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:This article is about the boxer and actor. For an
article about his actor son, see: Max Baer, Jr.

Max Baer (February 11, 1909 – November 21,
1959) was a famous United States|American
boxing|boxer of the 1930s, onetime List of
Heavyweight Champions|Heavyweight Champion of the
World, and actor.


He was born Maximilian Adelbert Baer in Omaha,
Nebraska|Omaha, Nebraska, the son of German
immigrant Jacob Baer (1875-1938) and Dora Bales
(1877-1938). His older sister was Fanny Baer
(1905-1991), and his younger sister and brother
were Bernice Baer (1911-1987) and boxer-turned
actor Buddy Baer (1915-1986). 

His father was a butcher. The family moved to
Colorado before Bernice and Buddy were born. In
1921, when Maxie was twelve, they moved to
Livermore, California|Livermore, California, to
engage in cattle ranching. He often credited
working as a butcher boy and carrying heavy
carcasses of meat for developing his powerful
shoulders.

He turned pro boxer in 1929, progressing steadily
through the ranks. A ring tragedy little more than
a year later almost caused him to drop out of
boxing for good. Baer fought Frankie Campbell
(brother of Brooklyn Dodgers Hall Of Famer Adolph
Camilli) on August 25, 1930 in San Francisco,
California|San Francisco and knocked him out.
Campbell never regained consciousness.  After
lying on the canvas for nearly an hour, an
ambulance finally transported Campbell to a nearby
hospital where he eventually died of extensive
brain hemorrages.  An autopsy revealed that Baer's
devastating blows had knocked Campbell's entire
brain loose from the connective tissue holding it
in place within his cranium. This fatality shocked
Baer; according to his son, Max Baer, Jr., he
cried and had nightmares over the incident for
decades afterwards. He was charged with
murder|manslaughter.  Although he was eventually
acquitted of all charges, the California State
Boxing Commission still banned him from any
in-ring activity within their state for the next
year. He gave purses from succeeding bouts to
Campbell's family, but lost four of his next six
fights. He fared better when Jack Dempsey took him
under his wing, and Baer put Campbell's children
through college.

Baer beat the likes of Walter Cobb and Kingfish
Levinsky. In 1933, he boxed Max Schmeling (with a
Star of David embroidered on his trunks
http://www.pugilistica.com/BoxingArchive2/MaxBaerV
SJamesBraddockCenterRingAction1935MaxSmile1.JPG,
which he swore to wear in every bout thereafter)
at Yankee Stadium, dominating the rugged
Germany|German fighter into the tenth round when
the referee stopped the match.

Because he defeated Adolf Hitler|Hitler's
favorite, and had some Jewish ancestry, he became
a hero to the Jewish people.

His film|motion picture debut was in The
Prizefighter and the Lady (1933 in film|1933)
opposite Myrna Loy and Walter Huston. In this
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM movie he played Steven
"Steve" Morgan, a bartender that the Professor,
played by Huston, begins training for the ring.
Steve wins a fight, then marries Belle Mercer,
played by Loy. He starts seriously training, but
it turns out he has a big ego and an eye for the
women. Featured were Baer's upcoming opponent,
Primo Carnera, as himself, who Steve challenges
for the championship, and Jack Dempsey, as
himself, former Heavyweight Champ, acting as the
referee.

On March 29, 1934, The Prizefighter and the Lady
was officially banned from playing in Germany at
the behest of Joseph Goebbels, then Minister of
Propaganda and Public Entertainment, even though
it received favorable reviews in local newspapers
as well as in the Nazism|Nazi publications.

When an official at the Ministry of Propaganda was
asked, "Is the film barred because Max Baer is a
Jew?" he snapped, "Ja." When contacted for comment
at Lake Tahoe, Baer said, "They didn't ban the
picture because I have Jewish blood. They banned
it because I knocked out Max Schmeling."

Baer was Heavyweight Champion of the World from
June 14, 1934, when he knocked out Primo Carnera,
to June 13, 1935, when he lost to James J.
Braddock|Jim Braddock in New York City|New York.

He had two wives, actress Dorothy Dunbar (married
July 8, 1931-divorced 1933) and Mary Ellen
Sullivan (married June 29, 1935-his death 1959).
With Sullivan, he had three children, actor Max
Baer, Jr. (born 1937), James Baer (born 1941) and
Maude Baer (born 1943).

During a separation from his first wife, Max had
an affair with movie star Jean Harlow. He fought
Lou Nova in the first televised heavyweight
prizefight June 1, 1939 in television|1939, on
WNBT-TV in New York. His last match was another
loss to Nova, in 1941. Baer and his brother,
Buddy, both lost fights to Joe Louis, Buddy's two
losses to Louis coming in world title fights.

Max Baer boxed in eighty four professional fights
from 1929 to 1941. In all, his record was 72-12-0
(53 knockouts), which makes him a member of the
exclusive group of boxers to have won fifty or
more bouts by knockout.

Baer was an actor in almost twenty movies,
including "Africa Screams" with Abbott and
Costello, and made several television|TV guest
appearances. A clown in and out of the ring, Baer
also appeared in a vaudeville act and on his own
TV variety show. He was a disc jockey for a
Sacramento, California|Sacramento radio
programming|radio radio station|station and was a
Professional wrestling|wrestler for a while. He
was also public relations director for a
Sacramento automobile dealership and referee for
boxing and wrestling matches.

Unfortunately, Max Baer never saw the TV and movie
success of his son, Max Baer, Jr. In November
1959, he was scheduled to appear in some TV
commercials, which he planned to do before
returning to his home in Sacramento. After
refereeing a boxing match in Phoenix,
Arizona|Phoenix, he checked into the Roosevelt
Hotel in Hollywood, California|Hollywood. While
shaving in the morning, he had a heart attack and
the doctor was called. Baer hung on for a while,
but then died in his room at age fifty. He is
interred in Saint Mary's Mausoleum, Sacramento. 

There is a park named for Max Baer in Livermore,
California, which he considered his home town,
even though he was born in Omaha.

He was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in
1968, the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1984 and
the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995.

Max Baer once said, "I never had a fight out of
the ring. I never harmed anyone outside the ring.
I loved people."

==Filmography==
*The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933 in film|1933)
(MGM) ... Steven "Steve" Morgan
*Kids On the Cuff (1935 in film|1935) (Paramount)
*Over She Goes (1938 in film|1938) (Asso. British
Picture Corp.) ... Silas Morner
*The Navy Comes Through (1942 in film|1942) (RKO)
... Coxswain Berringer
*The McGuerins from Brooklyn (1942 in film|1942)
(United Artists) ... Prof. Samson ... aka Two Mugs
from Brooklyn
*Ladies' Day (1943 in film|1943) (RKO) ... Hippo
Jones
*Buckskin Frontier (1943 in film|1943) (United
Artists) ... Tiny
*Africa Screams (1949 in film|1949) (United
Artists) ... Boots ... aka Abbott and Costello in
Africa
*Bride for Sale (1949 in film|1949) (RKO) ...
Litka
*Two Knights from Brooklyn (1949 in film|1949)
(United Artists) ... Prof. Samson (A compilation
of two previous McGuerin movies.)
*Riding High (1950 in film|1950) (Paramount) ...
Bertie (uncredited)
*Two Roaming Champs (1950 in film|1950)
comedy-short (Columbia) 
*Wine, Women and Bong (1951 in film|1951)
comedy-short (Columbia)
*Skipalong Rosenbloom (1951 in film|1951) (United
Artists) ... Butcher Baer ... aka The Square
Shooter
*The Champ Steps Out (1951 in film|1951)
(Columbia)
*Rootin' Tootin' Tenderfeet (1952 in film|1952)
comedy-short (Columbia) ... Max
*The Harder They Fall (1956 in film|1956)
(Columbia) ... Buddy Brannen
*Utah Blaine (1957 in film|1957) (Columbia) ...
Gus Ortmann
*Once Upon a Horse (1958 in film|1958) (Universal)
... Ben ... aka Hot Horse (1963 in film|1963
reissue title)

==TV guest appearances==
*Playhouse 90 (1956 in television|1956) (Screen
Gems TV, CBS) ... Mike ... episode: Requiem for a
Heavyweight
*The Lone Ranger (1957 in television|1957) (The
Wrather Corp., ABC) ... Sampson, foreman
(uncredited) ... episode: The Law and Miss Aggie
*Sugarfoot (1957 in television|1957) (Warner Bros.
TV, ABC) episode: Angel
*77 Sunset Strip (1958 in television|1958) (Warner
Bros. TV, ABC) ... Government Man ... episode:
Double Trouble
*77 Sunset Strip (1958 in television|1958) (Warner
Bros. TV, ABC) ... Billy Blackstone ... episode:
The Chrome Coffin

==Sources==
*Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1934, pg. 12,
Germany Bans Film Of Baer

==External links==
*http://www.ibhof.com/baer.htm International
Boxing Hall of Fame's article about Max Baer
*imdb name|id=0046368|name=Max Baer
*http://www.larpd.dst.ca.us/maps/24.html Map to
Max Baer Park
*http://jewish.com/modules.php?name=News&file=prin
t&sid=1878 Jewish.com article about Max Baer

start box
succession box |
  before= Primo Carnera |
  title= List of heavyweight boxing
champions|Heavyweight boxing champion |
  years= 1934–1935 |
  after= James J. Braddock

end box