You may not know the name Dennis Burkley, but you know him and you know his voice. He was huge: over 6’0 tall and usually well over 300 pounds, usually with a scruffy beard, though the last few times I saw him he’d slimmed downconsiderably.
His two best known roles may be as Cal on the shortlived Sanford & Son spinoff Sanford and as the speech impaired biker Dozer in Mask, and he voiced the principal and other characters on King of the Hill.
Dead at 67, natural causes. RIP, big guy.
I did not know the name but as soon as you started describing him I knew who you meant.
According to his obit he’d been an acting teacher in L.A. for a few years. It’s always interesting to learn such tidbits about performers who are so recognizable but almost unknown.
I know who he was. Many, many roles playing big guys. Sad to hear of his passing.
Biker “Animal” on The Rockford Files. Pity. 
I didn’t recognise him, but I have seen a few things he’s been in.
I thought these sequential films on his IMDb page were amusing:
**Pauly Shore Is Dead
Wish You Were Dead **
He was also the butt of a lot of fat jokes in Redd Foxx’s short-lived “Sanford,” the successor series to “Sanford and Son.”
Sounds like he was a cool guy. I liked the scene in Mask where the other bikers “compelled” his character to give blood.
Looks like he had a long running marriage, for Hollywood. Forty-six years, they were in it for the long haul.
In the 90s, BET used to run reruns of that show mixed with “Sanford and Son” reruns. So I always assumed until today that those were episodes of “Sanford and Son”.
Man, that guy was in everything. You’d see him in Dukes of Hazard, Home Improvement, The Master… Any time they needed a big furry biker for a sitcom, it was, “Call that one guy…”
What was great about his career is that you’d see him on a low rated sitcom (like Evening Shade) one week and in a major big budget motion picture (like The Doors) the next week. I’ve wondered what kind of living actors like that make; I would guess his career earnings were probably greater than many bigger name actors whose careers fizzled.
Depends on the deals he got, but I think you’re right. He was obviously one of those guys they love in Hollywood, shows up on time, knows his lines, doesn’t cause trouble on the set. His IMDB page is lengthy, it goes back to 1972. A lot of small parts, but not many actors work that steadily over a career.
I’ll never forget is pivotal performance in “Laserblast.”
He had a great role in Tin Cup as Earl. Huffing and wheezing carrying Roy McAvoy’s golf clubs he says, “I’m an observer by nature.”
RIP Earl.
I was thinking he was the big guy on the K&B Construction Crew from Home Improvement, but I see I was mistaken.
That was Mickey Jones who is also a drummer in real life and was in the First Edition with Kenny Rogers.
Well, I could be conflating a lot of my memories of Dennis and Mickey, then.
