Early Life
Quentin Breese was born in 1918 in Leonardville, Kansas of Irish and English extraction. He began boxing when he was a young boy in school and had his first professional fight in 1937 when he knocked out Al Freida in Kansas City in four rounds. He battled Lew Jenkins twice in 1939 and squared off against Sammyangott the following year. Both Jenkins and Angott later wore the lightweight crown. Breese went on to become a local celebrity and earned the nickname "Baby" because he looked more like a kid than a fighter. Standing at only 5'6" tall and weighing in at 137 pounds, he was ranked as one of the first ten lightweights in the world.
His fame brought him to Hollywood where he worked alongside James Cagney in City for Conquest (1940) and Robert Ryan in Golden Gloves (1940) teaching them boxing moves and by being a stand-in for the fight scenes. He continued to work on film in Hollywood until World War II started. Many ring-wise veterans share the opinion that Breese might have battled his way to the top of the welterweight class had not the war interrupted his career.
He joined the United States Marine Corps on May 13, 1943 and was assigned to the USS Wilkes-Barre. He was present during the fire on the USS Bunker Hill in 1945 and when the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945.
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