The Greatest (1977 film)

The Greatest is a 1977 film about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali, in which Ali plays himself. It was directed by Tom Gries and Monte Hellman. The film follows Ali's life from the 1960 Olympics to his regaining the heavyweight crown from George Foreman in their famous "Rumble in the Jungle" fight in 1974. The footage of the boxing matches themselves are largely the actual footage from the time involved.

Contents

• Muhammad ali trailer the greatest 1977
• Muhammad ali clip from the greatest 1977 starring ali himself
• Cast
• Soundtrack
• References

The movie is based on the book The Greatest: My Own Story written by Muhammad Ali and Richard Durham and edited by Toni Morrison.

The song "The Greatest Love of All" was written for this film and sung by George Benson; it was later covered by Whitney Houston.

Cast

Muhammad Ali as Himself

Ernest Borgnine as Angelo Dundee

John Marley as Dr. Ferdie Pacheco

Lloyd Haynes as Herbert Muhammad

Robert Duvall as Bill McDonald

David Huddleston as Cruikshank

Ben Johnson as Hollis

James Earl Jones as Malcolm X

Dina Merrill as Velvet Green

Roger E. Mosley as Sonny Liston

Paul Winfield as Draft Lawyer

Annazette Chase as Belinda Ali

Mira Waters as Ruby Sanderson

Drew Bundini Brown as Himself

Malachi Throne as Payton Jory

Richard Venture as Colonel Cedrich

Arthur Adams as Cassius Clay Sr

Stack Pierce as Johnson

Paul Mantee as Carrara

Skip Homeier as the Major

David Clennon as the Captain

Nai Bonet as Suzie Gomez

Rahman Ali, Howard Bingham, Harold Conrad, Don Dunphy, Lloyd Wells, Pat Patterson, and Gene Kilroy appear as themselves.

There are many uncredited roles in the film including some major characters, such as Ruby Sanderson and his girlfriend, Belinda Board, who became his wife, and Herbert Mohammed, son of Elijah Muhammad, who was Ali's manager at one point.

Lonette McKee was originally going to portray the role played by Annazette Chase.

Soundtrack

All music composed and produced by Michael Masser, and arranged by Masser and Lee Holdridge.