Jackie Moon's bear-wrestling stunt is played for laughs in Semi-Pro, and it remains one of the film's funniest moments. However, the film's star, Will Ferrell, recently revealed a seriously dark update linked to one of his best comedy movies. The bear, known as "Dewie" in the 2008 sports romp, ended up killing someone after the movie and hasn't worked in Hollywood since.
Ferrell was a guest on the All The Smoke podcast, in promotion for his upcoming series, The Hawk ( which will be available with a Netflix subscription). Former NBA stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson asked the comedy actor if it was true "Dewie" killed someone at some point after the movie, and he shared what he knew about it:
Not because of that movie, but yeah, it did. Isn't that wild? Even though I didn't wrestle the real bear. We switched. I wasn't about to, but yeah, that's nuts... I think that bear is out of the business, by the way... He's probably still got his 401K.
Will Ferrell was right about the bear being "out of the business," but there are more details to the story. The bear, named Rocky, was a five-year-old grizzly bear owned by Randy Miller, who stood in as Ferrell's stunt double during the wrestling scene in Semi-Pro. Randy was not killed by the bear, but it was his cousin, Stephan, who was in the midst of filming a promotional video.
Stephan Miller had experience wrestling with bears and was trained in the profession but had not previously worked with Rocky ahead of his death (via The Press Enterprise). Randy Miller tried to get Rocky cleared to return to work for years but was denied, and the bear was moved to an animal sanctuary in 2022, according to the San Diego Tribune. For a bear, that feels about as close to a 401k as one can get.
This is an unfortunate fact tied to a movie that doesn't really have anything to do with scary animals. Perhaps the irony is that the bears can be unpredictable, even around trained professionals, which is illustrated when the bear escapes the cage and makes its way into the crowd.
Yet, real bears are still used for various TV shows and movies, despite fears from actors that the situation may get out of control. And, yet, one of the most notable movies featuring one, The Revenant, did not feature an actual bear. That made the faux creature's Oscars cameo much easier to pull off, and Leonardo DiCaprio didn't have to recall an unhappy fact about the movie decades later in a podcast. Of course, hindsight is always 20/20 when it comes to tragedies.
Semi-Pro is currently available to stream for those who have YouTube TV and want to relive the classic comedy all over again. As for Will Ferrell's The Hawk, the show premieres on July 16th. Here's hoping there aren't in bear scenes in that show.
