NFL and the AFL when they were competing for the best players.

It all fleshed out what kind of a career he had as a player, something I could never see for myself.

Instead, I saw him as an actor first where he often played tough, no-nonsense football characters.

Which made him a bear on the screen as well as a Bear on the field.