Oscar Loves the Squared Circle

(By no means an exhaustive list, No Mas takes you back through the years and the Academy Awards' longstanding love affair with the fight game in all its vicissitudes.)

The Champ (1931)
Best Picture Nominee
King Vidor - Best Director Nominee
Wallace Beery - Best Actor Winner
Beery stars (appropriately) as a drunken ex-heavyweight champion who takes one last fight for the sake of his son. The original of the '79 Jon Voight/Ricky Schroeder tearjerker. Beery tied with Frederic March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) for Best Actor.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
Best Picture Nominee
Alexander Hall - Best Director Nominee
Robert Montgomery - Best Actor Nominee
James Gleason - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
The original of Warren Beatty's 1978 Heaven Can Wait in which all of the names are the same (Joe Pendleton, Max Corcoran, Mr. Jordan the Angel, of course) but Joe is a boxer, not the quarterback of the Rams.

Body and Soul (1947)
John Garfield - Best Actor Nominee
A quintessential Hollywood depiction of the boxing universe. Young and naive fighter Charley Davis, played by John Garfield, is increasingly led down a corrupt path by his crooked manager against the wishes of his loving mother.

Champion (1949)
Kirk Douglas - Best Actor Nominee
Arthur Kennedy - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Based on a short story by Ring Lardner. Kirk Douglas playes "Midge" Kelly, a heavyweight with a wild streak.

The Quiet Man (1952)
Best Picture Winner
John Ford - Best Director Winner
Victor McLaglen - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
A John Wayne/John Ford classic about an ex-fighter who has accidentally killed a man in a bout. He moves to Ireland and takes over his family farm and falls in love, etc.

On the Waterfront (1954)
Best Picture Winner
Elia Kazan - Best Director Winner
Marlon Brando - Best Actor Winner
Lee J. Cobb - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Karl Malden - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Rod Steiger - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Eva Marie Saint - Best Supporting Actress Nominee
You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody. Instead of a bum, which is what I am.

The Great White Hope (1970)
James Earl Jones - Best Actor Nominee
Jane Alexander - Best Actress Nominee
James Earl Jones as Jack Johnson in an adaption from the famous play. Great movie.


Fat City (1973)
Susan Tyrell - Best Supporting Actress Nominee
John Huston directs this underrated movie based on Leonard Gardner's famous boxing/noir novel.

Rocky (1976)
Best Picture Winner
John G. Avildsen - Best Director Winner
Sylvester Stallone - Best Actor Nominee
Talia Shire - Best Actress Nominee
Burgess Meredith - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Burt Young - Best Supporting Actor Nominee

Raging Bull (1980)
Best Picture Nominee
Martin Scorsese - Best Director Nominee
Robert Deniro - Best Actor Winner
Joe Pesci - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Cathy Moriarty - Best Supporting Actress Nominee

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Best Picture Nominee
Best Director Nominee
John Travolta - Best Actor Nominee
Samuel L. Jackson - Best Supporting Actor Nominee
Uma Thurman - Best Supporting Actress Nominee
No, it's not a boxing movie, per se, but a crucial plot twist hinges on Bruce Willis's turn as a stubborn pug who refuses to take a dive.

The Hurricane (1999)
Denzel Washington - Best Actor Nominee

Ali (2001)
Will Smith - Best Actor Nominee

Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Best Picture Winner
Clint Eastwood - Best Director Winner
Clint Eastwood - Best Actor Nominee
Hilary Swank - Best Actress Winner
Morgan Freeman - Best Supporting Actor Nominee

Cinderella Man (2005)
Paul Giamatti - Best Supporting Actor Nominee