1997

Don King: Only in America
HBO movie
John Herzfeld, director
Charles Skouras, unit production manager
James Freitag, first assistant director
Martin Jedlicka, second assistant director

The fight promoter with the towering white hair and run of gaudy patter is hyper-enlivened via a powerhouse performance by Ving Rhames in this made-for-cable triumph. Based on Jack Newfield's biography, this film takes King from a probable career in street crime to the heights of heavyweight boxing promotion to the management of the careers of Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and other ring greats. Vondie Curtis Hall, Keith David, Darius McCrary, Lou Rawls, Ron Liebman and Jeremy Pivan co-star in Herzfeld's provocative biopic. Rhames famously won the Golden Globe Award for best actor and gave the trophy to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon at the presentation.