Jim Thorpe: All American

Director: Michael Curtiz (1951)

Cast: Burt Lancaster, Charles Bickford, Steve Cochron, Billy Gray

This extraordinary film examines the life of Jim Thorpe, a gifted Native American Athlete who was brilliant in every sport he played. He excelled in football, baseball and was a world class Pentathlete and Decathlete. Thorpe became a living legend in the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, winning the first gold medals in both the Pentathlon and Decathlon King Gustav The 5th marveled at his prowess and telling him that "you are the greatest in the world" and Torpe replied, "thank you, King." Unfortunately Thorpe would be stripped of  his medals, when it was found that Thorpe had played semi-pro baseball before the Olympics and his family would not get them back until 1983 and the IOC restored all his records in 2022. After the Olympics Thorpe would play Baseball for the New York Giants, and later play pro football for New York Football team.

The great tragedy of Thorpe’s life was a the racism he suffered throughout and Burt Lancaster’s fantastic acting performance is on display throughout this film.

Fun Facts:

Burt Lancaster’s final film performance job was portating Moonlight Graham in Field of Dreams, pne of the most-beloved baseball films.

In the film, the young boy who played Thorpe as a boy was played by Billy Gray, who would go on play "Bud" on the popular 1950’s family sitcom TV Show "Father Knows Best."