BoxRec

Its difficult to believe that no one has played an American historic icon like
John L.Sullivan in either the movies or television in over 50 years.
Here is a list of actors who have played him since 1913.
Probably Ward Bond in GENTLEMAN JIM(1942)is the best well known.

http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0030394

*Spoiler alert-the closing scene of GENTLEMAN JIM (1942)

you may want to rent the dvd first to watch the whole film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iShuZvyDHA

The ironic thing about the ending to the film, is that never happened in real life. Sullivan to his dying days referred to Corbett as "The Dude", which more or less meant Sullivan viewed Corbett as a fancy dan homosexual. Sullivan, nor the public, truly ever forgave Corbett for having beaten John L. Sullivan. As I stated before in the thread about John L's career, the notion that Corbett was popular and considered the 'father of modern boxing' was a myth created in the 20th century, as this film was a major part in perpetrating the myth. Even Corbett himself would later admit had he fought the Sullivan of the Kilrain fight or prior, he would have lost.

You know what actor imop would have been great playing John L. Sullivan?
British actor Nigel Green.
He played Hercules in the classic movie JASON & tHE ARGONAUTS(1963).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBO6ddp478

Heavyweight contender Kallie Knoetze would have been a good choice to play
John L.Sullivan too in maybe a made-for-television production in the late
1970's or 1980's.He looked like him and had a scud missle for a right hand too.Of course they would have had to probably dub his Afrikanner accent voice for a Nineteeth Century Boston Irish-American voice-over.

Oakland Raiders football player Ben Davidson would have been a good choice in the 1970's too.Except that he was about 6ft 8 inches tall,
thats about 9 inches taller then Sullivan was in real life.
Or maybe they could have hired other exceptionally tall actors.
like Wilt Chamberlain( 7 ft 1") to play Peter Jackson for the fight that never was.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/sports/former- ... s-72/nPmJC

The best actor around today to play Sullivan, imho, would be Tom Hardy. He was excellent in Bronson, and he is more than capable of doing a brogue. I could picture an all-star cast lineup for the film: Colm Meaney could play Harry Hill the great promoter of New York, and have a few real life boxers/bare knucklers for the competitors, maybe like James Quinn McDonagh to play John Flood, BJ Penn to play Herbert Slade, etc. I could see someone like Steve Cunningham playing Peter Jackson and Tomasz Adamek playing Jim Corbett.

HomicideHenry wrote:The best actor around today to play Sullivan, imho, would be Tom Hardy. He was excellent in Bronson, and he is more than capable of doing a brogue. I could picture an all-star cast lineup for the film: Colm Meaney could play Harry Hill the great promoter of New York, and have a few real life boxers/bare knucklers for the competitors, maybe like James Quinn McDonagh to play John Flood, BJ Penn to play Herbert Slade, etc. I could see someone like Steve Cunningham playing Peter Jackson and Tomasz Adamek playing Jim Corbett.

You'd need some great dubbing for Corbett. BJ Penn sounds a bit out of place. Why not a heavyweight?

Tomasino wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:The best actor around today to play Sullivan, imho, would be Tom Hardy. He was excellent in Bronson, and he is more than capable of doing a brogue. I could picture an all-star cast lineup for the film: Colm Meaney could play Harry Hill the great promoter of New York, and have a few real life boxers/bare knucklers for the competitors, maybe like James Quinn McDonagh to play John Flood, BJ Penn to play Herbert Slade, etc. I could see someone like Steve Cunningham playing Peter Jackson and Tomasz Adamek playing Jim Corbett.

You'd need some great dubbing for Corbett. BJ Penn sounds a bit out of place. Why not a heavyweight?

Well considering UFC weight classes are so much different, in truth BJ Penn when not trained down in weight would be the size of a heavyweight, and since he is something Samoan in appearance he would be the closest thing to a heavyweight Maori that I know of.

I think Tom Hardy would be great in the role