Drew Bundini Brown - Biography

Drew Bundini Brown (March 21, 1928 – September 24, 1987) was an assistant trainer and cornerman of Muhammad Ali throughout the former heavyweight champion's career, as well as occasional film actor.

Biography

Personal life

Brown, who was born in Midway, Florida, and raised in nearby Sanford, Florida, was a junior high school dropout after the eighth grade. The strapping young Brown, who had matured rapidly during puberty, was able to lie about his age and join the Navy as a messboy at age 13. Discharged two years later, he would become a United States Merchant Marine, and would spend 12 years traveling the world, later becoming a part of Sugar Ray Robinson's entourage as a cornerman.

In the early 1950s, while living in Harlem, New York, Brown met and married Rhoda Palestine, a white woman, and a native of Brooklyn, through whom he would eventually convert to Reform Judaism. Palestine's parents were of a Russian-Jewish extraction. In a time when interracial relationships and marriages were considered by many as taboo (in some southern states interracial marriage was still illegal), They had one son, Drew Brown III (born January 20, 1955, in Harlem), who later joined the United states Navy, became a fighter pilot and won numerous awards for his service. He then went on to write a best selling book titled You Gotta Believe. He is now a nationally known speaker. Drew III, having been born a Black Jew, was the only one to ever fly off of a Navy aircraft carrier, making U.S. military history. According to the autobiography of singer Ruth Brown (no relation), he was also the true father of her son Ronald David Jackson ("Ronnie"), though he was unaware of this during the boy's childhood.

Career with Muhammad Ali

Brown joined Ali's entourage as a cornerman in 1963, when the boxer was known as Cassius Clay, and remained with him until his final fight in 1981.

Brown was also one of Ali's speech writers. He wrote certain poems, such as coining Ali's famous and oft quoted :

"Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your hands can't hit what your eyes can't see."

Ali used the poem to taunt Sonny Liston at the press conference prior to his February 25, 1964 victory over the WBA and WBC champion to claim both titles.

Filmography

as Actor

• Penitentiary III (1987) .... Sugg/Inmate #2
• The Color Purple (1985) .... Jook Joint Patron
• Aaron Loves Angela (1975) .... Referee
• Shaft's Big Score! (1972) .... Willy
• Shaft (1971) .... Willy

as Self

• When We Were Kings (1996) (uncredited) .... Himself
• Doin' Time (1985) .... Himself (special appearance)
• Muhammad and Larry (1980) .... Himself
• The Greatest (1977) .... Himself
• "Am laufenden Band" (1976) .... Himself (1 TV episode, dated 22 May 1976 .... Himself

Archive footage

• Beat This!: A Hip hop History (1984) (TV) .... Himself
• A.K.A. Cassius Clay (1970) .... Himself

External links