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The documentary is based on this book.
I first saw Red Wing Bob Probert in person at the federal court house in downtown Detroit where he showed up after being arrested in 1989 at the Detroit-Windsor border for possessing 14 grams of cocaine hidden in his underpants.
I was a reporter with The Detroit News. He was with his talkative attorney Harold Fried and he seemed rather subdued and polite. He ended up serving three months in a federal prison in Minnesota and three more months in a halfway house before returning to the ice.
On the ice, Probert could be anything but subdued. He was one half of the "Bruise Brothers" (Joey Kocur was the other half). He was a tough guy known as an enforcer in the NHL at a time when fighting was far more pervasive than it is today.
Now, a documentary on his life, "Tough Guy," has been made. It's directed by Geordie Day, who previously co-directed Goalie, a film on former NHL goaltender Clint Malarchuk, according to Deadline Hollywood.
It's based on a book by Day’s mother Kirstie McLellan Day, who co-wrote it with Probert, who died after collapsing on his boat on Lake St. Clair in 2010 at age 45. Probert’s widow Dani exec produces the film, which premieres on Canada’s Superchannel on December 14 and will air in the U.S. in 2019, Peter White writes.
-- Allan Lengel
