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Best known for portraying the robust comic strip boxer Joe Palooka on screen in the late 1940s and early 1950s, fair-haired and amiable Joe Kirkwood, Jr. was an exceptionally athletic figure. Although he was the son of famed professional golfer and trick shot artist Joe Kirkwood, he was actually born Reginald Thomas Kirkwood on May 30, 1920, in Melbourne, Australia, the younger of two sons. His father eventually moved Reginald and his older brother Donald to the United States, where the family lived in Philadelphia before relocating to Florida. Joe later attended a military academy in Georgia, excelling in sports such as golf, tennis, swimming, and boxing. It was during this time he began winning tournaments and adopted the stage name "Joe Kirkwood, Jr." in honor of his father.
Despite his athletic talents, Joe Jr. suffered from asthma and high blood pressure. After enlisting in the Army in 1943, he was medically discharged after eight months. The following year, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force but was released for the same health issues.
While playing in a Los Angeles golf tournament, the striking athlete caught the attention of director David Butler, who arranged a Warner Bros. screen test for him, leading to a contract. After a few minor, uncredited roles in films like Night and Day (1946), he was released. Later, Monogram Pictures conducted a nationwide search for an actor to play their lead role of the wholesome boxer Joe Palooka, and they found their ideal candidate in the fresh-faced and handsome Joe Kirkwood, Jr. Alongside comedy legend Leon Errol as his manager, he starred in 11 Palooka films from 1946 to 1951, sharing the screen with various actresses who played Joe's girlfriend and later wife. Having been an amateur boxer himself, Joe performed his own boxing stunts. Between filming, he continued competing in professional golf tournaments.
After the Palooka series, his career outside that role was limited. In 1954, he starred in and served as associate producer for the TV series The Joe Palooka Story, with real-life wife Cathy Downs portraying Palooka’s wife Anne, and Luis Van Rooten playing the role of Knobby. When the show ended, Downs filed for divorce, citing abandonment, claiming Joe prioritized golf over their marriage. In 1968, Kirkwood began a long-term relationship with the much younger Joyce Woltz, whom he married in 1980.
Apart from a few roles on radio, television, and the film The Marriage-Go-Round (1961), he focused entirely on his golf career. Later, he became an entrepreneur, making savvy investments including purchasing land in the Los Angeles Valley area where he developed a golf course, restaurant, and sports center. He also owned a bowling alley. Joe Kirkwood, Jr. passed away at age 86 in Hesperia, California, and is buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley.
