One of Hollywood's biggest stars signs on to portray Gehrig
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It has been 84 years since Gary Cooper’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of Yankees legend Lou Gehrig in “The Pride of the Yankees.”
But baseball’s Iron Horse is set to get the silver screen treatment once again.
Hollywood star Glen Powell is attached to play Gehrig in an untitled film about the baseball icon, according to a report by Deadline. The movie will be directed by Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater, and “Saturday Night Live” creator and lifelong Yankees fan Lorne Michaels is one of the film’s producers.
It’s unknown when production will start or what periods of Gehrig’s life will be covered, but his Yankees teammate Babe Dahlgren is said to have an important role in the film, according to Deadline. Dahlgren replaced Gehrig as the Yankees’ first baseman on May 2, 1939, ending Gehrig's consecutive streak of 2,130 games played. That stood as MLB’s all-time mark for more than five decades before Cal Ripken Jr. surpassed it in 1995.
Gehrig, one of the greatest players in MLB history, was a two-time MVP and a seven-time World Series champion while playing on the Yankees’ dynastic teams of the 1920s and ‘30s.
His career was cut short by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disorder that is commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was diagnosed with ALS in 1939 and retired later that year. He passed away on June 2, 1941, just 18 months before Cooper played him in the dramatized portrayal of Gehrig’s life that went on to earn 11 Oscar nominations.
June 2 is now annually recognized as Lou Gehrig Day across Major League Baseball.
Powell and Linklater have teamed together for multiple major motion pictures, including the 2016 baseball comedy “Everybody Wants Some!!” Powell has played a main role in some of Hollywood’s biggest recent blockbusters, including 2022’s “Top Gun: Maverick” and 2024’s “Twisters.”