Jake LaMotta
Encyclopedia
Giacobbe LaMotta better known as Jake LaMotta, nicknamed "The Bronx Bull" and "The Raging Bull", is a former American world middleweight
champion boxer
. He was portrayed by Robert De Niro
in the film Raging Bull.
born in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx, near the Pelham Parkway and Morris Park area. He was forced by his father into fighting other children to entertain neighborhood adults, who threw pocket change into the ring. LaMotta's father collected the money and used it to help pay the rent.
In 1941, at the age of 19, LaMotta turned professional
. During World War II
he was rejected for military service because of a mastoid operation on one of his ears.
, knocking him down in the first round of their first fight and then outpointing him over the course of 10 rounds during the second fight of their legendary six-bout rivalry.
On 14 November 1947, LaMotta was knocked out in four rounds by Billy Fox
. Suspecting the fight was fixed
, the New York State Athletic Commission
withheld purses for the fight and suspended LaMotta. The fight with Fox would come back to haunt LaMotta later in life, during a hearing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
.
In his testimony and in his later book, LaMotta admitted to throwing the fight in order to gain favor with the Mafia
. All involved agreed the fix was obvious and their staging inept. As LaMotta wrote,
The thrown fight and a payment of $20,000 to the Mafia got LaMotta his title bout against Marcel Cerdan
.
Marcel Cerdan
, who was the world champion. Cerdan, called by many boxing critics the greatest champion ever from France, dislocated his arm in the first round and gave up before the start of the 10th round. The official score had LaMotta as winner by a knockout in 10 rounds because the bell had already rung to begin that round when Cerdan announced he was quitting. A rematch was arranged, but while Cerdan was flying back to the United States to fight the rematch, his Air France
Lockheed Constellation
crashed in the Azores
, killing everyone on board. LaMotta met two challengers (Tiberio Mitri
and Laurent Dauthuille
) and beat them, and then he was challenged by Robinson for their rivalry's sixth fight. Held on February 14, 1951, Saint Valentine's Day, the fight became known as boxing's version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Robinson won by a technical knockout in the 13th round, when the fight was stopped with LaMotta lying on the ropes.
In 1960, LaMotta was called to testify before a U.S. Senate
sub-committee that was looking at underworld influence on boxing. He testified that he had thrown his bout with Billy Fox so that the mob would arrange a title bout for him.
In the mid-1950s, LaMotta suffered from a boxing injury and took time off to recover. He was always interested in baseball
and decided to form the Jake LaMotta All-Star team. They played in Sterling Oval which was located between 165th and 164th Streets between Clay and Teller Avenue in the Bronx. He also held professional fights at that field, and his brother Joey
often fought there.
, and became a stage actor and stand-up comedian
. He appeared in more than 15 films, including The Hustler
with Paul Newman
and Jackie Gleason
, in which he had a cameo role as a bartender.
in boxing. He rolled with punches, minimizing their force and damage when they landed, but he was also able to absorb many blows. In the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, his sixth bout with Robinson, LaMotta suffered numerous sickening blows to the head. Commentators could be heard saying "No man can take this kind of punishment!" But LaMotta did not go down. The fight was stopped by the referee in the 13th round, declaring it a TKO victory for Robinson.
LaMotta was one of the first boxers to adopt the "bully" style of fighting, in that he always stayed close and in punching range of his opponent, by stalking him around the ring, and sacrificed taking punches himself in order to land his own shots. Due to his aggressive, unrelenting style he was known as "The Bronx Bull". He boasted "No son-of-a-bitch ever knocked me off my feet", but that claim was ended in December 1952 at the hands of Danny Nardico when Nardico caught him with a hard right in the seventh round. LaMotta fell into the ropes and went down. After regaining his footing, he was unable to come out for the next round.
Raging Bull: My Story
. The film, Raging Bull, was initially only a minor box office success, but eventually became a huge critical success both for director Martin Scorsese
and actor Robert De Niro
, who gained about 60 pounds (27 kg) during the shooting of the film to play the older LaMotta in later scenes.
To accurately portray the younger LaMotta, De Niro trained with LaMotta until LaMotta felt he was ready to box professionally. De Niro lived in Paris for three months, eating at the finest restaurants in order to gain sufficient weight to portray LaMotta after retirement. De Niro won an Academy Award for Best Actor
for his performance.
The film depicts a violent and self-destructive LaMotta, who once goes as far as beating his own brother, manager Joey LaMotta
, while accusing him of having an affair with his (Jake's) then wife, Vickie LaMotta
. (In real life, this altercation was between LaMotta and his best friend Pete, not his brother Joey. The Joey character in the film is an amalgamation
to simplify the narrative.)
died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111
off the coast of Nova Scotia
, Canada.
His nephew, John LaMotta, fought in the heavyweight-novice class of the 2001 Golden Gloves
championship tournament.
As of 2007, LaMotta had been married six times and had four daughters, including Christi by his second wife Vikki and Stephanie by his fourth wife Dimitria.
He remains active on the speaking and autograph circuit, and has published several books about his career, his life, and his fights with Robinson.
He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
and was ranked 52nd on Ring Magazine's List of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years. The magazine also ranked him as one of the 10 greatest middleweights of all time.
Middleweight
Middleweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have begun in the 1840s. In the bare-knuckle era, the first middleweight championship fight was between Tom Chandler and Dooney Harris in 1897...
champion boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
. He was portrayed by Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
in the film Raging Bull.
Early life
LaMotta is an Italian-AmericanItalian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
born in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx, near the Pelham Parkway and Morris Park area. He was forced by his father into fighting other children to entertain neighborhood adults, who threw pocket change into the ring. LaMotta's father collected the money and used it to help pay the rent.
In 1941, at the age of 19, LaMotta turned professional
Professional Boxing
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, emerged in the early twentieth century as boxing gradually attained legitimacy and became a regulated, sanctioned sport. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse which is divided among the fighters and promoters as determined by contract...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was rejected for military service because of a mastoid operation on one of his ears.
Boxing records
LaMotta, who compiled a record of 83 wins, 19 losses and four draws with 30 KOs, was the first man to beat Sugar Ray RobinsonSugar Ray Robinson
Sugar Ray Robinson was an African-American professional boxer. Frequently cited as the greatest boxer of all time, Robinson's performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight...
, knocking him down in the first round of their first fight and then outpointing him over the course of 10 rounds during the second fight of their legendary six-bout rivalry.
On 14 November 1947, LaMotta was knocked out in four rounds by Billy Fox
Billy Fox (boxer)
"Blackjack" Billy Fox is a former American light heavyweight boxer. He is best known for having won a fix fight against future middleweight champion Jake LaMotta.- Boxing career :...
. Suspecting the fight was fixed
Match fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
, the New York State Athletic Commission
New York State Athletic Commission
The New York State Athletic Commission or NYSAC, also known as the New York Athletic Commission, regulates all contests and exhibitions of unarmed combat within the state of New York, including licensure and supervision of promoters, boxers, professional wrestlers, seconds, ring officials,...
withheld purses for the fight and suspended LaMotta. The fight with Fox would come back to haunt LaMotta later in life, during a hearing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
.
In his testimony and in his later book, LaMotta admitted to throwing the fight in order to gain favor with the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
. All involved agreed the fix was obvious and their staging inept. As LaMotta wrote,
The first round, a couple of belts to his head, and I see a glassy look coming over his eyes. Jesus Christ, a couple of jabs and he's going to fall down? I began to panic a little. I was supposed to be throwing a fight to this guy, and it looked like I was going to end up holding him on his feet ... By [the fourth round], if there was anybody in the Garden who didn't know what was happening, he must have been dead drunk."
The thrown fight and a payment of $20,000 to the Mafia got LaMotta his title bout against Marcel Cerdan
Marcel Cerdan
Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa...
.
Boxing career
LaMotta won the world title in 1949 in Detroit against FrenchmanFrench people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Marcel Cerdan
Marcel Cerdan
Marcellin "Marcel" Cerdan was a French pied noir world boxing champion who was considered by many boxing experts and fans to be France's greatest boxer, and beyond to be one of the best to have learned his craft in Africa...
, who was the world champion. Cerdan, called by many boxing critics the greatest champion ever from France, dislocated his arm in the first round and gave up before the start of the 10th round. The official score had LaMotta as winner by a knockout in 10 rounds because the bell had already rung to begin that round when Cerdan announced he was quitting. A rematch was arranged, but while Cerdan was flying back to the United States to fight the rematch, his Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
Lockheed Constellation
Lockheed Constellation
The Lockheed Constellation was a propeller-driven airliner powered by four 18-cylinder radial Wright R-3350 engines. It was built by Lockheed between 1943 and 1958 at its Burbank, California, USA, facility. A total of 856 aircraft were produced in numerous models, all distinguished by a...
crashed in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, killing everyone on board. LaMotta met two challengers (Tiberio Mitri
Tiberio Mitri
Tiberio Mitri was an Italian boxer who fought from 1946 to 1957. During his career, Mitri was the Italian and European middleweight champion....
and Laurent Dauthuille
Laurent Dauthuille
Laurent Dauthuille was a French boxer.Arriving in Montreal in the late 1940s, he was nicknamed the Tarzan of Buzenval. On September 13, 1950 he fought Jake LaMotta, a boxer he once bested by unanimous decision, for the world middleweight championship...
) and beat them, and then he was challenged by Robinson for their rivalry's sixth fight. Held on February 14, 1951, Saint Valentine's Day, the fight became known as boxing's version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Robinson won by a technical knockout in the 13th round, when the fight was stopped with LaMotta lying on the ropes.
In 1960, LaMotta was called to testify before a U.S. Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
sub-committee that was looking at underworld influence on boxing. He testified that he had thrown his bout with Billy Fox so that the mob would arrange a title bout for him.
In the mid-1950s, LaMotta suffered from a boxing injury and took time off to recover. He was always interested in baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
and decided to form the Jake LaMotta All-Star team. They played in Sterling Oval which was located between 165th and 164th Streets between Clay and Teller Avenue in the Bronx. He also held professional fights at that field, and his brother Joey
Joey LaMotta
Giuseppe "Joey" LaMotta is the brother and one time manager of former world middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta. LaMotta was played by Joe Pesci in Raging Bull, the 1980 film that portrayed his brother's turbulent life and career. LaMotta also boxed for a short time in 1945 and 1946. His...
often fought there.
Post-boxing
After retirement, LaMotta owned and managed barsBar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
, and became a stage actor and stand-up comedian
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
. He appeared in more than 15 films, including The Hustler
The Hustler (film)
The Hustler is a 1961 American drama film directed by Robert Rossen from the 1959 novel of the same name he and Sidney Carroll adapted for the screen...
with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
and Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...
, in which he had a cameo role as a bartender.
Fighting style
LaMotta is recognized as having one of the best chinsChin (boxing)
In combat sports such as boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, a fighter's chin is a figurative term that refers to a his/her ability to tolerate physical trauma to the head without being knocked unconscious...
in boxing. He rolled with punches, minimizing their force and damage when they landed, but he was also able to absorb many blows. In the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, his sixth bout with Robinson, LaMotta suffered numerous sickening blows to the head. Commentators could be heard saying "No man can take this kind of punishment!" But LaMotta did not go down. The fight was stopped by the referee in the 13th round, declaring it a TKO victory for Robinson.
LaMotta was one of the first boxers to adopt the "bully" style of fighting, in that he always stayed close and in punching range of his opponent, by stalking him around the ring, and sacrificed taking punches himself in order to land his own shots. Due to his aggressive, unrelenting style he was known as "The Bronx Bull". He boasted "No son-of-a-bitch ever knocked me off my feet", but that claim was ended in December 1952 at the hands of Danny Nardico when Nardico caught him with a hard right in the seventh round. LaMotta fell into the ropes and went down. After regaining his footing, he was unable to come out for the next round.
Raging Bull
Hollywood executives approached LaMotta with the idea of a movie about his life, based on his 1970 memoirMemoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
Raging Bull: My Story
Raging Bull: My Story
Raging Bull: My Story is a 1970 memoir by middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta. In 1980, the book was adapted into the well known film Raging Bull, by Martin Scorsese....
. The film, Raging Bull, was initially only a minor box office success, but eventually became a huge critical success both for director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and actor Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, who gained about 60 pounds (27 kg) during the shooting of the film to play the older LaMotta in later scenes.
To accurately portray the younger LaMotta, De Niro trained with LaMotta until LaMotta felt he was ready to box professionally. De Niro lived in Paris for three months, eating at the finest restaurants in order to gain sufficient weight to portray LaMotta after retirement. De Niro won an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for his performance.
The film depicts a violent and self-destructive LaMotta, who once goes as far as beating his own brother, manager Joey LaMotta
Joey LaMotta
Giuseppe "Joey" LaMotta is the brother and one time manager of former world middleweight boxing champion, Jake LaMotta. LaMotta was played by Joe Pesci in Raging Bull, the 1980 film that portrayed his brother's turbulent life and career. LaMotta also boxed for a short time in 1945 and 1946. His...
, while accusing him of having an affair with his (Jake's) then wife, Vickie LaMotta
Vikki LaMotta
Vikki LaMotta , born Beverly Thailer in The Bronx, New York, was an ex-wife of boxer Jake LaMotta....
. (In real life, this altercation was between LaMotta and his best friend Pete, not his brother Joey. The Joey character in the film is an amalgamation
Amalgamation (fiction)
Amalgamation or amalgam, when used to refer to a fictional character or place, refers to one that was created by combining, or is perceived to be a combination, of several other previously existing characters or locations...
to simplify the narrative.)
Later life
In February 1998, LaMotta's elder son Jake LaMotta, Jr., died of liver cancer. In September 1998, his younger son Joseph LaMottaJoseph LaMotta
Joseph LaMotta was the son of former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta and his second wife Vikki LaMotta....
died in the crash of Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111
Swissair Flight 111 was a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11 on a scheduled airline flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States to Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, Switzerland...
off the coast of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Canada.
His nephew, John LaMotta, fought in the heavyweight-novice class of the 2001 Golden Gloves
Golden Gloves
The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States. The Golden Gloves is often the term used to refer to the National Golden Gloves competition, but it also can represent several other amateur tournaments, including regional golden gloves...
championship tournament.
As of 2007, LaMotta had been married six times and had four daughters, including Christi by his second wife Vikki and Stephanie by his fourth wife Dimitria.
He remains active on the speaking and autograph circuit, and has published several books about his career, his life, and his fights with Robinson.
He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
and was ranked 52nd on Ring Magazine's List of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years. The magazine also ranked him as one of the 10 greatest middleweights of all time.
External links
- Lamotta Near End Of Trail Lewiston Daily Sun, January 3, 1953