O?Halloran had Christopher Reeve up against the wall during the making of the second Superman film, but director Richard Donner intervened?
?He wore a shaggy borsalino hat, a rough gray sports coat with white golf balls on it for buttons, a brown shirt, a yellow tie, pleated gray flannel slacks and alligator shoes with white explosions on the toes. From his outer breast pocket cascaded a show handkerchief of the same brilliant yellow as his tie. There were a couple of colored feathers tucked into the band of his hat, but he didn?t really need them. Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.??Farewell, My Lovely
The name Jack O?Halloran doesn?t come up much in conversations about great heavyweights. Or near great. Or very good. Or even adequate. All right, maybe adequate.
?The Giant? fought from 1966 to 1974. Save for a draw against Roosevelt Eddie, he won his first 16 fights. But he then began to unravel, losing to Joe Bugner, George Foreman, Mac Foster, Jack Bodell, Ron Stander, Ron Lyle, Ken Norton, and Boone Hickman, among others. True, he beat Cleveland Williams, but that was in 1971, when ?Big Cat? was well past his prime.
O?Halloran won California?s heavyweight title in 1972, beating Henry Clark, and successfully defended it against Robie Harris and Charlie Reno, but lost it to Howard Smith in what proved to be his last fight.
Jack wound up with a record of 34 wins, 17 by knockout, 21 losses, eight by knockout, and two draws.
Only a year after leaving the ring, the big man lucked out, scoring the plum role of Moose Malloy in 1975?s Farewell, My Lovely.
The best movie version of the Raymond Chandler classic is probably 1944?s Murder, My Sweet, starring Dick Powell as simile-loving private dick, Philip Marlowe, and Mike Mazurki ideally cast as Malloy. But the ?75 version, with Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, wearing a fedora as though born to it and a Victor Mature pinstripe, is a close second. That?s mainly because of Mitchum, what with that unmade bed of a face of his, but also because of O?Halloran. Moose is no-nonsense tough, sure, but he?s also got a heart. Another thing he?s got is moolah. Anyway, enough of it to hire Marlowe to find his beloved, little Velma Valento, who was ?cute, cuter than lace pants.? It?s a role that calls for depth, nuance, and poignancy, all of which O?Halloran supplies in spades.
Jack turned down the role of Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me, which instead went to recently deceased Richard Kiel. But he appeared as the Kryptonian goon, Non, in Superman and Superman II. A non-speaking role, and the one for which he?s best known, O?Halloran reports that most fans? reaction on meeting him is, ?My God, he can talk!?
He also could shove. He had Christopher Reeve up against the wall during the making of the second Superman film, but director Richard Donner intervened, pointing out that hitting Reeve could prove impolitic.
Unlike so many boxers, and actors, the 71-year-old?s life seems to be the stuff that dreams are made of. All right, that?s Sam Spade, not Philip Marlowe. Sue me.
One other thing: O?Halloran claims his father was Albert Anastasia, ?The Lord High Executioner.? So, a little respect.
