Ex-NFL star Alex Karras dies

Former NFL player and actor Alex Karras died Wednesday in Los Angeles, a family spokesman said. He was 77.

"After a heroic fight with kidney disease, heart disease, dementia and for the last two years, stomach cancer," Karras died at his home, surrounded by family, the spokesman said.

Karras, a defensive lineman and four-time Pro Bowl selection who played for the Detroit Lions from 1958 to 1970, went on to star in the 1980s sitcom “Webster” and also played the horse-punching Mongo in the 1974 movie “Blazing Saddles."

Karras “sustained repetitive traumatic impacts to his head and/or concussions on multiple occasions” during his NFL career, and “suffers from various neurological conditions and symptoms related to the multiple head traumas,” the lawsuit said.

His wife, "Webster” co-star Susan Clark, said in April that Karras suffered from dementia.