I fought for the heavyweight title. I became an actor and appeared in movies with Mae West, W C Fields, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne. I ruined John Wayne's sex life in a movie, but despite that, I was a good egg. Who am I?
Victor McLaglen, OF. Read in Errol Flynn's bio, McLagen -- believe it or not -- was the head of a Nazi Party cell in Beverly Hills -- of all places -- prior to WWII.
Sorry. It isn't Victor McLaglen. Good guess, though. McLaglen did not appear with W C Fields, I believe. Off what I have read, that biog is inaccurate. McLaglen was not a Nazi, just a guy into weird politics. He was a member, along with George Brent and some other Hollywood types, of a far-out paramilitary organization which planned to invade and conquer the Soviet Republic of Georgia. The whole enterprise was funded by an oil millionaire who was hoping to gain access to the Georgia oil fields. This all sounds more crazy than Nazi.
That same bio mentioned Flynn was a Nazi sympathizer or, worst yet, a spy. Also not true? Hope not. Hate when my idols have clay feet.
Flynn was friends with an Austrian called Dr Hermann Erben who worked in German military intelligence.Erben figured prominently in Flynns autobiography My Wicked,Wicked Ways under an alias but his Nazi background isn't mentioned. That aside Flynn's politics leant more to the left as he supported the Spainish Republicans in the civil war and also Castro's rebels.So the Nazi claims seem like the usual crap that comes out once a celebrity croaks. It's also rumoured Flynn was bisexual but considering the availiable evidence to the contrary I'd put that in the same list as the Nazi claims.
I guess you fellows need more clues. 1. This man is rather well known as a boxer. I think everyone will recognize his name immediately. Most probably don't know he had an extensive acting career. 2. This actor lost a fight in the movies to a member of the Boxing Hall of Fame, and also lost fights in the movies to a member of the College Football Hall of Fame who was a Rose Bowl MVP. 3. This man's movie career was built for the most part on roles as thugs and brutish bad guys, generally small roles as henchmen. 4. In a very famous movie, whose director won an academy award for this movie, this man is the cause of a split between John Wayne and his wife.
Bingo. Very good, Henry. This was a tough one. In THE QUIET MAN, Roper was the boxer in the flashback that John Wayne had killed in the ring, which caused him to shy away from fighting Victor McLaglen for fear of killing another man, which in turn caused Maureen O'Hara to think the Duke was a coward and lock him out of her bedroom. Roper lost fights in movies to Billy Conn, a boxing HOF member, and to Johnny Mack Brown, a College Football HOF member and Rose Bowl MVP.