Hightower Police Academy RIP

It’s pretty lousy when people from the Police Academy films start dying. Not only did they teach Cassandra from Wayne’s World how to speak English, but they also provided a whole bunch of puerile laughs for plebs like us.

And one of the main dudes in the film franchise – Bubba Smith, who played Hightower – has joined the choir invisible and left us all feeling really, really old.

Bubba (great name) was an American football star before finding fame in the movies, has died at the age of 66.

Bubba will be having a rather large coffin, coming in at an impressive 6ft 7in (or a whole 2 metres if you prefer). In his time as a football player, he won the ’71 Super Bowl with the Baltimore Colts before moving into acting.
While some will remember him in the defensive end of the Colts, Raiders or Oilers line-ups, the most of us will remember him as gentle giant, Moses Hightower.

Bubba started out with small gigs in shows like Wonder Woman, Taxi (greatest theme tune ever) and Charlie’s Angels before joining the recruits in the first Police Academy movie in 1984.

Hightower was a regular in the flicks, basically on-hand to be either too-big for cars, being a nice guy, wrestling animals or generally lifting up really heavy things which made people’s eyes continually pop-out in astonishment.

Basically, he was a cartoon hulk who did the same things over and over just like we all wanted.

Smith was found dead at his home in Los Angeles and the cause of death has not been confirmed. It isn’t suspicious so we don’t really need to know what happened.

In tribute, go to YouTube and watch the video where he drives an old Honda while getting his driving lessons. Absolutely splendid.