Jack Dempsey, real name William Harrison Dempsey, was born on June 24, 1895 in Manassa, Colorado. He passed away on May 31, 1983 in New York, New York.

Being one of eleven children, Dempsey left home at the age of sixteen and traveled west on trains, occasionally stopping at mining towns. It was during this time of his life that Dempsey learned to fight as a means of survival under the name of "Kid Blackie" and his career turned when he met manager Jack "Doc" Kearns.Beginning at the age of of 24, Dempsey was the World heavyweight boxing champion from 1919 - 1926. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Being inactive in 1924 and 1925, he put his title on the line against Gene Tunney in 1926, and at 31, Dempsey fell behind on points and was not able to change the momentum.

Dempsey retired from professional boxing in 1940 and became a successful restaurant owner in New York. The restaurant was called Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant.

He was married four times, his spouses being Maxine Gates (1916 - 1919), Estelle Taylor (1925 - 1930), Hannah Williams (1933 - 1943), and Deanna Piatelli whom he was married on 1958 until his death.

The following is a list of his filmography which was taken from the Internet Movie Database, includes:

Kings of the Ring: Four Legends of Heavyweight Boxing (2000) (TV) (archive footage) .... Himself
... aka Bud Greenspan's Kings of the Ring: Four Legends of Heavyweight Boxing (2000) (TV) (USA: complete title)
100 Years of Olympic Glory (1996) (TV) (archive footage) (uncredited) .... Himself (heavyweight boxer)
Roaring Twenties, The (1996) (V) (archive footage) (uncredited) .... Himself (trains for Tunney fight)
Legendary Champions (1968) (archive footage) .... Himself
Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
... aka Blood Money (1962) (UK)
Damn Citizen (1958) .... Reporter
"Name's the Same, The" (1951) TV Series .... Guest (1954)
Off Limits (1953) .... Jack Dempsey
... aka Military Policemen (1953) (UK)
Big City (1937) (uncredited) .... Himself
... aka Skyscraper Wilderness (1937) (USA: reissue title)
Stars Over Broadway (1935) (uncredited) .... Himself
Sweet Surrender (1935) .... Himself
Prizefighter and the Lady, The (1933) .... Himself, a Promoter
... aka Every Woman's Man (1933)
Mr. Broadway (1933) .... Himself
Manhattan Madness (1925) .... Steve O'Dare
Winning His Way (1924)
Daredevil Jack (1920)

Jack Dempsey is probably the only heavyweight boxer (until, arguably, Muhammed Ali) to be quoted in a major textbook of English literature: The ABC's of Reading by Ezra Pound.

Loosely paraphrased, the anecdote runs that Dempsey was being interviewed for the Nth time, before the Tunney fight on how he would handle a so-called "scientific" boxer. He brushed off the comment by countering that he was tired of being characterized as ignorant, almost sub-human, and pointed out that he also enjoyed reading, and showed the reporter a book about Russian history with a bookmark stuck about three-quarters of the way through.

The reporter, undeterred, asked him why he wasn't reading a book having something to do with boxing, at which Dempsey cried, in frustration:

"I never was a Grand Duke!"

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