Mills Lane

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Mills Lane Jr. (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 father 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 professional while in college, eventually earning an 11-1 record as a pro.

Lane graduated from UNR 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 Marvin Hagler. Lane would go on to participate in more than 100 world championship bouts as a referee.

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 in 1997. After Tyson bit Holyfield 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] After TV

Lane retired from boxing as a referee soon after. He now lives in New York City with his wife and two sons. Lane suffered a debilitating stroke in 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 currently voiced by Chris Edgerly, who also voices Nick Diamond on the show). 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". Lane can currently be spotted in TV commercials for 1-800-THE-LAW2.

[edit] External links

• Mills Lane at the Internet Movie Database

Celebrity Deathmatch
Characters
Johnny Gomez | Nick Diamond | Mills Lane (character) | Stone Cold Steve Austin | Debbie Matenopoulos | Stacey Cornbred | Tally Wong | The Masked Man | Betty-Sue Olsen
Other
List of Celebrity Deathmatch episodes | Celebrity Deathmatch (video game) | Charles Manson vs Marilyn Manson
Cast and crew
Eric Fogel | Maurice Schlafer | Len Maxwell | Jim Thornton | Chris Edgerly | Masasa Moyo | Mills Lane | Stone Cold Steve Austin Debbie Matenopoulos | Matt Harrigan | Jack Fletcher