Sugar Ray Leonard is a retired professional American boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. He was given the birth name Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother\'s favorite singer, Ray Charles.

Leonard was a shy child, and aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a Seat Pleasant, Maryland, flood, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, reading comic books and playing with his dog. \"He never did talk too much,\" his mother said. \"We never could tell what he was thinking. But I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him.