Bernie Casey obit

Bernie Casey, Football Star Turned Actor, Poet and Painter, Dies at 78

He was not on the list.

His film résumé includes 'Boxcar Bertha,' 'Never Say Never Again,' 'Brothers,' 'Revenge of the Nerds' and 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.'

Actor Bernie Casey, who appeared in such films as Boxcar Bertha, Never Say Never Again and Revenge of the Nerds after a career as a standout NFL wide receiver, has died. He was 78.

Casey, who also starred in Cleopatra Jones and several other blaxploitation movies of the 1970s, died Tuesday after a brief illness at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his representative told The Hollywood Reporter.

In the Warner Bros. drama Brothers (1977), Casey distinguished himself by portraying a thinly veiled version of George Jackson, a member of the Black Panther Party who was killed in what officials described as an escape attempt from San Quentin in 1971. His writings had inspired oppressed people around the world, and Bob Dylan recorded a song as a tribute to Jackson in 1971.

Casey also wrote, directed, starred in and produced The Dinner (1997), centering on three black men who discuss slavery, black self-loathing, homophobia, etc. while sitting around the dinner table.

Casey played a heroic former slave and train robber in Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha (1972), was CIA agent Felix Leiter (a recurring character in Bond films) in Never Say Never Again (1983) and portrayed U.N. Jefferson, the president of the Lambda Lambda Lambda fraternity, in Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and two follow-up telefilms.

In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), Casey played schoolteacher Mr. Ryan ("Who was Joan of Arc?" he asks, and Keanu Reeves' Ted guesses, "Noah's wife?"), portrayed a detective opposite Burt Reynolds in Sharky's Machine (1981) and stood out as the prisoner who protects Eddie Murphy in jail in the sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990).

And not long after he unexpectedly retired from the Los Angeles Rams, Casey portrayed Chicago Bears player J.C. Caroline in the 1971 ABC telefilm Brian's Song, the heart-wrenching tale about the friendship between Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams).

A true Renaissance man, Casey also was a published poet as well as a painter whose work was exhibited in galleries around the world.

Bernard Casey was born on June 8, 1939, in Wyco, West Virginia. He was raised in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Bowling Green on a football scholarship (he returned to the school years later to earn a master's in fine arts).

An elegant 6-foot-4 halfback and flanker, Casey led the Falcons to the national "small college" championship in 1959 and was named to the Little All-American team. He also excelled in the high hurdles for the track team and competed in the 1960 U.S. Olympic trials.

The San Francisco 49ers made Casey the ninth overall pick in the NFL Draft, and he spent six seasons with the team (1961-66) as quarterback John Brodie's favorite receiver. In one game in his final year with the team, he caught 12 passes for 225 yards.

Casey then spent two solid years with the Rams but shockingly retired in his athletic prime before the 1969 season, finishing his pro career with 359 catches for 5,444 yards and 40 touchdowns. Just 30, he wanted to concentrate on acting, painting and poetry.

"When that sojourn is over and you're 32 or something, when most people are just beginning to understand who they are, what they can do and what life is all about, you have been considered in the world of sports a dinosaur," he once said in a piece for NFL Films. "From that point on, it's a downward spiral into the abyss of non-consideration and obscurity and a lot of other things that they never recover from. I want to think in my instance, it's the beginning. There's a lot of life left after 32."

Casey made his movie debut in the sequel Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and then starred opposite Jim Brown, another recently retired NFL star, in ...tick... tick... tick... (1970).

Casey received top billing in Hit Man (1972) as the title character, a no-nonsense guy who investigates his brother's death at the hands of mobsters, and then played Reuben Masters, Tamara Dobson's lover, in Cleopatra Jones (1973).

His other blaxploitation work included Black Chariot (1971), Black Gunn (1972) and Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976), and years later, he appeared in the genre parody I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans.

Casey portrayed basketball star Maurice Stokes, who spent the last 10 years of his life paralyzed, in Maurie (1973), was a cop in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975) and played Col. Rhumbus in Spies Like Us (1985). He also appeared in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Glass Shield (1994) and Once Upon a Time … When We Were Colored (1995).

On television, Casey played a minor-league baseball coach who could still hit on the short-lived Steven Bochco drama Bay City Blues and was in Roots: The Next Generations and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Casey received an honorary doctorate degree from The Savannah (Georgia) College of Art and Design, where he served for years as chairman of the board and advocated for arts education.

He had many fans of his paintings.

"I cannot see what Bernie Casey sees," Maya Angelou said in 2003 to promote an exhibit of his work. "Casey has the heart and the art to put his insight on canvas, and I am heartened by his action. For then I can comprehend his vision and some of my own. His art makes my road less rocky, and my path less crooked."

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes Ref.

1969 Guns of the Magnificent Seven Cassie

A Zapata Western, the second sequel to the classic 1960 western action film, The Magnificent Seven, itself based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954).

Directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly.

1970 ...tick...tick...tick... George Harley Crime drama film directed and co-produced by Ralph Nelson

1971 Black Chariot The Drifter Blaxploitation drama film written and directed by Robert Goodwin

1972 Boxcar Bertha Von Morton

Loosely based on Sister of the Road by Ben L. Reitman

Crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese

Black Gunn Seth Neo-noir blaxploitation film directed by Robert Hartford-Davis [21]

Hit Man Tyrone Tackett

Based on the Ted Lewis' novel Jack's Return Home

Crime film directed by George Armitage

1973 Cleopatra Jones Reuben Blaxploitation action film directed by Jack Starrett

Maurie Maurice Stokes Semi-biographical directed by Daniel Mann

1975 Cornbread, Earl and Me Officer Larry Atkins

Loosely based on Ronald Fair's novel Hog Butcher

Drama film directed and co-produced by Joseph Manduke

1976 Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde Dr. Henry Pride

Loosely inspired by the novella, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Blaxploitation horror film directed by William Crain

The Man Who Fell to Earth Mr. Peters

Based on Walter Tevis' The Man Who Fell to Earth

Science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg

1977 Brothers David Thomas Drama film directed by Arthur Barron and produced by Edward Lewis and Mildred Lewis

1981 Sharky's Machine Arch

Drama–thriller film directed and starring Burt Reynolds

Based on William Diehl's 1978 novel Sharky's Machine

1983 Never Say Never Again Felix Leiter



James Bond spy film directed by Irvin Kershner, produced by Jack Schwartzman, and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. with uncredited additional co-writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, from a story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming

Second adaptation of Fleming's Thunderball, which was previously adapted as the 1965 film of the same name.

1984 Revenge of the Nerds U.N. Jefferson Comedy film directed by Jeff Kanew [38]

1985 Spies Like Us Colonel Rhombus

1987 Steele Justice Det. Tom Reese

Amazon Women on the Moon Maj. Gen. Hadley

Rent-A-Cop Lemar

1988 Backfire Clinton James

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka John Slade

1989 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure Mr. Ryan

1990 Another 48 Hrs. Kirkland Smith

1991 Chains of Gold Sergeant Falco

1992 Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation U.N. Jefferson TV Movie

Under Siege Commander Harris

1993 The Cemetery Club John

Street Knight Raymond

1994 Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love U.N. Jefferson

The Glass Shield James Locket

1995 In the Mouth of Madness Robinson

Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored Mr. Walter

1997 The Dinner Good Brother

2001 Tomcats Officer Hurley

2002 Jim Brown: All-American Himself

On the Edge Rex Stevens

2006 When I Find the Ocean Amos Jackson

2007 Vegas Vampires Bloodhound Bill (final film role)



Television

Year Title Role Notes Ref.

1971 Brian's Song J.C. Caroline

Based on the autobiography I am Third by Gale Sayers and Al Silverman

Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Buzz Kulik and written by William Blinn

1972 Cade's County Patrick Episodes:

"Slay Ride: Part 1" (S 1: Ep 16)

"Slay Ride: Part 2" (S 1: Ep 17)

Longstreet Ray Eller Episode: "Field of Honor" (S 1:Ep 21)

The Streets of San Francisco Richard Episode: "Timelock" (S 1:Ep 7)

Gargoyles The Gargoyle Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Bill L. Norton

1974 The Snoop Sisters Willie Bates Episode: "Fear Is a Free-Throw" (S 1:Ep 2)

Panic on the 5:22 Wendell Weaver Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Harvey Hart and produced by Quinn Martin

1975 Police Story Duke Windsor Episode: "Company Man" (S 3:Ep 12)

1976 Joe Forrester Cleveland Episode: "The Answers" (S 1:Ep 16)

1977 Police Woman P.J. Johnson Episode: "Once a Snitch" (S 3:Ep 14)

Police Story Hamilton Ward Episode: "The Six Foot Stretch" (S 4:Ep 21)

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night Dave Williams Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Allen Reisner

It Happened at Lakewood Manor Vince

Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Robert Scheerer

Also known as Ants!

1978 Ring of Passion Joe Louis Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Robert Michael Lewis

Love Is Not Enough Mike Harris Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Ivan Dixon

1979 Roots: The Next Generations Bubba Haywood

Miniseries directed by John Erman (Ep. 4) and written by Ernest Kinoy

Based on Alex Haley's Roots: The Saga of an American Family

First sequel to the 1977 miniseries

Harris and Company Mike Harris Short-lived drama series

1980 The Martian Chronicles Major Jeff Spender

Miniseries directed by Michael Anderson and written by Richard Matheson

Based on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles

1981 The Sophisticated Gents Shurley Walker

Miniseries directed by Harry Falk, teleplay by Melvin Van Peebles, and story by Phyllis Minoff

Based on the novel The Junior Bachelor Society by John A. Williams

1982 A House Divided: Denmark Vesey's Rebellion Slave Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Stan Lathan

Trapper John, M.D. Thornie Thornberry Episode: "Love and Marriage" (S 3:Ep 19)

Hear No Evil Inspector Monday

Made-for-TV-Movie directed by Harry Falk Jr. and written by Tom Lazarus

Potential television series

1983–84 Bay City Blues Ozzie Peoples

Short-lived Sitcom

Canceled after four episodes and four burned off in July 1984 for a total of 8 episodes

1994 Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Calvin Hudson Episode: "The Maquis (Parts I and II)" (S 2: Eps 20 & 21)

1995 Babylon 5 Derek Cranston Episodes:

"Hunter, Prey" (S 2: Ep 13)

"Matters of Honor" (S 3: Ep 1, Uncredited)