(AP) – Alex Karras’ condition has deteriorated and the NFL team he
played for is extending its sympathies.

The Detroit Free Press and Detroit News reported the former All-Pro
defensive lineman and actor has been given only a few days to live
because of recent kidney failure.

"The entire Detroit Lions family is deeply saddened to learn of the news
regarding the condition of one of our all-time greats, Alex Karras," Lions
president Tom Lewand said in a statement released by the team late
Monday night. "Perhaps no player in Lions history attained as much
success and notoriety for what he did after his playing days as did Alex.

The 77-year-old Karras has been suffering from dementia. He is among
the many former NFL players suing the league regarding the treatment
of head injuries. Detroit drafted him 10th overall out of Iowa in 1958 and
he was a standout for 12 seasons.

Karras may be even better well known for his work as an actor, including
being a lovable father in the 1980s sitcom "Webster." He also played the
role of Mongo in the 1974 comedy classic "Blazing Saddles," in which he
said, "Mongo only pawn in game of life," and punched out a horse.

Recently, his wife said his quality of life has been made worse because
of head injuries sustained during his playing career. Karras turned 77
July 15.

Update: After returning to his Los Angeles home with family, Karras died
in the morning hours of October 10.

The ABC-TV sitcom ran from 1983 to 1987

 
A young John Lennon

John Winston Lennon (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980)

 
            Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) 

Oskar Schindler was an ethnic German industrialist credited
with saving the lives of about 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust
of World World War ll by employing them at his enamelware and
ammunitions factories, located in what is now Poland and the
Czech Republic. He is the subject of the 1982 novel Schindler’s
Ark, and the 1993 Steven Spielberg film Schindler’s List.

Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler

 
Private Dale Dye age 18

Captain Dale Dye

Dale Adam Dye is a actor businessman, and retired U.S. Marine captain who 
served in combat during the Vietnam War. He began his military career as a 
Private and rose to the rank of Captain. After his retirement for the Marine
Corps in 1984 , Dye founded Warriors, Inc.,a company that specializes in 
training actors for realistic military portrayals, for films of the war genre. He
also acts in movies himself while serving as a military technical advisor. Dye
currently plays Col. Porter in the TNT science fiction series Falling Skies. 

From left: Will Patton, Dale Dye, and Noah Wyle from Falling Skies

Columbus Day celebrates the first landing of explorer Christopher
Columbus on the shores of the New World which occurred on the
12th of October in 1492. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed
It a federal holiday in the United States in 1937. President Richard M.
Nixon later declared the day a national holiday to be observed on the
second Monday of each October.