Jake LaMotta

Giacobbe "Jake" LaMotta was a professional boxer, best known for winning the World Middleweight Championships in 1949 and 1950, carrying on a nearly decade-long feud with Sugar Ray Robinson, and being the subject of Martin Scorsese's classic film "Raging Bull" (1980), in which he was played by Robert DeNiro. But for all of the triumphs, LaMotta's life was also filled with tragedy: jail time, seven failed marriages, financial ruin, and death haunted him for much of his life. That life began on July 10, 1922, when LaMotta was born to an Italian immigrant father and an American mother in the Bronx, New York City. Growing up, LaMotta's father would help pay the rent by forcing Jake to fight other kids from the neighborhood, then inviting neighbors to watch, who would throw money into the ring. After he was rejected for military service in World War II due to a mastoid operation on one of his ears, 19-year-old LaMotta decided to turn pro, with his brother, Joey LaMotta, acting as his manager. During his first fifteen bouts as a middleweight, LaMotta went 14-0-1 (3 KOs), before he lost to Jimmy Reeves in a highly controversial Cleveland, OH bout that nearly lead to a riot. Reeves decisively won a rematch a month later, but LaMotta cruised to victory during the third match, in Detroit, MI, on March 19, 1943. However, LaMotta really began to attain recognition over his feud with Sugar Ray Robinson. Between October of 1942 and September of 1945, the two fought each other five times, with each match highly publicized. LaMotta won the second match, handing Robinson the first defeat of his career, but Robinson won the other four. In 1947, LaMotta was briefly suspended from boxing by the New York State Athletic Commission, who suspected him of purposely throwing a fight against Billy Fox. After arguing that he was ailing from a ruptured spleen and paying a $1,000 fine, he was reinstated. LaMotta would later admit before a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1960 that he accepted $20,000 from the Mafia to lose the fight, who in turn rigged his title bout against World Middleweight Champion Marcel Cerdan. LaMotta officially became the middleweight champion of the world on June 16, 1949, in Detroit. A rematch with Cerdan was scheduled, but Cerdan was killed in a plane crash before the bout could take place. LaMotta successfully defended his title against Tiberio Mitri on July 7, 1950 at Madison Square Garden, and then again on September 13, 1950, against Laurent Dauthuille, in a bout that was named Fight of the Year by the Ring Magazine. On February 14, 1951, LaMotta faced Sugar Ray Robinson for what would be the final time, at Chicago Stadium. In a fight that would become known to boxing fans as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Robinson was declared the victor by technical knockout after 13 rounds, and therefore the new middleweight champion, but the slugger was never able to knock LaMotta down. Following a less successful bout as a light heavyweight fighter - which included the only fight in which he was knocked down, against Danny Nardico on New Year's Eve, 1952 - LaMotta retired following a painful split decision loss to Billy Kilgore on April 14, 1954. After retiring, LaMotta opened up a few bars in the Miami area, and made attempts at becoming an actor and a stand-up comedian, even managing to appear in the Paul Newman film "The Hustler" (1961), as well as a few episodes of "Car 54 Where Are You?" (NBC, 1961-1963). In 1958, LaMotta was arrested and charged with introducing men to an underage girl at one of his clubs. Despite claiming his innocence, he was convicted and served 6 months on a chain gang. In 1970, LaMotta released his autobiography, "Raging Bull: My Story," which was optioned for a movie by MGM. With a screenplay by Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese in the director's chair, "Raging Bull" (1980), was an instant classic, hailed by critics, and is still today considered one of the great American films. Robert DeNiro won the Oscar for Best Actor for his deeply method portrayal of LaMotta, which he famously prepared for by training daily with the man himself, and then gaining nearly 60 pounds while living in Paris for three months in order to portray LaMotta post-boxing. "Raging Bull" put LaMotta back in the public eye, and he took advantage of the newfound attention, keeping active on the speaking and autograph circuits, and penning several more books about his life and boxing career. In 1990, LaMotta was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. He suffered tragedy in 1998 when two of his sons, Jake LaMotta Jr. and Joseph LaMotta, died several months apart, Jake of liver cancer, and Joseph in a plane crash. In 2012, LaMotta once again courted controversy when he began filming a sequel to "Raging Bull," which lead to a lawsuit from MGM, who still held the rights to the original film. After years of legal wrangling, the film, which legally had to be titled "LaMotta: The Bronx Bull" (2017), was finally released to zero box office fanfare and mostly negative reviews. On September 20, 2017, Jake LaMotta died from complications of pneumonia at a nursing home in Aventura, Florida. He was 95 years old.