Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. "[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. Racial discrimination slowed their progress in the game. 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. As James Stewart explained it, Woody Strode, the actor who was playing Wayne's character's best friend, was part of the scene. The two became friends, and Ford later gave Wayne his breakthrough role in Stagecoach, the film that launched Wayne to Hollywood stardom. 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." [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. 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. Legacies. Race is not a factor in the world market," Strode said. On top of that, in the early 1930's, Ford also made several films with long-lambasted black character . His world-class decathlon capabilities were spearheaded by a 50ft (15m) plus shot put (when the world record was 57ft (17m)) and a 6ft 5in (1.96m) high jump (the world record at time was 6ft 10in (2.08m)). 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. Im glad you made it.. The supporting cast includes Linda Cristal, Andy Devine, and John McIntire. And late Hollywood legend James Stewart got to watch their dynamic up close. Strode, Kenny Washington and Jackie Robinson in 1939 comprised one of the nations most potent backfields and, along with Ray Bartlett, there were four African Americans playing for one team when only a few dozen Blacks competed nationally. Stewart said: It looks a bit Uncle Remussy to me. This was a reference to the controversial fictional narrator of 19th century African-American folktales, who was later the main character in Disneys 1946 movie Song of the South a film that Disney does not make available today due to its racist stereotyping. Woody Strode was born in California. [6] They became famous nationally as "the Gold Dust gang". Dnde ver La diligencia? [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. How many . 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). At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Strode was an athletic marvel in his prime. 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. He went on to depict myriad gunslingers at home and abroad. This man was the definition of a renaissance man, keep reading this article and you will understand exactly why. 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. While in college, Strode and Washington held summer jobs at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, mostly running errands on various sound stages; he noted that most days involved standing around and waiting for someone to order something. Strode would become an assistant to some of the studios biggest stars including Bette Davis, James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland and Jane Wyman. I had the greatest Glory Hallelujah ride across the Pecos River that any black man ever had on the screen. Strode hauled in a pass while a teammate lay on the grass at the far sideline, which left that receiver wide open on the next snap. [3], In 1941, Strode had dabbled for several months in professional wrestling. 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. Smith Goes to Washington, did not escape Fords sadism unscathed. "I'll continue to work in Europe because I'm a star there," Strode said in 1982, per TCM. 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. 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. "I have the world market on my side even if I don't have the American market.". Following Cat Ballou (Oscar) this is one of 4 Westerns . But Ford had a cruel streak, PBS reports, and it emerged on the set of his movies. Bob Rea . Woody Strode spent decades in Hollywood working with larger-than-life names, including John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Kirk Douglas. Strodes best known role was the gladiator Draba in Stanley Kubricks Sparticus (1960). "And this is not being facetious, but Mr. Ford defended me; and I don't know that this is going on. 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. "[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). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The character Woody from the "Toy Story" films is named after Strode, who had appeared in a number of classic Western films. He later said his salary in Italy went up to $10,000 a week. So why would actors put up with him? He appeared once on Johnny Weissmuller's 19551956 syndicated television series Jungle Jim and was in an episode of Private Secretary. Do you find this information helpful? 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 encountered racism in the NFL. 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. He was both successful and a popular draw, but he gave up wrestling due to his popularity in motion pictures. Inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992. He was in 87 movies over the length of his career, though Strode . He was Cree and Blackfoot on his father's side and Cherokee on his mother's. Boston Globe December 20, 1981: 1. 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? The picture was about, oh, more than halfway finished. Valuing his toughness, Ford cast Strode as Rutledge over future Oscar winners Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte. [3] He called it "the first dramatic thing that I had done."[7]. Not until 1946 did the two suit up for the . [3], "I got a cultural educationmajored in history and education," he said in a 1971 interview. He did 1,000 push-ups, sit-ups, and knee bends daily. Posed for one of two paintings commissioned by, Reportedly, his favorite film from his career was, Played college football for the UCLA Bruins, the most integrated collegiate team in the nation in 1939, which included future NFL running back. 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. 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. 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. "You'd have thought I was marrying Lana Turner, the way the whites in Hollywood acted," he later said. He was also a professional wrestler, wrestling the likes of Gorgeous George. Strode had begun his association with Ford back in 1939, with an uncredited role in his classic western 'Stagecoach'. The pioneering Black character actor relocated from the United States to Europe for a while to pursue bigger and more interesting roles. Strode was a gladiator in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and was in Jungle Man-Eaters (1954), a Jungle Jim film. Strode was born in Los Angeles on July 25, 1914, the son . Played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League from 1948-49 before moving back to the US and beginning his film career. But Stewart, an Oscar winner known for such timeless hits as The Philadelphia Story, Vertigo and Mr. Who Is Woody Strode's Wife? Sam Raimi's Western "The Quick and The Dead," starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, and Leonardo DiCaprio, is dedicated to him. February 11-March 6, 2022. The Pompey actor assessed: What a miserable film to make.. Nationality: American. Strode and Washington, an All-American in 1939, linked up the following year with the Hollywood Bears of the minor Pacific Coast Professional Football League. Perseverance. He shared a story from the set of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Fords 1962 film about an attorney (Stewart) who, robbed and left for dead by a notorious outlaw, is saved by a rancher (Wayne) and has to start over from scratch. (Whats a brother got to do to get some respect around here?). "Never used it, but I could walk into the White House with it now. In 1967 he attempted to produce his own film, The Story of the Tenth Cavalry but it was not made. Every day, someone was at the bottom of the list in the barrel, as you say, Stewart said of Fords tendency to take his frustrations out on his underlings. His mother was full-blooded Blackfoot, and he played often, Indians in John Ford's films. Now, I don't know if Mr Stewart has a prejudice against Negroes, but I just wanted you all to know about it., Stewart later said he wanted to crawl into a mouse hole after that and Wayne told him: Well, welcome to the club. 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 . 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. Had a longtime affair with troubled actress. After his football career, he went on to . Shinbone is the only Western town I've seen in a movie with no prostitutes. '"[12] He also said, "On the Pacific Coast there wasn't anything we couldn't do. Strode and teammate Kenny Washington were among the best-known college football players in the nation. Ford used him again in Two Rode Together (1962) but it was only a small part, as an Indian. 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. The way Ford employs the African-American Pompey is observant. Needless to say, the crime sets the townspeople aflame with hatred, and theres a lynch mob just itching to take matters into their hands. John Ford put classic words in my mouth You never seen a Negro come off a mountain like John Wayne before. John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. 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. But they should be.". Filmography - 1939: Stagecoach. I couldn't do it. 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. "It's heart and guts. English. Sheriff Woody, the beloved "Toy Story" protagonist, was said to be named after Strode. More info, The cantankerous and eccentric John Ford had filmed other Westerns with John Wayne in colour from The Searchers to She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Strode brought the best out of his castmates while stealing scenes, sometimes before he spoke a line. He wasan outstanding athlete before his entry into movies. He was billed as the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Wrestling Champion and the Pacific Coast Negro Heavyweight Wrestling Champion in 1962. I make westerns.. "They are not household names like Jackie Robinson. "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. Woody Strode. Strode worked in B-movies through the '70s and '80s and acted as the narrator for Mario Van Peebles' Black Western Posse in 1993. The Legend of Woody Strode. Pas : USA "La diligencia" pelcula de pelculas de vaqueros y accin producida en USA. 1952: African. 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. Youd have thought I was marrying Lana Turner, they way Whites in Hollywood acted, he recalled. 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. 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.. Strode, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, died of lung cancer in Los Angeles in 1994 at the age of 80. But by 1946, Strode was 32 and the oldest member of the Rams as a rookie. His composition is classical. 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. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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. His magnificent Western landscapes are always there, but as environment, not travelogue. [1], Strode was born in Los Angeles. 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. Official Sites, Impeccable musculature and towering height, Often played quiet, dignified men of action, Was one of the first four blacks who integrated professional football in 1946. 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. Then he asked someone to blow a whistle, which they did, and he called out, Everybody, would you please gather around? So they did. Strode was in Storyville (1992), and Posse (1992), working with director Mario Van Peebles. In Liberty Valance, a picture I did with Duke, Stewart recounted. (1979), and an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979). But Pompey won't drink. His last film was The Quick and the Dead (1995), which starred Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe. 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). Calgary beat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12-7 in Toronto. In an interview given before he died, Stewart once described the toll that Fords meanness took on Wayne. By the mid 1960s Strode had become a respected craftsman and began to make his biggest imprint in Spaghetti Westerns, particularly in Sergio Leones Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). He had a bigger role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) for Ford, playing Pompey, John Wayne's hired hand. I'd play a Viking with blue contact lenses and a blond wig.". Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. "We were unconscious of color. Look instead at a debate that continues between the lawyer and the farmer about guns. [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. The one awkward movement in the film comes at the big climax when the real killer reveals himself during the trial, in a scene so overwrought and overacted that it produces more guffaws than shock. Acting wasn't his first passion, however, as football at Jefferson High School and UCLA brought him initial fame. Yes, but there's more to it than that, and in John Ford's mind, gun ownership is very much an open question. Ford discovered Wayne, then Marion Morrison, when the latter was a University of Southern California student with a summer job on a studio lot. 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.. "It had dignity. "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. "I know Gus well." "Shawn." "Him too. 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 might have to kill you. He appeared in any number of other films, among them The Ten Commandments (1956). 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. As the film opens, U. S. Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) arrives in Shinbone by the new railroad with his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) to attend the funeral of a man named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). 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. 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. Besides, there is a complication. Professional Football Player, Actor. You can unsubscribe at any time. 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.