“Forgotten Hollywood”- Goodbye to the Candidate…
Manny P. here…
“`John V. Tunney successful campaign for a California seat in the United States Senate became the basis for the 1972 Robert Redford movie The Candidate. Tunney defeated a former star-turned-senator, and became among the youngest candidates to sit in the senate in the 20th century when he won his seat in 1970 at age 36. And then, John was one of the youngest in recent history to lose the congressional seat when defeated after one term.
“`Tunney was born in New York, and his dad was boxer Gene Tunney, a 1920s heavyweight champion, whose two victories over Jack Dempsey were among the most renowned fights of the 20th century. The elder Tunney was insistent that his sons pursue professions other than boxing. John chose law and politics.
“`The charismatic young Democrat was often compared to the Robert Kennedy; but, had to swing to the center to beat the 68-year-old Republican incumbent, George Murphy, in 1970. Director Michael Ritchie worked on Tunney’s campaign; and, this generational story, and the machinations of elections contained perfect fodder for the political-minded Hollywood of the day. Redford took on the role of Bill McKay, based on Tunney. This production was a critical and commercial success, winning an Academy Award for screenwriter Jeremy Larner.
“`In his next primary run, he defeated Tom Hayden. He would lose in the general election to S. I. Hayakawa. Tunney returned to a Los Angeles firm and resumed practicing law.
“`John Tunney (above) was 83.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2018 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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