Incredible Hulk Actor Lou Ferrigno Just Became a Sheriff’s Deputy

Lou Ferrigno hasn’t played The Incredible Hulk on television in a long time, but, he’s found some other work this week in New Mexico. The AP is reporting that Score County Sheriff William Armijo is scheduled to deputize the actor next week during a special ceremony. Now, Ferrigno isn’t the first superhero actor to switch over to law enforcement. (Steel himself, Shaquille O’Neal is also a deputy with a couple of different departments across the United States.) The former Hulk actor has been a reserve sheriff’s deputy out in Los Angeles County for a while. He also served the volunteer sheriff posse in Maricopa County, Arizona as well. At 68-years-old, Ferrigno is going to be instrumental in recruiting for the department and the county according to an official from the department. This makes a ton of sense as some of the people looking to join the force might have been fans or exposed to his work through streaming services or reruns.

So, does that mean he’s leaving the superhero game behind for good? Probably, he still pops up in cameos on shows from time to time, but those days are probably done. For his money though, he likes Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner the most. But, that’s no shade to current Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo.

“Mark is a wonderful actor. But we’ve had three different actors — we’ve had Eric Bana, Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo. I like Bill Bixby the best, I like Edward Norton. But Ruffalo — I think he’s a wonderful actor, he blends in with the Marvel aspect of the Avengers — but I can’t take him seriously enough,” Ferrigno said during an appearance at Montreal Comiccon last year.

He continued, “Bill has that intensity, and you knew that when he was in danger, you could feel that intensity. But because of Marvel and Disney, they’ve taken a different direction. You can’t take it as seriously as the original series.”

“I’ve got so many fans come up to me, they tell me when they were young, they were fighting to watch it. They’d get behind the couch, but when they see me as the Hulk — they want to see the Hulk because of that attraction, because it’s a build-up, the adrenaline, that’s what makes the show,” Ferrigno concluded.

So, not exactly a fan of the new direction. But, this move by the Score County Police shows that his name carries some weight with fans. Hopefully, things don’t get too exciting down there, because you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

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