''Tough Enough'' is a 1983 American

romantic drama Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

sports film A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the s ...

directed by Richard Fleischer and starring

Dennis Quaid Dennis William Quaid (born April 9, 1954) is an American actor known for a wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles. First gaining widespread attention in the late 1970s, some of his notable credits include '' Breaking Away'' (1979), '' The ...

Pam Grier Pamela Suzette Grier (born May 26, 1949) is an American actress and singer. Described by Quentin Tarantino as cinema's first female action star (although, there are some who dispute that claim and believe Cheng Pei-pei actually holds that distinc ...

Warren Oates Warren Mercer Oates (July 5, 1928 – April 3, 1982) was an American actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam Peckinpah, including ''The Wild Bunch'' (1969) and ''Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia'' (1974). A ...

(in his final film appearance) and Stan Shaw.

Plot synopsis

A down-on-his-luck

country & western Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer from Fort Worth enters a "

toughman The Toughman Contest, founded in 1979 in Bay City, Michigan by late boxing promoter Art Dore (1936-2022), is a chance for the novice amateur boxers (those with no more than five sanctioned wins in the past five years) to test themselves in the ...

" competition to help pay his family's bills. Surprisingly, he does well against the other fighters and wins enough matches to qualify for a national championship. An unexpected break forces him to choose between his passion for his music career and his new-found success.

Cast

as Art Long *

as James Neese * Stan Shaw as Coolidge *

as Myra * Carlene Watkins as Caroline *

Wilford Brimley Anthony Wilford Brimley (September 27, 1934 – August 1, 2020) was an American actor. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and working odd jobs in the 1950s, Brimley started working as an extra and stuntman in Western films in the l ...

as Bill Long * Steve "Monk" Miller as Tigran Baldasarian * Big John Hamilton as Big John * Eli Cummings as Gay Bob * 2nd Detroit Referee Robert "Bobby" Watson

References

External links

* * 1983 action films 1983 romantic drama films 1983 films 20th Century Fox films American boxing films American romantic drama films Films shot in Texas Films directed by Richard Fleischer Films set in Fort Worth, Texas 1980s English-language films 1980s American films {{sport-film-stub