Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
Cassius Marcellus Clay was an American painter and musician. He was the father of three-time World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali and Rahman Ali, and the paternal grandfather of Laila Ali. He married Odessa Lee O'Grady in 1934 and worked as a painter and a musician. He was described as "a handsome, mercurial, noisy, combative failed dreamer" and a "hard-drinking, skirt-chasing dandy of a daddy". His son Muhammad Ali described him as "the fanciest dancer in Louisville".Biography
Clay was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, the son of Herman H. Clay and Edith E. Greathouse. He had a sister and four brothers, including Nathaniel Clay. Clay's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay. His sister Eva said that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. According to DNA research, Muhammad Ali's paternal grandmother was Archer Alexander's great-granddaughter. Cassius Clay Sr was named after the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky.
Clay painted billboards and signs. He also played the piano, took piano lessons and wrote music. Around 1933, he married Odessa Lee O'Grady. He was a heavy drinker, which led to legal entanglements for reckless driving, disorderly conduct, and assault and battery. When asked in 1970 why he had not become a Muslim as his son had done, he said: "my religion is my talent, that which supports me."
Clay died at the age of 77 on February 8, 1990, after suffering a heart attack while leaving a department store in Kentucky.Legacy
Clay was portrayed by Arthur Adams in the 1977 film The Greatest and by Giancarlo Esposito in the 2001 Oscar-nominated film Ali.
