[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. Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore. The result was a few films in which he seemed to be, in a way, making an apology for the wrongs he committed in terms ofhis distorted portrayals of people of color in his previous films. We used to sit in the best seats at the Coconut Grove (a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel) listening to Donald Novis sing. It deals with a black U.S. Calvary sergeant of a regiment of black troops played by Woody Strode (who appeared in several later Ford films, including his last film Seven Woman playing a Chinese warlord) who is court-marshaled for raping and killing a white woman and her father as well. [21], He had a support role in Tarzan's Fight for Life (1958) and a small part in The Buccaneer (1958). Even the final scene has an unexpected dramatic impact when, after Rutledge has been cleared of the crime, barely thanks his defense lawyer and goes straight back to leading his Buffalo Soldiers out for another tour of duty. 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. In the twilight of his film career, Woody Strode reflected on the opportunities he was denied and others he seized. James Stewart Once Described What It Was Like Working with a Frequent John Wayne Collaborator, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5mcU74rHGM, James Stewart on what it was like to work with John Ford (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5mcU74rHGM). And late Hollywood legend James Stewart got to watch their dynamic up close. Then he asked Stewart to come over. Needless to say, the crime sets the townspeople aflame with hatred, and theres a lynch mob just itching to take matters into their hands. On top of that, in the early 1930s, Ford also made several films with long-lambasted black character actor Stephin Fetchit, likeJudge Priest and Steamboat Around the Bend, in which he played degrading and embarrassing supporting roles, often as a slow-witted, lazy buffoon. Additionally, the. He broke this barrier with his teammate Kenny Washington and Cleveland Browns players Bill Willis and Marion Motley. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Woody Strode was born in California. In fact Ford started out his film career as a actor and stuntman in silent films, including D.W. Griffiths notorious The Birth of Nation as one of the Klansmen who comes to the rescue to save the lives of white people under threat by violent renegade black men. He was billed as the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and the Pacific Coast Negro Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1962. But they should be.". Woody played for the Los Angeles Rams after their move from Cleveland. But Ford also effectively takes advantage of the physical, broad-shouldered, overpowering presence of Strode, shooting him often from a low angle to let him dominate the frame and the audience. The role set his Hollywood career in motion. "[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. He was in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) and guest starred twice on Rawhide, playing an Australian aboriginal in one episode and a buffalo soldier in the other. The retired NFL wideout, in tandem with his co-author Bob Glauber, persuaded the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022 to recognize the so-called Forgotten Four as pathfinders. I might have to kill you. He appeared in any number of other films, among them The Ten Commandments (1956). 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. Theyre like father and son.. 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". All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. Strode made his first appearance in Sundown (1941) playing a native policeman. [3], "I got a cultural educationmajored in history and education," he said in a 1971 interview. His wife is Tina Ellawee (10 May 1982 - 31 December 1994) ( his death), Luana Strode (14 October 1940 - 17 September 1980) ( her death) ( 2 children) Robinson debuted in the majors with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, breaking the color barrier in that sport several months after his Bruins teammates reached the NFL. Rams owner Dan Reeves didn't like that Strode's marriage was interracial: his first wife, Luana, was descended from a Hawaiian queen. How much did Woody Strode weigh when playing? German director Leni Riefenstahl called Strode the greatest physique of any athlete I have ever seen.. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," the New Yorker's Richard Brody writes, "is the greatest American political movie." This is fascism against democracy: the tyranny of the strongman over the ordinary people. I carried the whole black race across that river."[3]. Prior to 1946, he played semi-pro football. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City last year enshrined him in the Hall of Great Western Performers. Cattlemen do not. However Warners obviously thought that, though a black man was the lead in their film, the audience wouldnt be able to handle it. How tall was Woody Strode? "I've never gotten over 'Sergeant Rutledge,'" Strode told The New York Times years later. But when it came to shooting 1962s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Duke and Jimmy Stewart on the Paramount lot, the director opted for black and white instead. In 1967 he attempted to produce his own film, The Story of the Tenth Cavalry but it was not made. Strode had an excellent support part in The Last Voyage (1960) playing a heroic stoker, though he was only billed fifth. Woody Strode was born on the 25th of July, 2014. [1], Strode was born in Los Angeles. Though the film is an ambitious attempt to deal with one aspect of how this country has historically handled Native Americans (and there are several impressive scenes in the film), Cheyenne Autumn is seriously undercut by Fords ponderous direction, a wobbly, meandering script, his stilted wooden Indian characters who, a lot of the time, are standing like stoic statues, with the major speaking parts played by either Latino or Italian-American actors, and too many boring side stories involving white characters. [10] Strode and Kenny Washington were two of the first African-Americans to play in major college programs and later the modern National Football League (along with Marion Motley and Bill Willis, who signed with the contemporary rival All-America Football Conference), playing for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946. And Ford, who was usually straightforward when it came to the visual aspects of his films, shows some real visual and dramatic creativity. "It took skill to do that fight scene without actually hurting myself or hurting Douglas.". The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck contains one of the best-known lines of dialogue in any Ford movie, spoken to Stoddard years later by the town's new newspaper editor: "This is the West, sir. But Ford had a cruel streak, PBS reports, and it emerged on the set of his movies. His parents were from New Orleans; his grandmother was African-American and "part Cherokee" and his grandfather was an African-American who claimed his own grandmother was Creek. Then he asked someone to blow a whistle, which they did, and he called out, Everybody, would you please gather around? So they did. He could be seen in The Gambler from Natchez (1954), Jungle Gents (1954) a Bowery Boys movie set in Africa, and The Silver Chalice (1954). I'd play a Viking with blue contact lenses and a blond wig.". In 1946 he was one of the first blacks to play in the National Football League. Woody Strode Height, Weight & Measurements At 80 years old, Woody Strode height is 6' 4" (1.93 m) . Ford isn't making an anachronistic statement on racism, but he's being sure we notice it. The Pompey actor assessed: What a miserable film to make.. The scripts for these were variable but Strode later said "Me, I didn't care. He was popular for being a Football Player. The narrative structure is told mainly in a series of flashbacks in which information is revealedin bits, leaving us guessing as to what really happened. He was both successful and a popular draw, but he gave up wrestling due to his popularity in motion pictures. He later said his salary in Italy went up to $10,000 a week. He went on to depict myriad gunslingers at home and abroad. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. "I once played a part written for an Irish prize fighter. "I had five pairs of blue jeans, I was lonely, and I didn't speak the language," he said. Additionally, the director kept mocking Wayne for not enlisting in World War II, which made the star feel guilty in his later years. Tom Doniphon is a local farmer, who observes, "Liberty Valance's the toughest man south of the Picketwire--next to me." He decided to stay in Europe. 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. I had the greatest Glory Hallelujah ride across the Pecos River that any black man ever had on the screen. He was interred with military honors at Riverside National Cemetery, east of his hometown. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in all of his events except sprints. 1951: The Lion Hunters; Bride of the Gorilla. Pompey/Strode physically carries and thereby saves a drunken, suicidal John Wayne from his burning home. "We were unconscious of color. Woodrow Wilson Woody Strode (1914-1994) was one of the most prolific and reliable African American actors of a generation. 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. "To me, it's truly the beginning of more awareness of who they were, what they did, and why they were so important," Glauber told The New York Times ahead of the Canton ceremony in August. "He is one of the most charismatic actors to work in American motion pictures. - IMDb Mini Biography By: When out on the road with the team, Strode had his first experience with racism, something he wasn't aware of growing up in Los Angeles. I said, All right, where are the pluckers?" Then Strode realised, I was out in the world market with a bald head. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Movie Images: My Favorite Film Characters of All-Time! [2] Following the end of his football career in 1949, he returned to wrestling part-time between acting jobs until 1962, wrestling the likes of Gorgeous George. Red Haircrow, Other Works An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Farmers want statehood. I will not go into details because the suspense should not be spoiled. 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. The film makes it clear that, though a black man was found innocent, racial tensions will always exist; so what is the use of pretending that all is suddenly well? Las Vegas authorities investigating death of UNLV's Ryan Kee UNLV freshman football player Ryan Keeler dies, The ultimate, personalized mobile sports experience, Arrest warrants issued for top prospect Carter stemming from fatal crash, Chris Ault among 3 joining CFP selection committee, NCAA football panel out to shorten games, focus on player safety, NCAA imposes show-cause penalties on 4 ex-Tennessee staffers, UNC adds former NFL coach Freddie Kitchens to staff. All Rights Reserved. (Whats a brother got to do to get some respect around here?). Pompey actor Woody Strode remembered that Ford "kept needling Duke about his failure to make it as a football player", comparing him to Strode who was a former NFL player. "Visually, he is a tower of strength and also a tower of endurance," film historian Donald Bogle said about Strode in a Turner Classic Movies segment a couple of years ago. Beginning with "Stagecoach" (1939), continuing from 1948 through 1950 with the Cavalry Trilogy ("Fort Apache," "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" and "Rio Grande"), and finally to 1962 and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," together in 10 features they largely formed the templates of the Hollywood Western. "I had a certain amount of crudeness that went back a hundred years, and that's what he liked. And on occasion, he was even known to actually physically attack them when he was not playing his patented sadistic practical jokes on them, or when he wasnt on one of his regular drinking binges, which would last for days. [25], His first wife was Princess Luukialuana Kalaeloa (a.k.a. He served in the United States Army during World War II. If you're a nice guy, you can walk into a room anywhere in the world. Sheriff Woody, the beloved "Toy Story" protagonist, was said to be named after Strode. Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. He was also in Key West (1973), Loaded Guns (1975), The Manhunter (1975), We Are No Angels (1975), Winterhawk (1975), Keoma (1976), episodes of The Quest (1976) and How the West Was Won (1977), Oil (1977), Martinelli, Outside Man (1977), Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), Cowboy-San! It is made clear in "Liberty Valance" that segregation was the practice in the territory. I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole, Stewart recalled. However, by the early 1960s, when Ford was in his late 60s and nearing the end of his long career, the director seemed to have mellowed with age, discovering and exploring a more humanist side to himself. His illiterate students include Hallie. Strode, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1994 at the age of 80. 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." It featured African American athlete turned actor Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Strode in his major . I'd play a Viking with blue contact lenses and a blond wig if I could. Canton called this summer, feting Strode and the rest of the Forgotten Four at Johnson and Glauber's urging. We also meet Link Appleyard (Andy Devine), the drunken town marshal; Doc Willoughby (Ken Murray), the drunken town doctor, and Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien), the editor of the paper. Cuenta con una puntuacin bastante buena en IMDb: 7.8 estrellas de 10. His magnificent Western landscapes are always there, but as environment, not travelogue. The tall, confident Woody Strode appeared in five Ford pictures, all the way from "Stagecoach" to Ford's final film, "7 Women" (1966). 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 . "He treated me like a son," said Strode. He was usually unbilled in films like Sundown (1941), Star-Spangled Rhythm (1942) and No Time for Love (1943). They reunited 20 years later when he played the title role in Ford's rather neglected 1960 western 'Sergeant Rutledge', as a black Cavalry officer unfairly tried for the rape and murder of a white women and her father. 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. 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