Sad News: Bubba Smith, NFL Legend & Beloved Actor in ‘Police Academy’ Films, Has Died at Age 66 (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on August 4, 2011
Bubba Smith, seen here as Moses Hightower in the popular 'Police Academy' movies, has died
Sad news today — NFL star turned actor, Bubba Smith, has passed away at age 66. Police found him dead in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday.
Born Charles Aaron Smith, the talented 6’7″ athlete who became a College Football Hall of Famer at Michigan State, later won the 1971 Super Bowl while playing for the Baltimore Colts. Upon his retirement from football, Smith easily made the transition to acting. His most memorable acting role was that of loveable, gentle giant Moses Hightower in the popular “Police Academy” film series.
Foul play has been ruled out, but the cause of Smith’s death has not been announced. It is believed he died of natural causes.
Rest in peace, Bubba.
ITN News: Police Academy’s Bubba Smith dies
From Washington Press:
Charles Aaron “Bubba” Smith, professional football player and “Police Academy” actor, was found dead at his home Wednesday. He was 66.
Smith played football at Michigan State and for the Baltimore Colts, where he won the Super Bowl in 1971. He went on to star in the “Police Academy” films, and guest star on “Good Times” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
From CNN, Bubba Smith, NFL champ, actor, dies at 66:
Starting with some sad news, NFL great Bubba Smith has passed away. Football fans remember Bubba as a Super Champion with the Baltimore Colts. Beer fans remember Bubba as a hilarious pitchman for Miller Lite. Movie fans remember Bubba as the soft-spoken Officer Hightower in the “Police Academy” flicks. Bubba Smith was 66.
Bubba Smith, while playing at Michigan State
From Reuters, Bubba Smith, ‘Police Academy’ Actor and NFL Star, Found Dead at 66:
Born Charles Aaron Smith in Beaumont, Texas, in 1945, Smith began his nine-year career in the NFL in 1967, after being drafted by the Baltimore Colts. His tenure with the Colts earned Smith his first Super Bowl ring, when the team won Super Bowl V. The defensive end was later traded to the Oakland Raiders, finishing his career with the Houston Oilers.
The 6′ 7″ Smith segued into acting following his retirement from the NFL, at first picking up small television roles starting in the late ’70s on such series as “Wonder Woman,” “Charlie’s Angels” and “Eight is Enough,” moving on to a starring role as Lyman “Bubba” Kelsey in the short-lived series “Blue Thunder” in 1984.
That same year, Smith began his rise to big-screen notoriety in the first “Police Academy” movie. Smith played soft-spoken police officer Moses Hightower throughout the duration of the six-film series, reprising the role for the 1997 TV offering “Police Academy: The Series.” In the later years of his acting career, Smith would also guest-star in series such as “Married With Children,” “MacGyver” and “Family Matters.”
Classic Clip – Hightower throws a football (Police Academy 2: 1985)
From BBC News, Police Academy and NFL star Bubba Smith dies aged 66:
Bubba Smith, the American football star who famously played gentle giant Moses Hightower in the Police Academy movies, has died at the age of 66.
The 6ft 7in (2m) star won the 1971 Super Bowl and became an actor in the late 70s, joining the prankster Police Academy misfits for six films.
A few of the Miller Lite commercials that Smith made:
Miller Lite – Bubba Smith, Rodney Dangerfield – First Lite Beer Camping Trip – 1985
Bubba Smith – Miller Lite – Easy Opening Cans
Bubba Smith – Miller Lite – Golf
From NY Times, NFL Blog, Fifth Down, Remembering Bubba Smith, the Football Player:
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there wasn’t a more imposing sight in football than Charles Aaron Smith, better known as Bubba. Before a terrible knee injury in 1972, Smith was one of the N.F.L.’s best all-around 4-3 defensive ends. When he wanted to, he could dominate.
Smith was a two-time all-American for the powerhouse Michigan State teams of the mid-60s. The Baltimore Colts, with a pick acquired in a trade with the expansion New Orleans Saints, made him the first overall selection of the 1967 draft. Three of his college teammates, Clint Jones, George Webster and Gene Washington, were also among the first eight picks that year.
Smith was officially listed at 6-7 and 265 pounds, but he probably played at much closer to 300, especially early in his career. He was an unusual combination of size, speed, power and quickness. Having such long arms didn’t hurt either, particularly when the quarterback tried to throw to his right.
[...]
In 1972, during a preseason game, Smith was pursuing across the field when he became entangled with the yard markers along the sideline. In those years, when the action got too close, the chain crew would retreat and leave the sticks upright, still affixed to the ground. As a result of Smith’s injury, I believe, the league changed the procedure, requiring the crew, before they backed away, to remove the sticks and to drop them flat onto the ground.
The Colts’ team doctors described Smith’s knee injury as one of the worst they had seen. He was forced to watch most of that season from the sideline in a wheelchair, and he wasn’t the same player again. During his long rehabilitation, Smith was traded to the Raiders for tight end Raymond Chester. He played two years in Oakland and then two years in Houston before retiring after the 1976 season.
Smith, like many of his teammates, never got over the Colts’ shocking defeat to the Jets in Super Bowl 3. In 2007 he told NFL Films: “Until this day, they’ll have that game on and I turn away right away.” (America’s Game, 1970 Baltimore Colts)
[...]
Today, the colors are the same and the horseshoe remains on the helmet, but much of the history has been lost. Unitas. Berry. Moore. Mackey. Marchetti. Their team is gone. Bubba Smith is an important part of that heritage. As he told NFL Films in 2007: “I came to grips with it a long time ago that we wouldn’t be remembered as the Baltimore Colts. I even went to Indianapolis and they said ‘you’re the ex-Indianapolis Colt.’ I said, “No, I’m an ex-Baltimore Colt.’ “
From Detroit Free Press, Drew Sharp: Former Spartan Bubba Smith was great player, trailblazer:
Gene Washington couldn’t believe the news when he heard it. His good friend and former Michigan State teammate Bubba Smith was dead at 66.
“I had no idea that he was even ill or that anything could be wrong,” Washington said Wednesday night. “It’s incredibly sad because Bubba was such a larger-than-life figure. Nothing surprised you with Bubba.”
Smith died in his Los Angeles home Wednesday. It was initially believed that he died of natural causes. Ironic for a man whose transitions in life weren’t exactly natural.
Extraordinary athletes didn’t evolve into successful show business personalities, partly because they wanted to break typecast. Bubba didn’t care.
He happily played the role of congenial giant, whether it was tearing open beer cans on those memorable Miller Lite commercials from more than 30 years ago or portraying the soft-spoken behemoth behind the badge, Moses Hightower, in the highly popular “Police Academy” movies.
But perhaps his greatest role was that of trailblazer.
Smith went to Michigan State under protest. He wanted to play for the University of Texas. But his beloved Longhorns didn’t want him because he was black. The segregationists of that era so vigorously defended their vision that coaches like Texas’ Darrell Royal didn’t dare risk changing an institution as revered as college football.
So Smith joined other prominent Southern black football players from that time, taking advantage of what became Michigan State coach Duffy Daugherty’s football version of the Underground Railroad.
The stars of those consecutive MSU national championship teams of 1965 and 1966 were blacks who couldn’t play closer to their homes because of racial intolerance. Roving linebacker George Webster was from South Carolina. Quarterback Jimmy Raye hailed from North Carolina and wide receiver Washington, like Smith, was from Texas.
“If it wasn’t for Bubba,” said Washington, “I never would have gotten to Michigan State. His father (Willie Ray Smith) was his football coach and he told Duffy that he should recruit me as well.”
Smith and Washington competed against each other, playing for exclusively black high schools.
From The Hollywood Reporter, Bubba Smith, Football Star and ‘Police Academy’ Actor, Dies:
Bubba Smith, a football star who went on to play a lovable lug in the Police Academy films and Miller Lite commercials, was found dead Wednesday at his Baldwin Hills home in Los Angeles. He was 66.
Smith’s body was discovered by a caretaker, police said. Officials believe he died of natural causes.
[...]
As a senior with Michigan State, Smith played in a legendary November 1966 game against Notre Dame in which Fighting Irish coach Ara Parseghian elected to run out the clock in a 10-10 tie, thus preserving his team’s No. 1 ranking. Both teams finished the season undefeated, but the Spartans finished second in the polls.
In East Lansing, Mich., Smith was extremely popular, with fans chanting, “Kill, Bubba, Kill.” Michigan State retired his No. 95 jersey in 2006.
The first overall selection in the 1967 NFL draft by the Colts, Smith, a native of Beaumont, Texas, won the Super Bowl V with Baltimore two years after losing the title game to the New York Jets and Joe Namath in a memorable upset.
Bubba Smith - rest in peace
About the author
His family should take comfort in that he gave the world joy and laughter. That is a special something that not many can claim.
You’re the geraetst! JMHO