
Max Baer is arguably best known today for siring Max Baer Jr., the actor who played Jethro Bodine on the classic TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). However, old-timers, followers of the sweet science, and viewers of the film Cinderella Man (2005) all know that Max Sr. was boxing's heavyweight champion of the world for all of 364 days, from the time he knocked out Primo Carnera on June 14, 1934, to the day he lost his title to Jimmy Braddock on June 13, 1935. Cinephiles also will remember the colorful Max from his numerous bit roles in films, including Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's Africa Screams (1949) to his near-autobiographical turn in the Budd Schulberg boxing expose The Harder They Fall (1956) starring Humphrey Bogart. Ironically, it was his acting in the latter film that likely led to his misrepresentation in "Cinderella Man" as being something akin to a monster, when actual…
movieHollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
1983 · Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
movieTender Hearted Tiger: Max Baer
1964
movieOnce Upon a Horse...
1958 · Ben
movieUtah Blaine
1957 · Gus Ortmann
movieRequiem for a Heavyweight
1956 · Mike
tvPlayhouse 90
1956 · Mike
movieThe Harder They Fall
1956 · Buddy Brannen
tvThe Abbott and Costello Show
1952 · Killer King
The Champs Step Out
1951 · Max
movieSkipalong Rosenbloom
1951 · Butcher Baer
movieRiding High
1950 · Bertie (uncredited)
movieBride for Sale
1949 · Litka
movieAfrica Screams
1949 · Grappler McCoy
movieBuckskin Frontier
1943 · Tiny
movieLadies' Day
1943 · Hippo Jones
movieThe McGuerins from Brooklyn
1942 · Professor Samson
movieThe Navy Comes Through
1942 · Coxswain G. Berringer
movieFisticuffs
1938 · Himself
movieOver She Goes
1937 · Silas Morner
movieThe Prizefighter and the Lady
1933 · Steve Morgan