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Dick Butkus was the quintessential hard-hitting, mean linebacker on the football field. That made it all the more amusing when the retired Chicago Bear donned a white cable-knit sweater and played a sophisticated tennis player in a Miller Lite commercial.
It was his work in commercials, many with Bubba Smith, the late Baltimore Colts defensive lineman, and more than 60 movies and television shows that will serve as his legacy as much as his playing days. Butkus died at his Malibu, California, home on Oct. 5, according to a statement shared by the Bears from the Butkus family. He was 80 years old.
During his injury-shortened nine-year football career, Butkus was among the fiercest and most competitive players on the field. One of the “Monsters of the Midway,” he was a vicious tackler, and his opponents knew what they were in for when they faced him.

“I want to just let ’em know that they’ve been hit, and when they get up, they don’t have to look to see who it was that hit ’em,” Butkus told NFL Films. Sports Illustrated called him “The Most Feared Man in the Game.” Butkus told the magazine that for him, football “was never work. If you love something, it’s not work.”
A native of Chicago, Butkus went to school in Illinois and played professionally only for the Bears. The University of Illinois retired his number — 50 — and no Chicago Bear will ever wear his number 51. Butkus was taken third in the 1965 NFL draft and played until 1973 when knee injuries sidelined him. He went to the Pro Bowl eight times and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 1979, the first year he was eligible.
Butkus may well be the poster child for turning a professional sports career into a famous second act in movies and television. The transition was smooth. For example, he played himself in Brian’s Song, a touching 1971 television docudrama that chronicled his teammate Brian Piccolo’s battle with cancer. And he appeared in other sports-related vehicles, including The Longest Yard and Any Given Sunday.
In one of his commercials with Smith, the two are dressed in tennis garb and come into a bar to hawk Miller Lite beer (“Tastes great!” “Less filling!”). In another Lite beer commercial, the two dressed up as polo players. Butkus also was a pitchman for Schick razors, Aqua Velva and Prestone.
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