A Winner Never Quits
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A Winner Never Quits | |
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Genre | Biography Drama Family Sport |
Written by | Burt Prelutsky |
Directed by | Mel Damski |
Starring | Keith Carradine Mare WinninghamDennis Weaver Fionnula Flanagan Huckleberry Fox |
Theme music composer | Dana Kaproff |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | Daniel H. Blatt Robert Singer |
Producers | James Keach Lynn Raynor |
Production locations | Chattanooga, Tennessee Long Beach, California Los Angeles |
Cinematography | Joseph F. Biroc |
Editor | Michael A. Stevenson |
Running time | 96 min. |
Production companies | Columbia Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | April 14, 1986 |
A Winner Never Quits is a 1986 television film based on the true story of baseball player Pete Gray, the first one-armed man ever to play major league baseball, hired in 1943 as a "freak attraction" and wartime morale-booster by the Memphis Chicks, Class-A minor league ball club.
Though a success, Gray maintains a tough, defensive veneer, which is softened only by the love of his life Annie and the adulation of baseball fan Nelson Gary Jr., who has also lost an arm (and who would, in real life, become a top minor-league ballplayer himself). With the war depleting big-league baseball's manpower in 1945, Pete Gray finally achieves his goal of entering the Majors when he is hired by the St. Louis Browns.
Plot
Raised in the Northeastern Pennsylvania mining town of Nanticoke, Pete Gray loses his right arm while still a young boy. But through the encouragement of his immigrant parents, Antoinette and Peter Wyshner Sr., and the constant coaching of his older brother Whitey, Gray never gives up on his dream of playing professional baseball. Driven by anger, he finally makes it to the big leagues. But it isn't until he agrees to meet handicapped youngster Nelson Gary Jr., who idolizes him, that Gray finally comes to terms with several life realizations.
Cast
Actor | Role |
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Keith Carradine | Pete (Wyshner) Gray |
Mare Winningham | Annie |
G.W. Bailey | Tatum |
Dennis Weaver | Peter Wyshner |
Huckleberry Fox | Nelson Gary Jr. |
Jack Kehoe | Bloom |
Fionnula Flanagan | Antoinette Wyshner |
Ed O'Neill | Whitey Wyshner |
Dana Delany | Nora |
Charles Hallahan | Nelson Gary Sr. |
Mary Jo Deschanel | Mrs. Gary |
Jeff McCracken | Sheldrake |
Steve Rees | Young Pete Gray |
Andrew Lubeskie | Young Whitey |
Brad Sullivan | Taylor |
John Hostetter | Sergeant |
Ted Henning | Brook |
Home media
A Winner Never Quits was released on VHS on August 18, 1993, by Columbia Tri-Star.
See also
External links
- 1986 television films
- 1986 films
- 1980s biographical drama films
- 1980s sports films
- American baseball films
- American biographical drama films
- Films about amputees
- Sports films based on actual events
- Films directed by Mel Damski
- Cultural depictions of baseball players
- Biographical films about sportspeople
- ABC Motion Pictures films
- Films set in 1943
- Films set in 1945
- St. Louis Browns
- Columbia Pictures films
- 1980s American films
- Sports film stubs