Sonny Liston

Charles "Sonny" Liston (May 8, 1932 – December 30, 1970), was a boxer who became world Heavyweight champion, and whose life and personality were always obscure. As a boxer, his nickname was The Big Bear.

Trivia

• Liston's image appears on The Beatles's album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• Liston made a cameo appearance as a boxer in the 1968 film Head.
• Several books about his life have been published, and his life has also been documented on TV documentaries and a TV movie.
• Mark Knopfler penned the biographical and somewhat sympathetic "Song For Sonny Liston" for his 2004 album Shangri-La.
• Liston's name appears in The Mountain Goats song 'Love Love Love' on the album The Sunset Tree, and in The Dictators' song 'Borneo Jimmy' on the album Bloodbrothers. He is also mentioned in the first line of "Glenn Tipton," the first track on Sun Kil Moon's album Ghosts of the Great Highway.
• Sonny has an adopted son, Paul Liston
• The 1995 song "Sunny" by British pop singer Morrissey, is reportedly about Liston.