alexander george karras played the character mongo in the movie blazing saddles.
alexander george karras played the character mongo in the movie blazing saddles.
who played the character mongo in the movie blazing saddles?
alexander george karras
alexander george karras (july 15, 1935 – october 10, 2012) was an american football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. he was a four-time pro bowl player with the detroit lions of the national football league (nfl), where he played from 1958 to 1970. as an actor, karras is noted for his role as mongo in the 1974 comedy film "blazing saddles". he was also known for starring as webster long's (emmanuel lewis) adoptive father, george papadopolis, in the abc sitcom "webster" (1983–1989) alongside his wife susan clark. he was also featured prominently in "victor/victoria", starring julie andrews and james garner. he is a member of the college football hall of fame.
alex karras
in 1989, louis gossett, jr. told "entertainment tonight", "cbs and warner bros. made a deal. ... the deal was that cbs would get to air "blazing saddles", and any sequels from the movie, in exchange for co-producing a tv show. at the time warners wanted to make "blazing saddles" into a comedy series of films, a new one coming out every year or so. they wanted to use the model that the brits had for the "carry on" films. but [mel] brooks had a clause in his contract that said warner had to keep producing "blazing saddles" stories, in the movies or tv, or they'd lose the rights to make sequels. the tv show was a way to keep the rights. they didn't have to air it, just keep producing it. so for four years i spent my winter on a soundstage being paid to be in a show that would never see the light of day, just so warners could keep the sequel rights to "blazing saddles". by 1979 they finally figured out the market had changed and they weren't going to make any sequels, so we were cancelled, if a show that never was supposed to air can be cancelled."
blazing saddles