Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

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Caractacus
Middleweight
Posts: 18593
Joined: 13 Jun 2014, 16:47

Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by Caractacus »

I was watching an old Marx Bros. film last weekend MONKEY BUISNESS (1931)
and thought one of the charectors looked famiiar.
I waited for the closing film credits and it turns out it was the prizefighter from the Great White Hope era
Tom Kennedy,
who had fought a number of his fellow Whites back in the 1910's period
and was good pals with Frank Moran.
anyone know more about his career ?
I had heard he had (unlike most of the White Hopes)
been an amateur Boxer.
I also read somewhere that he was a sparring partner for Georges Carpentier
when Carpentier was preparing to fight Gunboat Smith in Paris (France) in 1911.

http://www.josportsinc.com/catalog/view.php?id=10624
Last edited by Caractacus on 25 Apr 2017, 17:46, edited 1 time in total.
Caractacus
Middleweight
Posts: 18593
Joined: 13 Jun 2014, 16:47

Re: Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by Caractacus »

here is a link to his ring record and a photo of his mug
(I just wonder if he had any earlier fights then the first one listed here ?)

http://boxrec.com/boxer/39793
Caractacus
Middleweight
Posts: 18593
Joined: 13 Jun 2014, 16:47

Re: Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by Caractacus »

Tom Kennedy appeared as Jim J. Corbett's sparring partner in the short 1910 Vitagraph documentery film
James J. Corbett or How Championships are Won and Lost.
where Corbett had him use the styles of the various fights he had such as James J. Jeffries.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0448366/
punchoutsb
Heavyweight
Heavyweight
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Joined: 16 Sep 2009, 01:05

Re: Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by punchoutsb »

He also took a pie in the face and got hit with a baseball bat by a gorilla in one of the Three Stooges shorts :box:
Kalan
Super Middleweight
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Joined: 23 Sep 2012, 23:22

Re: Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by Kalan »

He was a boxing hobbyist at best... A 3 year boxing career with 5 official wins and a 50 year acting career... He appeared on Gun Smoke episodes and other TV shows as a rather portly and none to bright character actor. I remember him. He was the wide eyed guy who was dumbfounded by happenings
Caractacus
Middleweight
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Joined: 13 Jun 2014, 16:47

Re: Tom Kennedy "The Millionaire Boxer"

Post by Caractacus »

Yeah,I remember him in a whole bunch of stuff when I use to watch a lot of television back in the 1970's.
I thought he seemed just kind of Big and gruff and not too bright myself.
( although of course if your can work steadily in Hollywood for 50 years you gotta have some smarts)
Victor McLaglen on the other hand looked like he could get rough if he wanted to.
( the two had a scene together in the 1945 movie, Rough.Tough and Ready)
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