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. Broken ribs and an ailing shoulder spurred Strode to retire in 1949. He was usually unbilled in films like Sundown (1941), Star-Spangled Rhythm (1942) and No Time for Love (1943). 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. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. Strode moved north and won the Grey Cup with the 1948 Calgary Stampeders, Canadian pro football's only undefeated team. "I've never gotten over 'Sergeant Rutledge,'" Strode told The New York Times years later. And he was dressed in blue overalls, a blue work shirt and boots. Strode was very close to the director. Finally, it became way of life.[3], He had roles in Bride of the Gorilla (1951), African Treasure (1951) (another Bomba film), an episode of Dangerous Assignment (1952), Caribbean (1952), and Androcles and the Lion (1952), playing the lion, "the toughest job I ever had" he said later.[20]. If you're a nice guy, you can walk into a room anywhere in the world. And so the studio actually tried to trick audiences into thinking that the film was about the white characters. 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. Theyre like father and son.. February 11-March 6, 2022. Strode was next cast in Spartacus (1960) as the Ethiopian gladiator Draba, in which he has to fight Spartacus (played by Kirk Douglas) to the death. - IMDb Mini Biography By: 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. As an athlete, he helped integrate the NFL. This is fascism against democracy: the tyranny of the strongman over the ordinary people. Woody Strode played 10 games over his career. Strode is perhaps best remembered as the stoic slave gladiator in Spartacus (1960) who tells Kirk Douglas: I dont want to be your friend. 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. 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. 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." 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. 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). '"[12] He also said, "On the Pacific Coast there wasn't anything we couldn't do. I'd play a Viking with blue contact lenses and a blond wig if I could. In 1940, UCLA and USC battled in what is believed to be the first cross-town rivalry game with championship implications. He is a member of famous Actor with the age 80 years old group. The newspaper editor prints the truth about Valance, and for his pains has his office trashed and is whipped nearly dead. Valuing his toughness, Ford cast Strode as Rutledge over future Oscar winners Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. 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? Ford discovered Wayne, then Marion Morrison, when the latter was a University of Southern California student with a summer job on a studio lot. "I had a certain amount of crudeness that went back a hundred years, and that's what he liked. 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. His magnificent Western landscapes are always there, but as environment, not travelogue. I said, All right, where are the pluckers?" Then Strode realised, I was out in the world market with a bald head. Strode was in Storyville (1992), and Posse (1992), working with director Mario Van Peebles. Woody Strode Tuesday, 28th July 1914 - Saturday, 31st December 1994 Los Angeles CA USA. John Ford has gone down as one of the greatest directors ever in film history. In a later tribute to Strode, the 'Sheriff Woody' character in the Toy Story movies was named after him. Acting wasn't his first passion, however, as football at Jefferson High School and UCLA brought him initial fame. Trapped for life. He was billed as the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and the Pacific Coast Negro Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1962. 1951: The Lion Hunters; Bride of the Gorilla. 1941:Sundown. Strode had begun his association with Ford back in 1939, with an uncredited role in his classic western 'Stagecoach'. 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. Four years Strode's junior, Washington scampered for a 92-yard touchdown in 1947 and spent three seasons with the Rams before retiring. "It's heart and guts. 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. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in . John Ford's "Apology" Western 'Sergeant Rutledge' Starring Woody Strode Returning to DVD. "We were unconscious of color. 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. But I must say I got a little smug about it. Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox, UCLA hires D'Anton Lynn as defensive coordinator, Harbaugh: Michigan good place to be despite challenges, Georgia's Dumas-Johnson charged with reckless driving. 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 <[email protected]> When Strode tried to help him, Duke knocked his co-star away. Working in the restaurant is young Hallie. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, How Green Was My Valley among his some 140 films he directed in his career. His last film was The Quick and the Dead (1995), which starred Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe. [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). (1960's edition! Decathlete who also played football professionally in the CFL, and enjoyed a successful acting career. "He treated me like a son," said Strode. Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Feted at SBIFF 2023, Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Tragically Common: Jamie Dack, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker on Palm Trees and Power Lines. Stoddard believes so firmly in the law that he is willing to lose his life for his principles. He broke two ribs and a shoulder. Strodes filmography lists 68 appearances. UsefulNotes/Notable Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age. He is Tom's farmhand and seems to be his only confidant, a protective presence; he always has Tom's back. 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. Who was Woody Strode, Hollywood star who broke the NFL color barrier? Boston Globe December 20, 1981: 1. All three spend much of their time hanging out in the restaurant kitchen. He enabled the Stamps to score twice in the title game. ", 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.". Tom Doniphon is a local farmer, who observes, "Liberty Valance's the toughest man south of the Picketwire--next to me." He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, unloading bombs in the Pacific. . The picture was about, oh, more than halfway finished. 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. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. [3], "I got a cultural educationmajored in history and education," he said in a 1971 interview. You can unsubscribe at any time. John Ford put classic words in my mouth You never seen a Negro come off a mountain like John Wayne before. But even worse is the poster for the film (above) on which Strode appears, although his name is listed fourth and in tiny letters even smaller that the third person billed actress Billie Burke, who has a small supporting role with just a few lines. 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. He had many murders on his conscience, and much enjoyed using a leather bullwhip. He decided to stay in Europe. 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 . Bit of a game changer." Though Woody usually means well, he's not always the . ", - IMDb Mini Biography By: 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. Met his wife, a Hawaiian princess and stand-in for the swim sequences for Dorothy Lamour. 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. In a long flashback involving most of the film, Ford recalls the events leading up to that day. He wrestled intermittently, once defeating Gorgeous George. And Duke came up to me one day and said, Hows it come that youve gone through this whole thing and youve never been at the bottom of the list? 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. 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. Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Strode's Associated Press obituary praised his work in Westerns and period dramas, but didn't mention the trail he blazed on the gridiron. [7], With her he had two children, television director Kalai (a.k.a. The ban collapsed when the Rams, founded in Cleveland, uprooted to Los Angeles in 1946. 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. Language. It takes place in the town of Shinbone, in an unnamed territory that is moving toward a vote on statehood. "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. He once said his interracial marriage (to an Hawaiian princess)and integrating the NFLwere the few times that racism caused him concern. 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. 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]). Sergeant Rutledge is a 1960 western film from Warner Brothers and the director John Ford. 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." Stoddard has come to town with a satchel full of law books, and hangs out his shingle at the newspaper office. 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. Woodrow Wilson Strode, known as Woody, was a big man on campus. 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? You ride horses.' [17] He later teamed up with both Bobo Brazil[18] and Bearcat Wright. Not surprisingly, the film is considered one of Fords most overlooked and underrated films, and given the subject matter as well as the era in which it was made and released, it was not a box office success either. I never got a close up in Hollywood, and Sergio framed me on the screen for five minutes. According to Woody, he's even less in control of himself, and all of his faculties, when tickling is involved. 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. Strode also served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. 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. DON'T MISSJohn Wayne: The Searchers set revelation that saw John Ford speechless[THE SEARCHERS]How the West Was Won: Idiot drunk producer, near-death and more[HOW THE WEST WAS WON]John Wayne: Why Elvis turned down Dukes offer to co-star in Western[ELVIS]. Race is not a factor in the world market," Strode said. I've done everything but play an Anglo-Saxon. [4][5], Strode, Kenny Washington, and Jackie Robinson starred on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, in which they made up three of the four backfield players. Bert Glennon-John Ford in Stagecoach.jpg 806 620; 276 KB Monument Valley, Arizona, US - panoramio (4).jpg 5,184 3,456; 4.48 MB Stagecoach (1939 poster).jpg 1,970 2,937; 2.32 MB 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). How many games did Woody Strode play? John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. As James Stewart explained it, Woody Strode, the actor who was playing Wayne's character's best friend, was part of the scene. He later said his salary in Italy went up to $10,000 a week. He could beat Glenn Morris, the 1936 Olympic gold-medal decathlete, in all of his events except sprints. 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. Woody Strode was a respected actor with strong African and Native American ancestry. Another well-known role was Pompey, John Waynes servant in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). 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. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. [29] He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California. [1], Strode was born in Los Angeles. Woody Strode spent decades in Hollywood working with larger-than-life names, including John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Kirk Douglas. 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. Cuenta con una puntuacin bastante buena en IMDb: 7.8 estrellas de 10. But they should be.". 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