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Broken ribs and an ailing shoulder spurred Strode to retire in 1949. He wrestled professionally before rapt audiences. "[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). And he said loudly, We have an actor here who objects to the costume on Woody Strode. He then proceeded to suggest that Stewart was prejudiced Strode, who also has since died, was African-American and added that he just wanted to share Stewarts objection to Strodes costume with the whole cast. 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). Trapped for life. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in all of his events except sprints. Inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame in 2012-13. (Whats a brother got to do to get some respect around here?). "And this is not being facetious, but Mr. Ford defended me; and I don't know that this is going on. All three spend much of their time hanging out in the restaurant kitchen. Woody Strode was born in California. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. He was in a TV adaptation of Mandrake the Magician (1954), a pilot for a series that was not picked up, and had small parts in Son of Sinbad (1955), Soldiers of Fortune (1955), and Buruuba (1956) a Japanese film set in Africa. That he does this by mixing in history, humorous supporting characters and a poignant romance is typical; his films were complete and self-contained in a way that approaches perfection. Woody Strode played 10 games over his career. '"[12] He also said, "On the Pacific Coast there wasn't anything we couldn't do. " [20], Strode was in Che! Sheriff Woody, the beloved "Toy Story" protagonist, was said to be named after Strode. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. | Decathlete who also played football professionally in the CFL, and enjoyed a successful acting career. "I had a certain amount of crudeness that went back a hundred years, and that's what he liked. Woody Strode, byname of Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode, (born July 28, 1914, Los Angeles, California, U.S.died December 31, 1994, Glendora, California), American character actor who was part of director John Ford's "family" of actors, appearing in nearly a dozen of Ford's films. He was interred with military honors at Riverside National Cemetery, east of his hometown. "I know Gus well." "Shawn." "Him too. Reveling in the win postgame, Strode rode a horse into the lobby of the team hotel. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his. He did 1,000 push-ups, sit-ups, and knee bends daily. "It had dignity. In the twilight of his film career, Woody Strode reflected on the opportunities he was denied and others he seized. He broke this barrier with his teammate Kenny Washington and Cleveland Browns players Bill Willis and Marion Motley. 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.. The drunken marshal won't protect him. Yes, but there's more to it than that, and in John Ford's mind, gun ownership is very much an open question. 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. 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. Red Haircrow, Other Works And so the studio actually tried to trick audiences into thinking that the film was about the white characters. Cuenta con una puntuacin bastante buena en IMDb: 7.8 estrellas de 10. 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). 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. [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. Hell, we thought we were white. Indeed Hallie and Nora Ericson (Jeanette Nolan) are the only two noticeable women in town; little wonder Tom's love for Hallie is intense. Woody Strode Tuesday, 28th July 1914 - Saturday, 31st December 1994 Los Angeles CA USA. "Stagecoach" and his cavalry trilogy, "Rio Grande" "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" and "Fort Apache" - were as bloodthirsty savages. Being married with two children, he needed steady work. Woody Strode was born on the 25th of July, 2014. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, unloading bombs in the Pacific. 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.. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. 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. 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. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Bob Rea <bobnray@concentric.net> Strode had begun his association with Ford back in 1939, with an uncredited role in his classic western 'Stagecoach'. He had a small role in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), as a chauffeur of Rochester (Edward Anderson) and could be glimpsed in No Time for Love (1943). After his football career, he went on to . What is it whats the idea? And I said, I dont know!, And I didnt know, Stewart added. 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. [3], In 1941, Strode had dabbled for several months in professional wrestling. Needless to say, the crime sets the townspeople aflame with hatred, and theres a lynch mob just itching to take matters into their hands. 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) 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. Strode racked up 91 acting credits in six different decades, according to IMDb. Legacies. But they should be.". Met his wife, a Hawaiian princess and stand-in for the swim sequences for Dorothy Lamour. Four years Strode's junior, Washington scampered for a 92-yard touchdown in 1947 and spent three seasons with the Rams before retiring. There's a lot in the film if we care to notice. And I looked at Duke Wayne, and he was beaming like a cat that had just eaten the mouse And Duke came over, and said, Well, welcome to the club. As they were preparing to shoot, Ford came up to Stewart and asked, "What do you think of Woody's costume?" Stewart said that he didn't like it. He arranges his characters within the frame to reflect power dynamics--or sometimes to suggest a balance is changing. How many . This page was last edited on 28 July 2021, at 02:45. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Movie Images: My Favorite Film Characters of All-Time! John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. "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. He is Tom's farmhand and seems to be his only confidant, a protective presence; he always has Tom's back. After the war, Strode played briefly with the Los Angeles Rams and along with Washington became the first African Americans to play in the National Football League. 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). At the time Ford yelled: Dont hit him Woody! He was also a professional wrestler, wrestling the likes of Gorgeous George. Strode appeared in at least 90 films, from Sunrise in 1941 to his last, The Quick and the Dead, released in 1995. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 - December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. On a road game in Chicago, hotel management gave he and Washington $100 each to find another hotel in the Black section of town. Boston Globe December 20, 1981: 1. Filmography - 1939: Stagecoach. Farmers want statehood. But then, towards the end of filming, the director asked the Ranse star what he made of Strodes costume for the beginning and the end of the film when their characters were portrayed as 25 years older. The way Ford employs the African-American Pompey is observant. English. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Prior to 1946, he played semi-pro football. It asks the question: Does a man need to carry a gun in order to disagree or state an opinion? Language. 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]). 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). 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. The character was named after Woody Strode, the legendary Spartacus actor who starred in numerous Westerns throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 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. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960). 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. Race is not a factor in the world market," Strode said. Thankfully, the show never subjected Woody - or viewers - to that possibility. 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. He and Kenny Washington integrated the National Football League (NFL), and Strode played for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946 before moving to the Canadian . Meanwhile, Motley ran rampant as a Browns halfback and Willis was an All-Pro defensive tackle, which landed them Hall of Fame nods as players. (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. 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. Cecil B. DeMille cast him in The Ten Commandments (1956) as a slave at $500 a week for five weeks. A handful of Black players suited up in the NFL in the league's earliest seasons, but franchise owners at the behest of George Preston Marshall, the segregationist founder of the Washington team, conspired to exclude them from 1934 to 1946. Woody Strode has not been elected into the Hall of Fame. "I once played a part written for an Irish prize fighter. 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. His illiterate students include Hallie. 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. 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