Champion (1949)
1949 film
- Released
- 7 April 1949
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Boxing film
- Director
- Mark Robson
- Screenplay
- Carl Foreman
- Producer
- Stanley Kramer
- Music
- Dimitri Tiomkin
- Cinematography
- Franz Planer
- Editing
- Harry W. Gerstad
- Starring
- Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman, Paul Stewart, Lola Albright, Harry Shannon, Esther Howard
- Running time
- 96 minutes
- Production company
- United Artists
- Distributor
- United Artists, Netflix
- Budget
- $595,000
Champion is a 1949 American sports drama film noir directed by Mark Robson with a screenplay written by Carl Foreman based on a short story by Ring Lardner. The film stars Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman and Lola Albright. The story recounts the struggles of boxer "Midge" Kelly fighting his own demons while working to achieve success in the ring.
The film won an Academy Award for Best Film Editing and gained five other nominations as well, including a Best Actor for Douglas and Best Supporting Actor for Kennedy.
Several clips from the film were used in Douglas' 1999 film Diamonds to illustrate his character's career as a boxer.
More films directed by Mark Robson
- The Harder They Fall 1956
Nominations
- Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
- Academy Award for Best Actor
- Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
- Academy Award for Best Film Editing
- Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
- Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q244865 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.