Happy 86th, Jake LaMotta

On July 10, 1921, a baby boy named Giacobbe LaMotta was born in the Bronx. Jake, as he was called, became a fighter, known as the Bronx Bull, and he amassed a record of 83-19-4 in an often bloody, brutal boxing career in which he rarely went more than a couple months without fighting and often took as much punishment as he gave.

To the extent that he's still known, more than half a century after his last fight, it's because of Raging Bull, the great film Martin Scorsese made about LaMotta's life. I'd bet that millions of people who know LaMotta from the movie don't realize that he's still alive. His life story is hardly that of the type you expect to make it past 80, but he made an appearance just two years ago for the 25th anniversary of Raging Bull, and he's still with us today.