Former NFL player turned actor Bernie Casey has died at the age of 78.
The former football star, who played wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, succumbed to a brief illness that took his life on Tuesday, Page Six reports.
Casey left the NFL after a brief career to pursue his passion for art.
“It was just a gig,” Casey told the Washington Post in 1977 about football. “But it limits the way people perceive you. That can be frustrating. People have tremendous combinations of talents.”
(Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
“I was a big, agile, fast and a dedicated athlete,” he said some 20 years after leaving his NFL career behind. “But I always wanted to be a painter.”
Casey appeared in dozens of films throughout his professional acting career including “Guns of the Magnificent Seven,” “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” “Revenge of the Nerds” and “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.” Casey also appeared in several TV shows including “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Murder She Wrote.”