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 actually, according to his family and those who knew him, he was an amiable man. Some fight fans thought that it was his good nature, which they attributed to his clowning, that eventually did him in, as he would not bear down on his opponents in the latter part of his career. Max Jr. says that his father wanted to be an actor, an insight that explains the flashy persona he displayed in and outside the ring as he wisecracked and clowned his way through careers as a boxer and performer in movies and nightclubs. Blessed with what "The Boxing Register: International Boxing Hall of Fame Official Record Book" terms the most powerful right hand in heavyweight history, Baer used that right to gain a fearsome reputation as a California prizefighter before moving to New York and taking on the top ranks of the heavyweight division.

Filmography

• 1964Tender Hearted Tiger: Max Baer
• 1958Once Upon a Horse... — Ben
• 1957Utah Blaine — Gus Ortmann
• Playhouse 90 — Mike
• 1956Requiem for a Heavyweight — Mike
• 1956The Harder They Fall — Buddy Brannen
• The Abbott and Costello Show — Killer King
• 1951Skipalong Rosenbloom — Butcher Baer
• 1951The Champs Step Out — Max
• 1950Riding High — Bertie (uncredited)
• 1949Africa Screams — Grappler McCoy
• 1949Bride for Sale — Litka
• 1943Buckskin Frontier — Tiny
• 1943Ladies' Day — Hippo Jones
• 1942The McGuerins from Brooklyn — Professor Samson
• 1942The Navy Comes Through — Coxswain G. Berringer
• 1937Over She Goes — Silas Morner
• 1933The Prizefighter and the Lady — Steve Morgan

Appearances as themselves (2)

• 1983Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
• 1938Fisticuffs — Himself