Mills Lane: Difference between revisions
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| birthname = Mills Bee Lane III |
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|11|12}} |
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| birth_place = [[Savannah, Georgia]] |
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| spouse = Kaye Pierce <small>(since 1980)</small> |
| spouse = Kaye Pierce Lane <small>(since 1980)</small> |
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| ethnic = [[United States|American]] |
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Revision as of 15:09, 12 November 2007
Template:Infobox actor television
Mills Bee Lane III (born November 12, 1936) is a famous television judge and legendary boxing referee. Lane hails from a prominent Georgia family: his grandfather founded the largest bank in Georgia, and his uncle (and namesake) was the president of Citizens & Southern National Bank. Lane, however, had other aspirations, and joined the United States Marine Corps in 1956. He became a boxer while with the Marines, becoming the All-Far East welterweight champ. After leaving the Marines, he enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno and became the NCAA boxing champion. He turned pro while in college, eventually earning an 11-1 record as a pro. He was in the 1960 Olympics boxing finals held in San Francisco, California. He was defeated by Phil Baldwin in the semifinals.
Lane graduated from University of Nevada, Reno with a business degree in 1963, then a few years later enrolled at the University of Utah to attend law school. Lane graduated as a lawyer, and later on became a prosecutor at the Washoe County district attorney's office in Reno. In 1979, he became a deputy sheriff. That was the same year that he refereed his first world championship boxing match, when Vito Antuofermo retained the world's Middleweight championship with a 15 round draw against Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Lane has refereed a total of 102 championship bouts.
Lane became a household name in the United States the night he refereed "The Bite Fight" rematch between world Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and challenger Mike Tyson on June 28, 1997. After Tyson bit Holyfield's ear twice, Lane disqualified him. Lane's shirt was stained with blood from the incident, and he sold it to a memorabilia collector on the same night.
Television
From 1998 to 2001 his show Judge Mills Lane aired on national television. In addition to this show, the producers of MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch approached him about having his character and voice used in their show as the referee of their plasticine figure matches. Lane accepted the offer, and so also became an MTV personality. As a referee, Lane started boxing matches by declaring, "Let's get it on!", which became his catch phrase. This was reproduced in Celebrity Deathmatch as his character would shout the same phrase to initiate fights. Lane named his autobiography Let's Get It On: Tough Talk from Boxing's Top Ref and Nevada's Most Outspoken Judge.
Mills Lane made a guest appearance as a voice-over for My Gym Partner's a Monkey, as Substitute Principal Wolverine (With the same voice as Mills Lane on Celebrity Deathmatch). Lane also guest voiced on an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command in which his character he voiced was a judge.
He appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien twice. Once on August 15, 1998 and again on September 6, 2000.
Lane also appeared on Dennis Miller Live sometime in 1998.
His most recent television appearance was on June 3, 2002, where he was interviewed on a Mike Tyson-themed episode of ESPN Classic's series SportsCentury.
After TV
After the fight between Thomas Hearns and Jay Snyder on November 6, 1998, Mills Lane had retired from being a boxing referee. He is now retired and residing in New York City and Reno Nevada. He has been married twice. He has five children. Mr. Lane can currently be spotted in television commercials for 1-800-THE-LAW2.
Stroke
Lane suffered a debilitating stroke in March 2002 which left him partially paralyzed. He still has a great deal of difficulty speaking, which is the main reason why he doesn't voice himself on the new version of Celebrity Deathmatch. His character is now voiced by Chris Edgerly, who also provides the voice of Nick Diamond on the series. His adopted city of Reno, Nevada celebrated him on December 27, 2004, proclaiming it "Mills Lane Day". On this date, Lane made his first public appearance in years at the dedication of a new courthouse which now bears his name. Mills Lane also edited the Georgia Civil War book Dear Mother: Don't Grieve about Me, If I Get Killed, I'll Only Be Dead: Letters from Georgia Soldiers in the Civil War. Currently Mills is partnered with his two sons Terry and Tommy Lane in a boxing promotional company named after his world famous signature phrase “Let’s Get It On”. While the sons handle the day to day operations of Let’s Get It On Promotions Mills accts as chief advisor. [1]