My Life Among the Icons

"His connection at age fifteen with L.A.'s most notorious gangster, his sinister lifestyle while working for a renowned private investigator, Johnny Ortiz's exciting life involved close friendships with Hollywood superstars and sports champions. In Palm Springs he mingled with the Rat Pack; in Las Vegas he attended celebrity-ridden parties; in Los Angeles the saloons he owned became a hangout for sports figures and famous actors. Champions worked out at his legendary Main St. Gym and most of Hollywood's top boxing movie gym scenes were filmed there including the first three Rocky movies. In his revealing reminiscences Ortiz fondly relates previously untold stories of celebrities including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Henry Fonda, Antonio Banderas, Woody Harrelson, Robert Mitchum, Lynda Carter, Olivia De Havilland, Bette Davis, Jackie Gleason, Ben Johnson, Dorothy Lamour, Milton Berle, Mickey Rooney, Lenny Bruce, Cliff Gorman, Phil Crosby, and John Drew Barrymore, along with sports icons like Muhammad Ali, O.J. Simpson, Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, Rocky Marciano, and Joe Louis. Johnny Ortiz has been a fighter, trainer, manager, boxing historian and a twelve year host of his own radio show. He is a longtime member of the Screen Actors Guild, has numerous TV and film credits, and is also an accomplished stage actor. In 1999, he completed his role opposite Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson in the film, 'Play It To The Bone.' In 2001, director Michael Mann cast him in the Will Smith movie, 'Ali."