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You could call Max Baer Jr. a nepo baby, but I wouldn’t advise it. According to a 2017 interview with the golf magazine Fore, he has a penchant for punching anyone who so much as mentions his dad in his presence.
His dad also punched people, but he got paid handsomely for rearranging faces as the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Because Max Baer was one of the most feared pugilists of the 1930s, Baer Jr. became the target of neighborhood bullies. When papa told his son to punch back, the youngster did so with gusto. Baer Jr. loved his father and vehemently defends his honor to this day — to the extent that, if he ever crosses paths with Ron Howard and Russell Crowe, he’ll slug them for what he claims is an inaccurate portrayal of dear old dad in “Cinderella Man. (Good luck with that, ‘cuz Crowe, whose portrayal of Baer-beatin’ underdog James J. Braddock ranks among his 13 best, likes punching too.)
Certainly, Baer’s side career as an actor opened a few Hollywood doors for his son, but Baer Jr. proved endearingly adept at playing dumb. Jethro’s errant attempts to become everything from an office secretary to a brain surgeon generated some of the series’ biggest laughs; you can’t pull this off for nine seasons without possessing a good deal of talent.
For most of the 1960s, Baer Jr. was a bona fide television star … as Jethro. When the series concluded, he predictably labored to escape the dim hick stereotype. This is the point at which actors either quietly fade from view or loudly fall to pieces. Baer Jr. cannily chose another path.
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