Jack Dempsey

Dempsey married third wife singer Hannah Williams in 1933 and had two daughters. He joined the coast guard during World War II and generally kept to himself. In 1936, he opened Jack Dempsey's Restaurant in New York City, which would remain open for over thirty years. His third marriage, like the previous two, ended in divorce in 1943 and he eventually married for the fourth and final time in 1958, to Deanna Piatelli. His retirement was marked by many awards and accolades, including induction to the Boxing Hall of Fame and a seventy-fifth birthday party at Madison Square Garden. He died in 1983, after a series of heart problems, at the age of eighty-seven.

Jack Dempsey's career is remembered not only for his achievements but for the precedents he set. He came to represent the boom of the 1920s and the rugged determination of the American dream during the golden age of sports. His is the prototypical boxing story and there are shades of Dempsey in every great boxer that followed. He single-handedly moved boxing from the back rooms of saloons to the forefront of American society and his life outside of the ring continues to serve as a blueprint for retired superstars in every corner of the sporting world.