Former NFL player and actor Alex Karras died Wednesday in Los Angeles, family spokesman said. He was 77.
"After a heroic fight with kidney disease, heart disease, dementia and for the last two years, stomach cancer," Karras died at his home, surrounded by family, the spokesman said.
Karras, a defensive lineman and four-time Pro Bowl selection who played for the Detroit Lions from 1958 to 1970, went on to star in the 1980s sitcom “Webster” and also played the horse-punching Mongo in the 1974 movie “Blazing Saddles."
In April, he joined hundreds of ex-NFL players suing the league over concussion-related injuries, serving as lead plaintiff for what was then the 12th concussion-related complaint filed against the NFL by the Locks Law Firm in Philadelphia.
Karras “sustained repetitive traumatic impacts to his head and/or concussions on multiple occasions” during his NFL career, and “suffers from various neurological conditions and symptoms related to the multiple head traumas,” the lawsuit said.
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