What 1942 biographical film tells the story of baseball player Lou Gehrig?

The 1942 biographical film about baseball player Lou Gehrig is The Pride of the Yankees.

Sam Wood directed the sports drama, which stars Gary Cooper as Gehrig and Teresa Wright as his wife, Eleanor. The story follows Gehrig from his youth and college years through his rise with the New York Yankees, his marriage, and his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, later widely known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The film was released only about a year after Gehrig's death at age 37. It concludes with a dramatization of his 1939 farewell at Yankee Stadium, associated with the famous “luckiest man” speech. The movie reshapes some events for dramatic effect, so it is best understood as a respectful Hollywood tribute rather than a scene-by-scene documentary biography.

Babe Ruth, Bill Dickey, Bob Meusel, and Mark Koenig appear as themselves. The film earned 11 Oscar nominations and won for film editing. It is sometimes confused with The Babe Ruth Story or The Stratton Story, but those films portray different baseball figures.