RIP Brando’s Boxing Coach
By Michael Woods August 25th, 2006Former fighter, Roger Donoghue, 75, KO’d by Alzheimer’s
Roger Donoghue, the man who taught Marlon Brando to box for the movie ‘’On the Waterfront,'’ died on Sunday in Greenport, N.Y., at age 75.
The cause was complications from Alzheimer’s, his wife, Fay Moore, said, according to the NY Times.
The writer Budd Schulberg credited Donoghue with partly inspiring the classic line of ex-pug/whistleblower Terry Malloy, played by Brando: ‘’I could have been a contender,'’ for the classic flick “On the Waterfront.”
Donoghue, born in Yonkers, debuted as a pro in 1948. He was a busy boxer in the 150-pound class, during a time when the five boroughs of New York City were all host to club fights on a regular basis.
He fought in Brooklyn and Queens and hit the big time when he gloved up at Madison Square Garden in 1951. Donoghue’s opponent was one George Flores, who he had defeated just two weeks earlier in White Plains, NY, via an eighth round TKO. At MSG, Donoghue defeated Flores again, dispatching him in the eight round via straight KO.
(Tragically, Flores died four days later from injuries sustained during the bout, and the accumulated punishment absorbed during the other two times he had been knocked out within a month’s span.)
Donoghue’s verve for the sport as an active participant dimmed in later years but he still kept his heart in the game, and bragged that Brando, his student, had the goods: ‘’I've got him shooting straight jabs, and he’s already learned to hook off the jab. I can make a hell of a middleweight out of this kid.'’
Donoghue retired as a pro in 1952, at age 21, with a 27-4-1 record, and would quite likely have returned one of those wins with eagerness…
August 26th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Interesting note I haven’t seen anywhere else. Great job Sweet science
August 26th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Roger was a good guy with genuine wit. He loved a good line, as when he once told me and Mailer a long story about some gangster cronies that finished up with the punch line, “Tough guys don’ dance.” I jumped up and down, slapped Roger on the back and proclaimed this a great title for a novel. Mailer, con man that he is, turned and quitely said, “We’ll see who uses it first.” Well, the title of the Mailer book,. “Tough Don’t Dance,” ain’t mine, it ain’t Norman’s. Donahue was the one who came up with it. At Peppy’s waterside restaurant in Ptown, a great big smile on his face, the raconteur beginning and end.
As for his claim that he brought Brando along for real as a puncher, I don’t doubt it. Ask Ron Gallela, the NYC-based paparazzo known for dogging Jackie O. Roger had nothing to do with this but one night in the late 70s Brando and Dick Cavett were in Chinatown, leaving a restaurant, when the imprudent lensman came out of nowhere and came too close — Brando, with a single shot, left him with a busted jaw that was wired up for months afterwards.
Bless, Roger. You were one of the good ones.
Peter Manso