Most people when they think of "Mean" Joe Greene, aside from pile driving opposing quarterbacks into the turf at Three Rivers Stadium, think of his famous Superbowl commercial—the now infamous Coca-Cola commercial. However, many do not know Greene also has several movies to his credit.
Among the 1970s Steelers, Terry Bradshaw may have had the most success on the silver screen. However, fans often overlook that Greene also ventured into films. The reason is twofold. First, all three of the movies were low-budget independent films. Second, at least two of his films between 1973 and 1975 fall into the 'blaxploitation' genre, a significant yet controversial aspect of 1970s cinematic history.
If you are a huge fan of "Mean" Joe Greene and have not seen any of his movies and have nothing to do on a Friday or Saturday, you can stream one of his movies. None of them are Academy Award-level movies, though.
Joe's film history
In 1973, Joe starred in two movies, one of which was "The Black Six." Joe was not alone in representing the NFL in this movie, which also starred Willie Lanier from the Kansas City Chiefs, Gene Washington, the film's lead, from the San Francisco 49ers, Mercury Morris from the Miami Dolphins, Carl Eller from the Minnesota Vikings, and Lem Barney from the Detroit Lions.
The six are ex-Vietnam War veterans who travel around on their motorcycles, working odd jobs here and there. When Bubba Daniels, played by Gene Washington, finds out someone killed his brother, he heads back to his hometown to find out who was behind the deed. His biker friends decided to accompany him.
To preserve the plot if you have not seen it, Bubba Daniels finds out a racist motorcycle gang murdered his brother. They disapproved of his brother's involvement in an interracial relationship. It leads to the eventual showdown between biker gangs you might expect.
In addition to the movie's headline cast of NFL stars, Maury Wills of the L.A. Dodgers made a brief cameo. Ben Davidson played a bad guy in the rival biker gang. Notably, he is an ex-Oakland Raider with a small film career of his own upon his NFL retirement.
While not a memorable film by any stretch, it did have Mean Joe lifting a guy over his head and giving him a massive backbreaker. Somehow, that scene might take you back to the days when he slammed opposing quarterbacks into the turf.
Horror High was his second film of 1973. Despite having second billing in the movie's opening credits, he hardly had any screen time playing two characters. One is an assistant high school P.E. teacher or a coach, one of the two, and later on, a policeman.
The movie is essentially a straight-up horror movie and a bad one. It has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde theme about a high school student who is bullied by faculty and students alike. Then, a sadistic janitor forces him to drink a chemical created in his biology class. Then, he transforms into a monster-like version of himself, who kills all the teachers and students who have pushed him around.
Joe had one line in the entire movie. However, he did show off his skill using a police-style shotgun. For the most part, it was the movie's main highlight, in a movie that had very few highlights.
In 1975, he made another film," Lady Cocoa." This movie reunited Joe with Gene Washington, also a star of The Black Six. Joe was a good guy in his first film with Gene Washington, but in this film, well, not so much.
The film is about Washington, a cop assigned to protect Cocoa, who has agreed to testify against Eddie, one of her former boyfriends, for numerous crimes. As the film plays out, Eddie hires another ex-boyfriend of Cocoa, Big Joe, played by "Mean Joe," as an assassin.
However, despite considerable screen time in this film, he does not have even one line of dialogue. However, he does give us that mean, menacing appearance the director wanted us to have. As these roles go, a hitman did not fit "Mean" Joe. Although perhaps Mean Joe was miscast in this role, it was still exciting to see him on screen shooting a shotgun, even with no dialog.
Later acting career
After these three movies, his acting career ended, except for his Superbowl commercial in 1979 and cameos in All the Marbles, Smokey and the Bandit II, and Ace Ventura When Nature Calls. In 1980, there was Fighting Back: The Story of Rocky Bleier. Given that it was the biography of Rock Bleier, his book "Fighting Back" was the basis for the movie. It was only natural that other Steelers who played with him would agree to be in the film, even if only for a brief cameo appearance.
If you do have time and would like to check out the films" Mean" Joe was involved in, you can find "The Black Six" and "Lady Cocoa" currently streaming for free on Tubi. "Horror High" is currently streaming for free on Plex. While they might not be great movies, there are worse ways to kill a Sunday afternoon in the football off-season.