Woody Strode was a respected actor with strong African and Native American ancestry. The filmmaker would ask his Western star: How rich did you get while Jimmy was risking his life?, According to Michael Munns John Wayne The Man Behind The Myth, Strode said that the directors constant ridiculing really p***ed Wayne off, but he would never take it out on Ford., The reason being that the filmmakers movies had made him a Hollywood star and the Pompey actor claimed: He ended up taking it out on me.. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960). As they were preparing to shoot, Ford came up to Stewart and asked, What do you think of Woodys costume?. But no pro team would draft African Americans. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. He was also a professional wrestler, wrestling the likes of Gorgeous George. You can unsubscribe at any time. As James Stewart explained it, Woody Strode, the actor who was playing Waynes characters best friend, was part of the scene. Strode encountered racism in the NFL. Acting wasnt his first passion, however, as football at Jefferson High School and UCLA brought him initial fame. [26][27][28] In 1982 at the age of 68, he wed 35-year-old Tina Tompson,[28] and they remained married until his death of lung cancer on December 31, 1994, in Glendora, California, aged 80. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Movie Images: My Favorite Film Characters of All-Time! But Strode (who started his career in the early 1940s after a legendary athletic record at UCLA as a decathlete and a football star, and who died in 1994) is perfectly cast in the lead role as Rutledge and gives a powerful performance in one of the very few lead roles he ever played, among the 90+ films he appeared in, playing mostly supporting roles, sometimes even uncredited, during the early years of his film career. John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. Lee Marvin moves into full blown stardom - becoming a legitimate box office titan - in one of the greatest Westerns ever made (My Favorite) starring along side Western Film Greats Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Ralph Belamy . The film was based upon the 1959 novel Comanche Captives by Will Cook . | Yes, but there's more to it than that, and in John Ford's mind, gun ownership is very much an open question. Woody Strode (1914-1994) Born July 28, 1914, in Los Angeles, California, Woody Strode (Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode) was first of the star football athletes to become a successful film actor. He was popular for being a Football Player. He was the African antagonist in Tarzan Fights for Life (1958) and an Apache chief who took on Sean Connery in the western, Shalako (1968). "[13], In 1948 he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers of the AAFC, but was released before the season started,[14] whereupon he joined the Calgary Stampeders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union in Canada, where he was a member of Calgary's 1948 Grey Cup Championship team[15] before retiring due to injury in 1949. Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies & Bucks (New York: Continuum, 1992); Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) title search by key word; Woody Strode,; The Timeout Film Guide, edited by Tom Milne, Penguin Books, 3rd Edition, 1992. They reunited 20 years later when he played the title role in Ford's rather neglected 1960 western . ), TCM Remembers 1995 in Chronological Order, American actors who appeared in spaghetti westerns. It was "one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to address racism frankly," the Hollywood Reporter's Seth Abramovitch wrote last year. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. And late Hollywood legend James Stewart got to watch their dynamic up close. Woodrow Wilson Woody Strode (1914-1994) was one of the most prolific and reliable African American actors of a generation. I make westerns.. He broke two ribs and a shoulder. He enabled the Stamps to score twice in the title game. On top of that, in the early 1930's, Ford also made several films with long-lambasted black character . Perseverance. [25], His first wife was Princess Luukialuana Kalaeloa (a.k.a. "And this is not being facetious, but Mr. Ford defended me; and I don't know that this is going on. But with his ill health and advancing age, the project was dropped. Is Woody Strode in the Hall of Fame? Strode played a single season with the NFL before moving to Canada to play, according to Britannica. He once said his interracial marriage (to an Hawaiian princess)and integrating the NFLwere the few times that racism caused him concern. [citation needed], Strode's acting career was re-activated when producer Walter Mirisch spotted him wrestling and cast him as an African warrior in The Lion Hunters (1951), one of the Bomba the Jungle Boy series. I'd do that if I could. This story first appeared. Woody Strode weighed 205 lbs (92 kg) when playing. The film takes place at that turning point in the West when the rule of force gave way to the rule of law, and when literacy began to gain a foothold. At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Strode was an athletic marvel in his prime. He died the following year at age 80. 20072023 Blackpast.org. M, Last edited on 27 February 2023, at 14:07, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, Pacific Coast Professional Football League, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, "Woody Strode (19141994) Find A Grave Memorial", "Woody Strode? Shinbone is the only Western town I've seen in a movie with no prostitutes. Draba wins the contest, but instead of killing Spartacus, he attacks the Roman military commander who paid for the fight. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in . The roles he was offered fell within those limited, though notable range. Valuing his toughness, Ford cast Strode as Rutledge over future Oscar winners Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. Years ago Shinbone was held in a grip of terror by the sadistic Liberty Valance (played by Lee Marvin in a performance evoking savage cruelty). "Never used it, but I could walk into the White House with it now. In 1964, there was his penultimate work, the nearly three-hour-long roadshow western epic Cheyenne Autumn, complete with an intermission, a70MM Super Panavision print, released by Warners, which told the true story of a Cheyenne tribe who travel by foot across 1,500 miles back to their ancestral hunting grounds, while US Army troops are ordered to send them back by force if necessary. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He is Tom's farmhand and seems to be his only confidant, a protective presence; he always has Tom's back. This page was last edited on 28 July 2021, at 02:45. Then came Lewis Milestones war film Pork Chop Hill (1959) and steady work would follow. As the two actors filmed an exterior shot on a horse-drawn cart, Wayne was close to losing control of the horses. Following Cat Ballou (Oscar) this is one of 4 Westerns . Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960) ." Born July 25, 1914 Died December 31, 1994 (80) Add to list Awards 2 wins & 3 nominations Photos 37 There was nothing nice about it., It is believed that Strode made his film debut as early as 1939 as an unbilled extra in John Fords Stagecoach, but most work at the time saw him in blackface in jungle films. Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his. The expansion Browns, trying to build a winner in the upstart All-America Football Conference, added Motley and Willis and went on to claim four straight league championships before the AAFC and NFL merged. Boston Globe December 20, 1981: 1. [1], Strode was born in Los Angeles. "Sergeant Rutledge" boosted Strode's profile but didn't catapult him to superstardom, the Times wrote in 1971, surmising "he and the film, with its sympathies strongly on the side of the Black man, were ahead of their time." Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. Reveling in the win postgame, Strode rode a horse into the lobby of the team hotel. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, unloading bombs in the Pacific. Strode's performance in "Spartacus" as the gladiator Draba - who fells Douglas' titular character in a duel, but spares his life to defy the Roman elite - secured him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor. In the late 1960s, he appeared in several episodes of the Ron Ely Tarzan television series. Every day, someone was at the bottom of the list in the barrel, as you say, Stewart said of Fords tendency to take his frustrations out on his underlings. German director Leni Riefenstahl called Strode the greatest physique of any athlete I have ever seen.. In movies and life, Strode's range was remarkable. ", Strode blamed Ford for almost all the tension on The Man From Liberty Valances set. It takes place in the town of Shinbone, in an unnamed territory that is moving toward a vote on statehood. Look instead at a debate that continues between the lawyer and the farmer about guns. A Los Angeles native, he excelled in athletics at UCLA in the late 1930s, where he was explosive as a decathlete as well as part of the college football team that also included Jackie Robinson - he, Robinson, and future NFL star Kenny Washington made up . Stewart said that he didnt like it. How many . He became part of Hollywood lore after meeting director John Ford and becoming a part of the Ford "family," appearing in four Ford motion pictures. Publicity Listings He explains: "The Western is intrinsically the most political movie genre, because, like Plato's 'Republic,' it is concerned with the founding of cities, and because it depicts the various abstract functions of government as direct, physical actions." Everyone in Shinbone hates Liberty Valance, but they're powerless against him and his two sidekicks, one of them a giggling fool. . Strode was a prolific performer, starring in his first . [2], He attended Thomas Jefferson High School in South East Los Angeles and college at UCLA, where he was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Strode's other television work included a role as the Grand Mogul in the Batman episodes "Marsha, Queen of Diamonds" and "Marsha's Scheme of Diamonds". He said, "Well, they're not tough enough to do what I want Sergeant Rutledge to be. In 1963, he was cast opposite Jock Mahoney's Tarzan as both the dying leader of an unnamed Asian country and that leader's unsavory brother, Khan, in Tarzan's Three Challenges. If the money was right, I'd play Mickey Mouse.[3], Strode went to Europe to make Scipio the African (1971) and did some more Westerns: The Last Rebel (1971), and The Revengers (1972) (a "regular knockdown, dragout western said Strode[3]). Four years Strode's junior, Washington scampered for a 92-yard touchdown in 1947 and spent three seasons with the Rams before retiring. Inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. There are different takes over why, including that he thought it was a better medium. Ford had to accept those terms or not make the film.. [23], He did The Italian Connection (1972), for which he was paid $150,000. Kalaeloa, 19462014), and a daughter, June. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City last year enshrined him in the Hall of Great Western Performers. Strode had difficulty maintaining the momentum of these roles. Strode also served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. Strode was in Storyville (1992), and Posse (1992), working with director Mario Van Peebles. "They are not household names like Jackie Robinson. Also, he appeared in several episodes of the 19521954 television series Ramar of the Jungle, where he portrayed an African warrior. The role set his Hollywood career in motion. Strode gave the Hollywood establishment what they demanded and appeared in some of the best and the worst of what they offered him. He guest starred on The Man from Blackhawk (1960). Woody Strode. Racial discrimination slowed their progress in the game. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. This is all to be seen: The role of a free press, the function of a town meeting, the debate about statehood, the civilizing influence of education. When World War II broke out, Strode was playing for the Hollywood Bears in the Pacific Coast Professional Football League. "It had dignity. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," the New Yorker's Richard Brody writes, "is the greatest American political movie." I will not go into details because the suspense should not be spoiled. Country. He also did professional wrestling and reportedly tussled with the renowned Gorgeous George. The same thing will happen again to another black man, and he probably wont be as lucky as Rutledge was. Strode had an excellent support part in The Last Voyage (1960) playing a heroic stoker, though he was only billed fifth. February 11-March 6, 2022. He Wasn't the Star But He Stole the Movie", "Teammates Recall Jackie Robinson's Legacy", "The man who made the stars shine brighter: An interview with Woody Strode", "Woody Strode, Ace Negro Player, Has No Axe to Grind", "Isle families trace ties to '39 Pineapple Bowl", "Woody Strode; Ex-Athlete, Character Actor in Movies", "Like the series, 'Psych' movie a comedic romp", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woody_Strode&oldid=1141910544, This page was last edited on 27 February 2023, at 14:07. More tributes followed. On a road game in Chicago, hotel management gave he and Washington $100 each to find another hotel in the Black section of town. But Pompey won't drink. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first African American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. "I had five pairs of blue jeans, I was lonely, and I didn't speak the language," he said. In 1980, Strode was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole, Stewart recalled. An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. Prior to 1946, he played semi-pro football. Woody lived in a modest home overlooking Glendora and the San Gabriel Valley, north east of Los Angeles about 25 miles. In Liberty Valance, a picture I did with Duke, Stewart recounted. [31], Sheriff Woody of the Toy Story series of animated films is named after Strode,[32] as was the recurring character of the Santa Barbara Coroner in the television series Psych. Keyshawn Johnson wrote a book about them. Halfway through filming, Duke even asked Stewart why he wasnt being targeted by Fords insults too, which other members of the cast and crew had noticed. Strode's Associated Press obituary praised his work in Westerns and period dramas, but didn't mention the trail he blazed on the gridiron. This is fascism against democracy: the tyranny of the strongman over the ordinary people. Even when Ford later directed the passing drama Pinky in 1949 for Fox, which told the story of a blackwoman passing for white, Fox studio head Darryl Zanuck replaced Ford with director Elia Kazan after the first week of shooting, because Zanuck, in seeing the footage that Ford shot, felt his depiction of the black characters in the film was so offensive that he couldnt allow him to continue directing the rest of the film. Bit of a game changer." Though Woody usually means well, he's not always the . Woody played for the Los Angeles Rams after their move from Cleveland. Woody lived in a modest home overlooking Glendora and the San Gabriel Valley, north east of Los Angeles about 25 miles. His illiterate students include Hallie. All Rights Reserved. Often typecast as a physical specimen, commentators tended to dwell on Strode's athleticism and chiseled figure, ignoring his acting prowess, the film scholar Frank Manchel once wrote in the Journal of Black Studies. In 1959 he portrayed the conflicted, some would say cowardly, Private Franklin in Pork Chop Hill, which brought him critical acclaim. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. Bob Rea
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