Director
Elia Kazan hired Donoghue at $75 a day to coach
Marlon Brando . The
training included road work through Central Park and sessions in the
ring at Stillman's Gym. Director
Nicholas Ray, who became a friend of
Donoghue's, planned a film on the boxer's life that was to star
James Dean. However, Dean's death in a car crash ended the project. Donoghue was also a friend of
Norman Mailer, who credited the former fighter with giving him the line "Tough Guys Don't Dance," which he used as the
title of one of his novels.