Profile of Mills Lane on Famous Like Me

Mills Lane (born November 12, 1936) is a famous judge, boxing referee and Celebrity Deathmatch character.

Lane hails from a prominent Georgia family. His father owned the First National Bank of Atlanta, which was, and is, based in Savannah. Lane, however, had other aspirations, so he 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.

In 1982, he coined the phrase Let's get it on!!, a phrase which would later become a household phrase. He first used it during the instructions before the Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney world Heavyweight championship fight.

Lane began to become a household name all over the United States the night he refereed the rematch between world Heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and his challenger and former world champion Mike Tyson in 1997. After Tyson bit Holyfield twice, Lane disqualified him. Lane's shirt got stained with blood and it was sold by him to a memorabilia collector for a large amount of money on the same night. In 1998, his show Judge Mills Lane debuted on national television, and it lasted until 2001. In addition to that, the producers of MTV's show Celebrity Deathmatch approached him about having his character and voice in their show, as the referee of their plasticine figure matches. Lane accepted the offer, also becoming an MTV personality.

Lane retired from boxing as a referee soon after. He now lives in New York City with his wife and two sons, in The Dakota Building. Lane suffered a debilitating stroke in 2002 which left him partially paralyzed. He still has a great deal of difficulty speaking. 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 many years at the dedication of a new courthouse which will bear his name upon its completion.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Mills Lane