BoxRec

Born Vladimir Palaniuk, the actor that would later be known as Jack Palance, in the 1940's was a professional boxer. In school, as the lore goes, he was a fine athlete on the boxing team. At 6'3" he was an imposing physical specimen and turned pro not to long afterward.

Palance claims that he was 15-0 (12) before losing a four round match with 7-0-1 Joe Baksi, who would later become a contender for the HW crown. Palance went into the military and supposedly was also on the boxing team, doing well, but unfortunately was in a plane crash and had to have his face reconstructed. He never was able to fight again. Boxrec only shows the Baksi fight.

I was wondering if this was either an incomplete record, or that the '15-0' statements might have been conjured up? If they were...I wonder how many people would actually tell that to Palance's face considering he was like 80 when he did the CITY SLICKER movies and did one armed push ups at the Oscars.

Jack Palanace to Billy Crystal: "I crap bigger than you."


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Anthony Tyler Quinn, as a teenager, was a boxer as well. To support his mother and siblings he took on the gloves as a welterweight fighter at $5 and $10 a match. Its possible that Quinn could have went under an alias as a fighter, as I have yet to find a record. Ironically both Palance and Quinn starred in Rod Sterling's Requiem for a Heavyweight as 'Mountain' McClintock [later Rivera].

Was wondering if anyone ever uncovered his record as well?


http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=322203


That is a link to the Sherdog forums [MMA site] where a list of all famous persons [including actors] who were boxers or became boxers.

The 15-0 is almost certainly made up fiction.

barry wrote:The 15-0 is almost certainly made up fiction.

Unless he fought on any Slugout cards

I know an awful lot of fighters have had 'underground' fights that were seldom known let alone documented...Palance could have been one of those cases. Most of these fights could be considered 'toughman' fights where people just fought one another for small chump change.

I read somewhere that Jack Palance came from the same coal mining town in West Virginia that Charles Bronson came up from.

It's possible that Palance had undocumented fights in Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Even though there were fewer boxing shows on the whole during the late 1930s and early 1940s, it's possible that there were cards out there that haven't been found yet.

I live pretty near the West Virginia Historical Society, which is in Charleston, WVA and have been meaning to visit it for a while to research Bob Martin, but whenever I do make it there I'll also do some searching for Palance! There were actually a few areas in West Virginia during the 30s that had boxing on a regular basis...Wheeling, Charleston, Huntington and Fairmont all ran weekly shows at one point…and then there were a few smaller counties and towns that had sporadic boxing shows throughout a year!

Thats not his real last name I think its Bushinski or something similair to that.BTW i believe he was of Lithinuanian extraction.
I always thought he may have been descended from the Mongol invaders
of Eastern Europe back during the 1200's.

Jack Palance went to Stanford at the same time that my
parents were students there. I am told that Palance
did some kitchen or dining room work while attending
the said school.

- Chuck Johnston

Brutu wrote:Thats not his real last name I think its Bushinski or something similair to that.BTW i believe he was of Lithinuanian extraction.
I always thought he may have been descended from the Mongol invaders
of Eastern Europe back during the 1200's.

Wikipedia, often inaccurate due to the nature of how the information is 'collected', states:

Of Ukrainian descent, Palance was born in Lattimer Mines, Pennsylvania, the son of a coal miner. In the late 1930s he started a professional boxing career. Fighting under the name Jack Brazzo, Palance reportedly compiled a record of 15 consecutive victories with 12 knockouts before losing a decision to future heavyweight contender Joe Baksi.