Woody Strode Tuesday, 28th July 1914 - Saturday, 31st December 1994 Los Angeles CA USA. Strode was very close to the director. Strode was a college track and football star at UCLA, one of the first Blacks to integrate the NFL, a professional wrestler, a Golden Globe nominated actor, and a WWII veteran. Another well-known role was Pompey, John Waynes servant in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). 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. The club signed Washington and Strode that spring. [19], They wanted him to shave his head. "But the producers answered, 'Not necessary. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. Canton called this summer, feting Strode and the rest of the Forgotten Four at Johnson and Glauber's urging. In comparison, Ford had made combat documentaries for the Office of Strategic Services and had been wounded at the Battle of Midway, while Ranse star Stewart had been a bomber pilot who served with distinction. It featured African American athlete turned actor Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Strode in his major . And according to the actor, Ford froze, then walked away. 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. "[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. Woody played for the Los Angeles Rams after their move from Cleveland. An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. [17] He later teamed up with both Bobo Brazil[18] and Bearcat Wright. No sentimentality or hopeful message. In an interview given before he died, Stewart once described the toll that Fords meanness took on Wayne. Strode made a successful transition from sports hero to the movie screen, though Hollywood seemed more predisposed to his magnificent physique and gallant stride than his acting ability. Who Is Woody Strode's Wife? On a road game in Chicago, hotel management gave he and Washington $100 each to find another hotel in the Black section of town. 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 also did professional wrestling and reportedly tussled with the renowned Gorgeous George. The drunken marshal won't protect him. 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. [20], He based himself in Europe from 1968 to 1971.[7]. Needless to say, the crime sets the townspeople aflame with hatred, and theres a lynch mob just itching to take matters into their hands. 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. 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. 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. - IMDb Mini Biography By: An offensive end, Strode caught four passes for 37 yards and bowed out of the NFL after 10 games. Kalaeloa, 19462014), and a daughter, June. At the time Ford yelled: Dont hit him Woody! The ban collapsed when the Rams, founded in Cleveland, uprooted to Los Angeles in 1946. 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. 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. "And this is not being facetious, but Mr. Ford defended me; and I don't know that this is going on. How many games did Woody Strode play? The tall, confident Woody Strode appeared in five Ford pictures, all the way from "Stagecoach" to Ford's final film, "7 Women" (1966). In a long flashback involving most of the film, Ford recalls the events leading up to that day. In 1980, Strode was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. One day Sir Laurence Olivier remarked he was a big fan of his football days, with Strode replying: I dont know what Im doing here in your business. Olivier said, Woody, what youre about to do, I could never do in reference to his upcoming fight scene with Kirk Douglas. But it says a lot about them to be able to do what I would call something for the greater good," Johnson, reflecting on the Forgotten Four's feat, told CBS News this year. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, unloading bombs in the Pacific. 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. Farmers want statehood. "[7], "That was a classic," he later said. Keyshawn Johnson wrote a book about them. (One stylistic touch: In this film, he habitually calls Stoddard "Pilgrim," which expresses an insight into the lawyer's character.). The closing credits dedicate the film to Strode, who died shortly before its release. Pompey actor Woody Strode remembered that Ford kept needling Duke about his failure to make it as afootballplayer, comparing him to Strode who was a former NFL player. 1941:Sundown. 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. I don't know if they ever will be. Woody Strode was 6-3 (190 cm) tall. He was reluctant until they offered him $500 a week. Reveling in the win postgame, Strode rode a horse into the lobby of the team hotel. Not until 1946 did the two suit up for the . The roles he was offered fell within those limited, though notable range. Then, when the steeds had halted, he tried to pick a punch up with his younger co-star. After that I said thats all I needed. The film made Strode a major star in European cinema, increasing his salary to a minimum $150,000 per movie. 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. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. "I have the world market on my side even if I don't have the American market.". [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. When a meeting is held to vote on statehood, Pompey sits outside on the porch. United States. He wrestled professionally before rapt audiences. The 6-foot, 4-inch Strode was a world-class decathlete with a body so toned that he posed nude for an exhibition of athletic portraits shown at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Woody Strode played 10 games over his career. Nationality: American. Inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. "I had a certain amount of crudeness that went back a hundred years, and that's what he liked. Dnde ver La diligencia? Woody lived in a modest home overlooking Glendora and the San Gabriel Valley, north east of Los Angeles about 25 miles. My dream is to play a Mexican bandit in the international market."[20]. 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 did 1,000 push-ups, sit-ups, and knee bends daily. I might have to kill you. He appeared in any number of other films, among them The Ten Commandments (1956). "He is one of the most charismatic actors to work in American motion pictures. "The big studios wanted an actor like Sidney [Poitier] or [Harry] Belafonte," recalled Strode. As the two actors filmed an exterior shot on a horse-drawn cart, Wayne was close to losing control of the horses. The character was named after Woody Strode, the legendary Spartacus actor who starred in numerous Westerns throughout the 1960s and 1970s. But Ford had a cruel streak, PBS reports, and it emerged on the set of his movies. 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. 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. Strodes riveting presence among a trio of hired gunslingers waiting at the train station in the spaghetti western, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), is unforgettable. | Woody Strode passed away on December 31, 1994 from lung cancer in Glendora, California. Cecil B. DeMille cast him in The Ten Commandments (1956) as a slave at $500 a week for five weeks. Racial discrimination slowed their progress in the game. German director Leni Riefenstahl called Strode the greatest physique of any athlete I have ever seen.. Rams owner Dan Reeves didn't like that Strode's marriage was interracial: his first wife, Luana, was descended from a Hawaiian queen. John Ford put classic words in my mouth.". The two became friends, and Ford later gave Wayne his breakthrough role in Stagecoach, the film that launched Wayne to Hollywood stardom. This man was the definition of a renaissance man, keep reading this article and you will understand exactly why. ), TCM Remembers 1995 in Chronological Order, American actors who appeared in spaghetti westerns. He is Tom's farmhand and seems to be his only confidant, a protective presence; he always has Tom's back. 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. [33], Colo. It's been 15 years since Woody Strode's prime time in Hollywood ]: [4] He stayed in Europe to make another Western The Unholy Four (1970) and went back to Hollywood to do a TV movie Breakout (1970) and two Westerns The Deserter (also known as "The Devil's Backbone") (1971), and The Gatling Gun (1971). Bit of a game changer." Though Woody usually means well, he's not always the . After his football career, he went on to become a film actor, where he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960. [30], Strode was a dedicated martial artist under the direction of Frank Landers in the art of Seishindo Kenpo. He is a member of famous Actor with the age 80 years old group. 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. I've done everything but play an Anglo-Saxon. Stewart said that he didnt like it. Kenny Washington passed away on June 24, 1971 in Los Angeles due to heart and lung issues. He was only 52. Strode is perhaps best remembered as the stoic slave gladiator in Spartacus (1960) who tells Kirk Douglas: I dont want to be your friend. However Warners obviously thought that, though a black man was the lead in their film, the audience wouldnt be able to handle it. In a film with Lee Marvin's snarl, Andy Devine's squeaky voice and the accent of the Swedes, John Wayne as usual provides the calm center, never trying for an effect. Ford used him again in Two Rode Together (1962) but it was only a small part, as an Indian. In director John Fords Sergeant Rutledge (1960), a western where he depicted a soldier on trial for two murders and the rape of a white woman, when Strode bared his chest to a white woman (actress Constance Towers), even the movie audiences gasped. "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. Valance and his two sidekicks hold up a stagecoach on the way to town, and when one of the passengers, Ransom, stands up to him Liberty nearly whips him to death. But Pompey won't drink. Tom could stand up to Valance, but it would suit him to have Stoddard out of the way so that he could bring Hallie home to that porch with its rocking chair. (Whats a brother got to do to get some respect around here?). There is a purity to the John Ford style. Sheriff Woody, the beloved "Toy Story" protagonist, was said to be named after Strode. This quartet struck a blow for racial inclusiveness in pro football as Black Americans sought it nationwide. Legacies. We heard stories about Kenny Washington where he was just battered throughout the entire football game.". Youd have thought I was marrying Lana Turner, they way Whites in Hollywood acted, he recalled. 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). 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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