Joe Kirkwood Jr.

Best remembered as strapping comic strip boxer Joe Palooka on screen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, fair-haired, amiable-looking, exceedingly athletic Joe Kirkwood, Jr. may have been the son of renowned professional golfer and trick artist Joe Kirkwood, but he was actually born Reginald Thomas Kirkwood on May 30, 1920 in Melbourne, Australia, the second of two sons. His father eventually took young Reginald and older brother Donald to the United States to live where they settled in Philadelphia for a time before moving to Florida. Joe eventually boarded at a military academy in Georgia where he excelled in sports, including golf, tennis, swimming and boxing. It was at this juncture that he started to win sports tournaments himself and decided to bill himself "Joe Kirkwood, Jr." in honor of his famous father.Despite his sports capabilities, Joe Jr. suffered from asthma and high blood pressure and, after joining the Army in 1943, was medically discharged 8 months into hi... [Details Intro]