Buddy Baer

Buddy Baer was an American boxer who later became an actor, born in Denver in 1915 and taken to California as a boy, the younger brother of heavyweight champion Max Baer. He fought professionally from 1934 to 1942, knocking out Tiny Abbott in his debut, and twice challenged Joe Louis for the heavyweight title. In their 1941 fight he knocked Louis out of the ring in the first round but lost on a disqualification, and in the 1942 rematch Louis knocked him out in the first round. In 2003 The Ring magazine listed him among the 100 greatest punchers. After retiring he joined the Army Air Forces, then acted in seventeen films and appeared in many television series during the 1950s and 1960s, among them Gunsmoke, Adventures of Superman, Wagon Train and Peter Gunn. He also sang in nightclubs as a bass-baritone, performing with Pearl Bailey at New York's Paramount Theatre in 1952. He died in 1986.