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. Washington and Strode? Im delighted that you took the time too elaborate on its origins. Thanks for commenting! In addition to his WWII record, Jimmy was a member of The American Brotherhood of Christians and Jews, which he encouraged others to join. 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. American actor Woody Strode on the set of Sergeant Rutledge, directed by John Ford. Even Munns publisher, Jeromy Robson of JR Books, admits to having seen only a few of Munns interview reference materials, and that for the most part, he must trust Munns good memory for dialogue as the only proof that any of these alleged interviews occurred. Tarzans Fight for Life (1958) An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. For his book, Dewey interviewed the producer of Jimmys 1971 television show, writer Hal Kanter. He majored in history and education. 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 Football League in 1948. Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal. Yet it was this famous athleteturned-actor who, with the great running back Kenny Washington, overcame the segregation hurdle in professional football when they signed with the Los Angeles Rams in the National Football League in 1946. Strode is perhaps best remembered as the stoic slave gladiator in Spartacus (1960) who tells Kirk Douglas: I dont want to be your friend. Though he was a conservative unlike his friend Henry Fonda who was a liberal and despised racism, I doubt if their life long friendship wouldve lasted if Fonda discovered he had racist views. Spartacus (1960) Strode was a gladiator in Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) and was in Jungle Man-Eaters (1954), a Jungle . Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. Additionally, the. According to Strode, John Ford then called the whole cast and crew over, and twisted the comment into something Jimmy Stewart never said. In 1946, Jimmy Stewart led a small group of stars who vocalized their support for brotherhood among all Americans. > Photo Galleries I am so glad that I read this article. 1995 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 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. (A small role in 1941s Sundown marked his actual debut.) Watch Jim and Duke at the piano in the scene below: Sharing hotel, meals, and a piano jam session on and off film with Duke Ellington. He went on to play in the Canadian Football League before becoming a prolific Hollywood actor,. The episode "Last Night Gus" isn't just a real highlight for Psych but for Woody's character and his bizarre humor, too. The Ravagers, The Professionals) Fall victim to a spider attack, entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling, Wild Party) arrives and tries to help Rack deal with the crisis. 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. Shawn and Gus try to convince Woody to keep quiet, but Woody warns them that he will tell anyone who he comes across. But Kanter says that Jimmy mixed up the roles: he explained to Jim that Hal Williams had not been cast as a police officer, but as an FBI agent in a different episode. John Ford wasnt afraid to explore bigotry in his films, but Sergeant Rutledge is a standout and the first big-budget Western to feature a black man as the hero played by Woody Strode. Since 1964-when he, Examinations of masculinity in John Ford's film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) tend to revolve around the two leading male protagonists played by John Wayne and James Stewart (Tom Doniphon, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode (July 25, 1914 - December 31, 1994) born in Los Angeles, was a football and track star at UCLA, playing alongside Jackie Robinson on the Bruins squad. And according to the actor, Ford froze, then walked away. Strode was in City Beneath the Sea (1953) directed by Budd Boetticher, and The Royal African Rifles. As an actor, Strode is forever tied to John Ford (see our Pepper Martin biography for some stories that involve both Strode and Ford). And when we lost, we cried like babies.. 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.. Despite his romance with Dinah Shore in the 1940s Stewart was also known to express some mildly anti-Semitic views during the counterculture movement. He served as a caregiver to Ford in his final years and was at Ford's deathbed in 1973. A rumor casts a shadow on the legacy of Jimmy Stewart. After World War II Woody and Kenny Washington became the first blacks to play in the NFL. Cowboysan (1977) Woody Strode was born in Los Angeles, CA. Afterwards, Lee Marvin remembered seeing both. I am a black American who was heartbroken when I heard this aweful rumor. So this week, lets resolve to live in harmony with our fellow man.. That year, he would head to Canada to work for Stu Hart in his Klondike Wrestling promotion in Calgary, Alberta (later renamed Stampede Wrestling), before returning to the US to work for his hometown NWA Los Angeles. La mala ordina (1972) The Stampeder supporters invaded Toronto and a national party was created. Che! 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. Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. So thank you for this I really really appreciate it. Spartacus is probably Strodes most famous role as the warrior Kirk Douglas refuses to kill. Six decades later, the film continues to attract attention because it was one of the first mainstream films in the U.S. to treat racism frankly and to give a starring role to an African-American actor. Strode served in the Air Force from 1942 to 1946, including time in Guam and the Marianas where he unloaded bombs. During the interview, when we are alone, Strode is relaxed and easy to talk with almost as if he had discovered a long lost relative and was eager to reconstruct the past. African Treasure (1952) Tha Gatling Gun (1973) 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. Your email address will not be published. Pete Thodos would score shortly thereafter to seal a 12-7 Calgary win. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960)." Played . The season seven episode "Office Space" is another memorable episode in the series' run. The evidence proves that Jim was not racist. You can unsubscribe at any time. An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. Strode worked in B-movies through the 70s and 80s and acted as the narrator for Mario Van Peebles Black Western Posse in 1993. As a 70 year old black man who grew up watching and loving Jimmy Stewart i can only hope he wasnt a racist like so many Americans of his era ! This unnamed actor used the n word to refer to Woody Strode. By 1960, he was starting to garner more attention from Hollywood producers, and after roles inPork Chop Hill (1959), The Last Voyage (1960), andSpartacus(1960), Hollywood deemed he was no longer an extra and deserved more attention. Then he asked someone to blow a whistle, which they did, and he called out, Everybody, would you please gather around? So they did. But i am so glad to find out it was not true. Cutting Her Down to Size? The Pompey actor assessed: What a miserable film to make.. (See The American Creed video in my article above.). Strode played as an End with the Rams in 1946, playing in 10 games that season. 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. 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 starKenny Washington made up three of the four backfields and were dubbed the Gold Dust Gang by the press. Munn is the author of over 25 books, most of which are built on the intimate and often shocking revelations that, according to Munn, these stars were all anxious to share with him. Strode died in his sleep at his home in Glendora, California of lung cancer on December 31, 1994. She's been living in a galaxy far, far away since she was 11 years old, though she makes the occasional stop in Themyscira, Hawkins, and Westeros - and she wouldn't have it any other way. Jim was a good man through and through. He was a good man deserving of the love and admiration that so many of us have for him. RELATED:Psych: Ranking The Main Characters By Intelligence. La collina degli stivali (1969) Mar 5: AEW Revolution In 1939 Woody, Jackie Robinson and Kenny Washington led UCLA to its first undefeated football season. The fame he had built through football and movies helped open up wrestling as well, and Strode wrestled white grapplers in Texas in the early 50s. Aka: Scipio the African Born in Los Angeles on July 28, 1914, with his mother a full-blooded Blackfoot, Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode grew into a solid 6-foot-4-1/2, 220-pound stud. Noi non siamo angeli (1975) After Gus and Shawn are implicated in yet another murder scene, they scramble to cover up the evidence which Woody is already all too keenly aware of. He was interred with military honors at Riverside National Cemetery, east of his hometown.. The Man Who Made The Stars Shine Brighter: An Interview with Woody Strode. Hi Cheryl, thanks for reading! That tendency to be excluded, either intentionally or unthinkingly, clearly plays a major part in his excitement whenever he's actually looped into any episodic adventure - even if it means the friendship group may have killed someone. I read that Stewart was a racist a few weeks ago and fell for it hook line and sinker. But it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to make his first logical leap either. During the episode, the main group of guys find themselves unable to remember what they did the night before, only to find themselves involved in a murder investigation. It was on the set of 1959s Pork Chop Hill, a Korean War film, that Strode met John Ford (though Ford was not the director; Lewis Milestone and star Gregory Peck shared the credit). > Collectibles The Alleged Woody Strode Interview Michael Munn's dangerous habit of mixing truth with exaggeration and fallacy calls his alleged interview with Woody Strode into question. Additionally, the director kept mocking Wayne for not enlisting in World War II, which made the star feel guilty in his later years. I encourage you to read my full article for further insights into the character of Jimmy Stewart. God bless. A Gathering of Old Men (TV) (1987) As expertly portrayed by the comically gifted Kurt Fuller, Woody is a character who is always too much at all times. The Black Stallion Returns (1983) I want to thank you for your research into one of my favorite actors. Sundown (1941). Bride of the Gorilla (1951) He had a problem with a black guy doing that. Unlike Robinson, however, neither played much. The FBI agent character was written out of The Jimmy Stewart Show after Stewart objected to NBC. Key West (TV) (1973) Woody acknowledges that he has a daughter he's worried about, but it's really the "43 Twitter followers who depend on" him that cross his mind when he's worried this might be it for him. It would be interesting to hear Janes thoughts. And late Hollywood legend James Stewart got to watch their dynamic up close. Lust in the Dust (1985) The same year he broke into pro wrestling, he also got his start in Hollywood, making his debut in the 1941 filmSundown. It is like when people try to pretend John Wayne and Winston Churchill were not racist. May he forever RIP. Woody Strode. But as a key supporting player, Woody is absolutely perfect, and his many oddities are all the more welcome because of that. Woody Strode in Spartacus July 1952 found Barbara still impersonating a human ping pong ball as she bounced back - you guessed it - to the ever unreliable Mr Neal. The Lion Hunters (1951) Michael Munns integrity as a biographer has been questioned. Ford discovered Wayne, then Marion Morrison, when the latter was a University of Southern California student with a summer job on a studio lot. According to Peter Fonda, the sheer fact that Jimmy Stewart was best friends with Peters father, Henry Fonda, proves that Jim was not racist. Aka: The Devils Backbone Colpo in canna (1975) Strode was born in Los Angeles on July 25, 1914, the son . But I gradually learned L.A. was heavily segregated. No Time for Love (1943) John Wayne was a supporter of Israel, but is known to have made several anti-Semitic remarks. Seduto alla sua destra (1968) RELATED:10 Witty Buddy Comedies To Watch If You Love 'Psych'. Bit of a game changer." Though Woody usually means well, he's not always the . Thank you for reading! Woody Strode and Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Request Permissions. Where was Woody Strode born? Tarzans Deadly Silence (1970), Ciakmull Luuomo della vendetta (1970) Thank you for reading! Greg Oliver has been writing about pro wrestling since 1985, and is the author of wrestling books: The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Storytellers (with Steven Johnson), The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: Heroes & Icons (with Steven Johnson and Mike Mooneyham); The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Heels (with Steven Johnson); The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams (also with Johnson); The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Canadians; SLAM! 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