“Robert Mitchum was a father figure to me.” “[Marlon] Brando was great.” “Christopher Reeve was a jerk and I was just about to kick the s**t out of him!” “Cleveland Williams hit me harder than any other human being.” “Muhammad Ali asked me to get his brother out of boxing.”
Most famous for his role as mute villain, ‘Non’ in the blockbuster ‘Superman’ films, 73-year-old Jack O’Halloran was also an accomplished pro boxer who met a number of big names in the 1960s and ’70s. In compiling a 34-21-2(17) ledger, the strapping 6’6” Philadelphia-born giant – who fought out of Boston – rumbled with, amongst others, George Foreman, Cleveland Williams, Joe Bugner and Ron Lyle.
Today, O’Halloran is working on completing his series of three partly autobiographical mafia, conspiracy novels and transforming them onto the silver screen. Residing in Redondo Beach in California, the actor/boxer/author is as active and as hard at work as ever.
Here he speaks about a number of subjects:
James Slater: Looking at your pro record on BoxRec, you had 57 pro fights and you had your debut in 1966?
Jack O’Halloran: “Yeah. I actually had a lot more fights than that. I had a lot of what we called smokers, fights in New England, that didn’t appear on your official record. I fought in places like Bangor, Maine, under a different name.”
Q: One of the official fights you had was against Joe Bugner, over here in England in 1969.…….
J.O.H: “Yeah, I beat him, but not officially! He beat me on the points system they had, by a quarter of a point. The newspapers the next day were so ashamed to write how he had beaten me by just one quarter of a point (laughs). The fight was scheduled for ten-rounds but I had him out on his feet at the end of the 8th-round and they shortened it by two rounds. They cut the fight short because I had him out on his feet (laughs).”
Q: And you fought George Foreman in 1970?
J.O.H: “George is a great guy; he’s made more money from his grills than from fighting (laughs). I was winning the fight early on, until he caught me and then they stopped it too quickly. He would never fight me again. I always wanted a rematch but he wouldn’t fight me again. I had just seven days to train for the fight. If I was in shape, people were afraid to fight me. George had a list of the hardest punchers he ever faced and I believe he had me at number-four on the list.”
Q: You had two big wins, over Cleveland Williams and Rahman Ali; brother of course of Muhammad Ali?
J.O.H: “I fought Cleveland Williams in Texas (in September of 1971). I was down there and they were looking for an opponent for Joe Frazier. They offered me Terry Daniels and I said, ‘sure.’ Then they saw me in shape and said, ‘hey, you’re in great shape!’ I said, ‘of course, what did you expect!’ Anyway, I knocked Terry Daniels out in four-rounds. On the plane, Yank Durham told me that if I could win one more fight like that I’d get a shot at Joe Frazier. So a month later I fought Cleveland Williams, who was at the end of his career; a great guy. I beat him easily (by 10-round decision). From the 7th and 8th-rounds I was holding him up. But he caught me with a punch earlier on in the fight and that was the hardest another human being ever hit me in my life. Williams later told me I had a better left hand than Ali, that he couldn’t get away from it.”
Q: And what happened to the Frazier fight?
J.O.H: “Because I took that punch [from Williams] and didn’t go anywhere, they gave the fight to Terry Daniels instead! Nobody would fight me at that time.”
Q: What about the fight you had with Ali’s brother who you KO’d in 1972?
J.O.H: “Before the fight with Ali’s brother, Muhammad Ali called me himself and he asked me if I could do him a favour. I asked him if he could do me a favour and fight me! He said he would, but he told me to get his brother out of boxing, that he was an embarrassment and he wanted him out of boxing. He told me to beat him and hurt him and get him out. He [Rahman] ran and grabbed and then ran some more in that fight. My trainer told me, ‘they’re gonna steal it from us and give him the decision ’cos he’s Ali’s brother.’ But I hit him with an uppercut that lifted him off the floor, followed by a left hook and he was gone. After that, I fought Al Lewis, who had just gone 11-rounds with Muhammad Ali. I gave him such a bad beating he never fought again (in fact Lewis had just three more fights after facing O’Halloran). I really beat him up bad.”
Q: You went on, of course, to make a number of big movies. When people talk to you today, do they ask you about the movies or your boxing – or both?
J.O.H: “It’s amazing, and it depends on where I am at the time. A lot of people remember my boxing. But of course, the ‘Superman’ movies made me an icon. In fact, I never did a bad movie, I don’t believe. ‘Dragnet’ (from 1987) and ‘King Kong’ (from 1976), they’re all good movies.”
Q: And did you have aspirations of being an actor when you were fighting?
J.O.H: “No! (laughs). They tried to get me into the acting game in the ’60’s, actually. Steve McQueen, who had just made ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ – we looked after him while he was down in Boston – he said to me, ‘you’ve gotta come down to the movie set and see what it’s all like.’ I told him that it just wasn’t my cup of tea. But [later] I met the producer of the movie, ‘The Great White Hope.’ They offered me the part of Jess Willard and they asked me to go to Spain to shoot and they told me what they’d pay me a month. I had just knocked out Manuel Ramos, who was ranked number-two in the world at that time, and they were offering me this [low] money! I said no way! And it’s funny how small the movie world is, because on the way out of the studio I bumped into James Earl Jones, who had signed up for the part of Jack Johnson in ‘The Great White Hope.’ And he asked me if I had told them no, to one of the biggest movies at that time. He shook my hand, saying I was the only person he’d known to have said no to Hollywood!
“But then, when I had retired from boxing, I took a part in ‘Farewell my Lovely’ (in 1976). That was my first movie and my proudest moment as an actor. The great Robert Mitchum, who starred in that movie, he was such a huge person in my life; really like a father figure. That movie is a classic. There were four Oscar winners involved in the making of that film; and it was such a great cast.”
Q: The ‘Superman’ movies were so huge, and iconic as you said. It must have been amazing standing across from people such as Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman?
J.O.H: “Yes, Marlon was great. Hackman and I, we had done a film prior to ‘Superman,’ ‘March or Die’ (in 1977). But it was great, yes. I had recently seen how Jackie Gleason had won an Oscar for portraying a deaf and dumb person, and when they sent me the script for Non (in ‘Superman’ and ‘Superman II’) I liked it and I was excited about playing a part where I would use my facial and body expressions only. And I am extremely proud of the way I was able to relate to the kids. You had Terrence [Stamp] who was this ruthless general (‘Zod’ in ‘Superman II’) and you had Sarah [Douglas] who played this man-eater (‘Ursa’ in ‘Superman II’) But I used my eyes and my body language the way a child does. I was portraying a character that saw the world through a child’s eyes.
“But it was great making those two films, we were like a family; we were together for such a long time. Sarah and myself, we’re still great friends today. I’m very proud of the two movies and of course they did make me an iconic figure, which doesn’t happen very often. We made it work, we pulled it off – the movies were not successful just because they were from a hit comic book. And of course [Richard] Donner was a great director.”
Q: Clear up a myth/story for us: did you and Christopher Reeve get into a fight on set?
J.O.H: “Christopher was a nice kid, but he was a kid. He was 26, yet he had a 16-year-old head. ‘Superman’ was his first film, his big break, and he became self-centred. And one day he made a mistake with me. There was a great restaurant in London that was just starting out at the time and one day the whole crew were there – I would always invite them over – and one time, Reeve started talking about my father, calling him a mob guy and things like that. The owner of the restaurant called me and asked me how well I knew this Christopher Reeve guy, as he was saying so much about my family. The next day I confronted him and I told him never to talk about my father the way he had been. He was acting like he really was Superman and he said, ‘yeah, your dad is a mobster.’ I grabbed him and slammed him into a wall and I was about to kick the shit out of him and Donner grabbed me and said, ‘not in the face!’
“I guess the gangster came out of me that day! But I quite liked Chris. I trained him for Superman. When they hired him he was around 170-pounds and I got him up to 200-pounds, without bulking him up too much. I was in great shape myself back then, in the gym every day.”
Q: Fascinating stuff! Getting back to boxing, how do you see the big one going…….
J.O.H: (anticipating the fight I meant) “I like Pacquiao. I think Manny will knock him out in seven. If Manny had fought Mayweather – who I also like, and I am friends with his uncle, a great fighter – three years ago, he’d have been in trouble, because Manny’s head wasn’t right then. He was running around, gambling and doing all sorts of things. But he has his head back on now. Freddie Roach, who is also a friend of mine, is a great trainer also. And Manny doesn’t like Mayweather. He will knock him out.”
Q: Finally, you have written a novel….
J.O.H: “Yes, Family Legacy. It’s a little about my early life, my younger life to a degree. I’m being pushed to write my biography right now also. I’m working on my second novel, there will be three in all, and we’re going to make them into a movie. I knew the Krays well, from when I was in London. I know the U.K well; and it’s time someone told the real story [about the Krays]. The true story of so-called mob guys and the mafia, it’s all in the books. I’m working on getting the film made. I’m very busy doing all this right now.
“But I tell you the toughest guy I ever fought, I’ve just thought of him: Carl Gizzi. He was the Welsh heavyweight champion. Man, was he a tough guy! We fought in London (in 1969), I fought Buger at The Royal Albert Hall. I had a great time over there. I had a ball during my boxing career.”