Rams owner Dan Reeves didn't like that Strode's marriage was interracial: his first wife, Luana, was descended from a Hawaiian queen. Woody Strode was a respected actor with strong African and Native American ancestry. [3], In 1941, Strode had dabbled for several months in professional wrestling. '"[12] He also said, "On the Pacific Coast there wasn't anything we couldn't do. An old black cowboy named Pompey (Woody Strode) takes Hallie on a buckboard ride into the countryside where they regard the burned-out remains of Doniphon's cottage. Strode, the six-foot-four pioneering athlete turned movie star, was born in 1914, in South Central Los Angeles, to Black and Native American parents. 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]). African American History: Research Guides & Websites, Global African History: Research Guides & Websites, African American Scientists and Technicians of the Manhattan Project, Envoys, Diplomatic Ministers, & Ambassadors, Education - Historically Black Colleges (HBCU), Political Activists - Radicals and Marxists, Foundation, Organization, and Corporate Supporters. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. 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. Sergeant Rutledge is a 1960 western film from Warner Brothers and the director John Ford. Also, he appeared in several episodes of the 19521954 television series Ramar of the Jungle, where he portrayed an African warrior. Red Haircrow, Other Works If someone said, 'there's a Negro over there,' I was just as apt as anyone to turn around and say 'Where? Now Hallie has started to like this lawyer-man from the East, who starts up a one-room schoolhouse to teach people how to read. In 1980, Strode was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. by Merdies Hayes July 21, 2016 Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Strode (1914-1994) was one of the most prolific and reliable African American actors of a generation. "I've never gotten over 'Sergeant Rutledge,'" Strode told The New York Times years later. In a long flashback involving most of the film, Ford recalls the events leading up to that day. 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. Yes, but there's more to it than that, and in John Ford's mind, gun ownership is very much an open question. "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," the New Yorker's Richard Brody writes, "is the greatest American political movie." Woody lived in a modest home overlooking Glendora and the San Gabriel Valley, north east of Los Angeles about 25 miles. Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore. They reunited 20 years later when he played the title role in Ford's rather neglected 1960 western . Strode gave the Hollywood establishment what they demanded and appeared in some of the best and the worst of what they offered him. This story first appeared. I'd play a Viking with blue contact lenses and a blond wig.". "Stagecoach" and his cavalry trilogy, "Rio Grande" "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "Fort Apache" - were as bloodthirsty savages. "We were unconscious of color. Filmography - 1939: Stagecoach. Sam Raimi's Western "The Quick and The Dead," starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio, is dedicated to him. Stoddard believes so firmly in the law that he is willing to lose his life for his principles. Wednesday, 1st March 2023See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive. 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. "[7], "That was a classic," he later said. An able stuntman, Strode shot fire arrows and went so far as to bring his own 80-pound bows to set, he told The New York Times in 1971. Farmers want statehood. I said, All right, where are the pluckers?" Then Strode realised, I was out in the world market with a bald head. In movies and life, Strode's range was remarkable. Without ever seeming to hurry, he doesn't include a single gratuitous shot. Thankfully, the show never subjected Woody - or viewers - to that possibility. But no pro team would draft African Americans. 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 . Waterfield laughs and says: You sons of bitches, youre living good., Strode by then was in his early 30s and his football days were numbered. John Ford put classic words in my mouth.". We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. "He treated me like a son," said Strode. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in all of his events except sprints. There were of course a few black westerns made during the race film era of the 1940s, such as The Bronze Buckaroo and Harlem Rides the Range, but it took until 1960 for a Hollywood studio feature western that featuredblack cowboys in the old west, during the mid to late 19th century to early 20 the century. As they were preparing to shoot, Ford came up to Stewart and asked, What do you think of Woodys costume?. It featured African American athlete turned actor Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Strode in his major . "But the producers answered, 'Not necessary. After the war, he worked at serving subpoenas and escorting prisoners for the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Strode was an athletic marvel in his prime. Prueba a ver si Netflix, iTunes, Amazon o cualquier otro servicio te deja reproducirlo en streaming, alquilarlo o comprarlo! Decathlete who also played football professionally in the CFL, and enjoyed a successful acting career. The role set his Hollywood career in motion. Woody Strode spent decades in Hollywood working with larger-than-life names, including John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Kirk Douglas. In town, he's nursed back to health by Nora and Peter Ericson, two recent Swedish immigrants who run the local chowhouse. "I had a certain amount of crudeness that went back a hundred years, and that's what he liked. I might have to kill you. He appeared in any number of other films, among them The Ten Commandments (1956). [11] UCLA teammate Jackie Robinson would go on to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball (in fact, Robinson, Strode, and Washington had all played in the semi-professional Pacific Coast Professional Football League earlier in the decade). Valuing his toughness, Ford cast Strode as Rutledge over future Oscar winners Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. Race is not a factor in the world market," Strode said. His magnificent Western landscapes are always there, but as environment, not travelogue. The way Ford employs the African-American Pompey is observant. Stoddard has come to town with a satchel full of law books, and hangs out his shingle at the newspaper office. 1942: Star Spangled Rhythm. An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. (One stylistic touch: In this film, he habitually calls Stoddard "Pilgrim," which expresses an insight into the lawyer's character.). Woody Strode Tuesday, 28th July 1914 - Saturday, 31st December 1994 Los Angeles CA USA. Doubling as a defender, Strode scooped an errant lateral at midfield and returned the fumble to the opposing red zone, teeing up a TD rush. Woody Strode was born in California. Strode appeared in at least 90 films, from Sunrise in 1941 to his last, The Quick and the Dead, released in 1995. Strode had an excellent support part in The Last Voyage (1960) playing a heroic stoker, though he was only billed fifth. He was Cree and Blackfoot on his father's side and Cherokee on his mother's. "They are not household names like Jackie Robinson. That same year, Strode played the eponymous soldier in "Sergeant Rutledge" - director John Ford's Technicolor Western - who is falsely accused of murder and rape. Woody played for the Los Angeles Rams after their move from Cleveland. The pioneering Black character actor relocated from the United States to Europe for a while to pursue bigger and more interesting roles. Following Cat Ballou (Oscar) this is one of 4 Westerns . 1951: The Lion Hunters; Bride of the Gorilla. Ford gave Strode the title role in Sergeant Rutledge (1960) as a member of the Ninth Cavalry, who is greatly admired by the other black soldiers in the unit and is falsely accused of the rape and murder of a white woman. Though he made films in every genre, from dramas to historical epics, romances and even comedies, Ford has been justifiably associated with the western film and is considered one of the greatest and most influential directors in that genre, directing so many that Ford once said of himself, My Name is John Ford. He also did professional wrestling and reportedly tussled with the renowned Gorgeous George. His 1968 starring role as a thinly-disguised Patrice Lumumba in Seduto alla sua destra (released in the U.S. as Black Jesus) garnered Strode a great deal of press at the time, but the film is largely forgotten now. "They suffered on the field. But Pompey won't drink. In the article below independent historian Clarence Spigner analyzes Sergeant Rutledge and the other major films of the college football star, early National Football League player, and actor Woody Strode.. I had the greatest Glory Hallelujah ride across the Pecos River that any black man ever had on the screen. He was in 87 movies over the length of his career, though Strode . As James Stewart explained it, Woody Strode, the actor who was playing Waynes characters best friend, was part of the scene. When Ford cast Strode in Sergeant Rutledge (1960), the actor remembers the legendary director telling him: You know, Woody, its pretty rough to make a star out of you, but Im going to make you a character actor and youll make some money.. Woody Strode was born on the 25th of July, 2014. The character was named after Woody Strode, the legendary Spartacus actor who starred in numerous Westerns throughout the 1960s and 1970s. "These four men created a foundation on which generations built," Lonnie Bunch, the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, once said. 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." "[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. "The big studios wanted an actor like Sidney [Poitier] or [Harry] Belafonte," recalled Strode. Ford passed away in 1974. It may not be the greatest film that Ford ever made, but it sure is one of his interesting and powerful films and definitely worth discovering. He had a bigger role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) for Ford, playing Pompey, John Wayne's hired hand. In 1946, Woody Strode was one of the first four Black men to play in the NFL. 1952: African. "I had five pairs of blue jeans, I was lonely, and I didn't speak the language," he said. How many . The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City last year enshrined him in the Hall of Great Western Performers. "[3], Strode posed for a nude portrait, part of Hubert Stowitts's acclaimed exhibition of athletic portraits shown at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (although the inclusion of black and Jewish athletes caused the Nazis to close the exhibit). "I know Gus well." "Shawn." "Him too. Racial discrimination slowed their progress in the game. "The ban mirrored the status of Black Americans at the time: separate, unequal, and living in a de facto apartheid state via Jim Crow in the South and a patchwork of exclusionary laws and customs everywhere else," Patrick Hruby has written at The Guardian. An old black cowboy named Pompey ( Woody Strode) takes Hallie on a buckboard ride into the countryside where they regard the burned-out remains of Doniphon's cottage. Subscribe to our newsletter for new stories, tips & events. I've done everything but play an Anglo-Saxon. ", Also online in my Great Movies Collection: John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath," "Stagecoach," "The Searchers," "Rio Bravo" and "My Darling Clementine," and John Wayne in Howard Hawk's "Red River.". Ray Hamel. In the 1940s, at the beginning of the "Golden Age" of professional wrestling on television, Strode entered the game, campaigning as a "Baby Face" (hero) as opposed to the "Heel" (villain). Strode racked up 91 acting credits in six different decades, according to IMDb. So why would actors put up with him? Producers approached him in 1950 to portray a Maasai warrior in a "Bomba, the Jungle Boy" adventure flick. 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 "On every play, if you're a (skill player) like Motley, Washington, or Strode, you can get pounded on the ground and beaten up," Greenburg said. The Legend of Woody Strode. Canton called this summer, feting Strode and the rest of the Forgotten Four at Johnson and Glauber's urging. It was the first UCLAUSC rivalry football game with national implications.[9]. We need him!, In the end, Wayne told Strode: We gotta work together. We heard stories about Kenny Washington where he was just battered throughout the entire football game.". Four years Strode's junior, Washington scampered for a 92-yard touchdown in 1947 and spent three seasons with the Rams before retiring. I don't know if they ever will be. (1979), and an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). He enabled the Stamps to score twice in the title game. In a later tribute to Strode, the 'Sheriff Woody' character in the Toy Story movies was named after him. In the film, Strodes character recites the Declaration of Independence but apologizes for forgetting the phrase all men are created equal, a poignant line for the 1962 audience. We used to sit in the best seats at the Coconut Grove (a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel) listening to Donald Novis sing. [3] He called it "the first dramatic thing that I had done."[7]. His big break came in 1960. Look instead at a debate that continues between the lawyer and the farmer about guns. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Of course being a director from what is still called The Golden Age of Hollywood and despite the fact that Ford considered himself a political progressive (though he was close friends with actors he worked with who were often right wing reactionaries, like John Wayne and James Stewart), his films were not above dealing in negative racial stereotypes often. As a showdown between Stoddard and Valance Ford begins to seem inevitable, Ford creates considerable tension. Strode was very close to the director. Local sportswriter Halley Harding, a retired Negro Leagues shortstop, led a civic campaign that pressured the Rams to integrate as a condition of playing in the publicly funded L.A. Cattlemen do not. 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. His last film was The Quick and the Dead (1995), which starred Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe. [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. Next James Bond: Tom Hardy leapfrogged by 007 outsider, Robert Shaw Harrison Ford fury on Force 10 From Navarone 'total bull', John Wayne was really p***ed off: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was miserable shoot, John Wayne was constantly mocked by John Ford and even Jimmy Stewart was attacked too, Rio Bravo: Angie Dickinson on cute John Wayne being so different', Pompey star Woody Strode on John Wayne's left, John Wayne felt he couldn't hit back at John Ford since the director made him a star, John Wayne: The Searchers set revelation that saw John Ford speechless, How the West Was Won: Idiot drunk producer, near-death and more, John Wayne: Why Elvis turned down Dukes offer to co-star in Western, John Wayne: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon set feud that led to best scene, John Waynes final movie was NOT The Shootist Duke was in Star Wars, John Wayne never learnt his lesson over Hollywood roles. I carried the whole black race across that river."[3]. "I'll continue to work in Europe because I'm a star there," Strode said in 1982, per TCM. When he walks into a bar to fetch Tom, the bartender won't serve him, and Tom slams hard on the bar: "Give him a drink." And I went on, and it went around the company: Stewart has never, hes always right up there., The day before the movie finished shooting, the cast was preparing to do the funeral scene. 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.. Liberty Valance cannot abide anyone standing up to him, and the shingle is an affront. But Rutledge faces it heroically and is not passive either, even breaking ranks and official orders to try to track down the evidence and the real killer who will clear him. Woody Strode Height, Weight & Measurements At 80 years old, Woody Strode height is 6' 4" (1.93 m) . And it should be mentioned that Rutledge was also the first time in which a black man was seen as a cowboy, or an Army soldier, and not as a slave, a cook or a Pullman porter in aHollywood feature western. I wanted to crawl into a mouse hole, Stewart recalled. Woody lived in a modest home overlooking Glendora and the San Gabriel Valley, north east of Los Angeles about 25 miles. Opponents from the Deep South resented having to share the field with Black men, the producer of a documentary film about the Forgotten Four, Ross Greenburg, told the UCLA newsroom in 2014. Angeles about 25 miles streaming, alquilarlo o comprarlo several months in professional wrestling four at Johnson and Glauber urging! Pluckers? 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