Alex Karras, who played gay bodyguard “Squash” Bernstein in the Julie Andrews Academy Award winning 1982 hit film “ Victor Victoria,” after a career as a football player and sportscaster, has died.

DETROIT -- Alex Karras was one of the NFL's most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen.

Among his Hollywood roles, he appeared in Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles in 1974 and notably played a closeted gay bodyguard in Victor Victoria in 1982.

But Karras was a natural comic and made us laugh in roles such as the gay bodyguard in Victor Victoria. He was cuddly in Webster. But he didn't need a script to get a laugh. He was funny ex-tempore.

Alex Karras, the former Hawkeye and Detroit Lion player turned actor, died Wednesday in his Los Angeles home, according to a family spokesman.Karras was 77.He died following a hard-fought battle ...

DETROIT (AP) — Alex Karras was one of the NFL's most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen. And yet, to many people he ...

There are millions of people who never watched NFL veteran Alex Karras play a single down of football, but are still mourning him today, as word comes that he has died at age 77.Karras and real ...

FILE - This 1971 file photo shows Detroit Lions' Alex Karras. Better late than never, Karras will be formally enshrined as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Centennial Class of 2020. (AP ...

Detroit Lions d-lineman Alex Karras was a looming force in the 1960s. So why did it take so long for him to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Alex Karras, a four-time All-Pro defensive tackle with the Detroit Lions, had memorable roles on TV's 'Webster' and in the Mel Brooks film 'Blazing Saddles.' ...

Alex Karras, who gained fame as fearsome NFL lineman and later as actor, recently suffered kidney failure and been diagnosed with dementia ...

Alex Karras, who died at age 77 in 2012, will be formally enshrined as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Centennial Class of 2020.