Tom Laughlin

Tom Laughlin (born August 10, 1931) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, theologian,educator and political activist. Laughlin is best known for his series of Billy Jack films. He has been married to Delores Taylor since 1956. Taylor has also co-produced and acted in all four of the Billy Jack films.

He has also ran for President of the United States three times (1992, 2004, and 2008) and has shown a deep interest in psychology and domestic abuse counseling.^{[citation needed]}

Early life and film career (1931-1959)

Laughlin was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to college at the University of Indiana and the University of Wisconsin, playing football for both schools,^[1] Laughlin decided to become an actor after seeing a production of A Streetcar Named Desire.^[2] He wrote the original screenplay for the film Billy Jack in 1954 after witnessing the treatment of Native Americans in his fiancee's hometown of Winner, South Dakota.^[3][4]

He began his on-screen acting career in the 1955 Television Series Climax! From there he went on to appear in numerous feature films including: These Wilder Years, Lafayette Escadrille, Tea and Sympathy and South Pacific. He appeared in several episodes of various television series throughout the late 1950s. He also appeared in the film Gidget (1959) as "Lover Boy". However, he failed to make any money in the early years, telling People magazine in 1975, "We were living on $5 a week and eating Spam. I stole Christmas cards from a church so I could write home saying how well we were, but then I couldn't afford the stamps."^[5]

Laughlin's first starring role was in Robert Altman's 1957 film The Delinquents, in which he played Scotty White, a teenager who gets mixed up with a gang when he is told he can no longer see his girlfriend.^[6] Despite the film's low budget, it became a cult film, with Alfred Hitchcock among its fans. However, Laughlin and Altman did not get along.^[7] Altman later characterized Laughlin to film journalist Todd McCarthy by saying: "He's a talented guy, but he's insane."

Laughlin made his directorial debut later that year with The Proper Time.^[8] However, the film wasn't released until 1960. The film was a romantic drama set on the campus of UCLA.^[9]

He was also the writer, director, and star of The Young Sinner. Originally filmed in 1960, the film was shot in Madison, Wisconsin. It was the story of a high school athlete (who is telling his story to a priest) who gradually gets into varying degrees of trouble after being caught in bed with his girlfriend. The film was released in 1961 as Like Father, Like Son but was given the name The Young Sinner upon its re-release in 1965. It was originally to be the first film of a trilogy entitled We Are all Christ.^[10]

Leaving Hollywood (1959-1966)

In 1959, Laughlin and his wife Delores Taylor founded a Montessori preschool in Santa Monica, California.^[1] By 1961, Laughlin had left the film business to devote all of his time to the school, which by 1964 had become the largest school of its kind in the United States. It was profiled by Time magazine in July of that year.^[11] However, by 1965, the school had gone bankrupt.^[5] One of his students was Christian Brando, the son of Laughlin's friend Marlon Brando.^[12]

However, there is some indication that he did not entirely give up the film business during this time, as he edited a film entitled The Slime People in 1963.^[13]

The Billy Jack Years (1967–present)

In 1967, Laughlin wrote, directed (as T. C. Frank) and starred in the motorcycle-gang exploitation film The Born Losers.^[14] This was the first film in which the character of Billy Jack appeared. It was a box-office hit and is often thought of as one of the top biker films.^[15] The film featured a rare late-career appearance by Jane Russell.^[16]

After The Born Losers, he directed (but did not act in) three exploitation films: The Babysitter (1969),^[17][18] The Touch of Satan (1971)^[19][20](which was featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000^[21]), and Weekend With the Babysitter (1971).^[22] He directed these films under his pseudonym Don Henderson.

He followed this up with the sequel to The Born Losers, Billy Jack (1971). Laughlin and Taylor had to fight to get this film released as they wanted it. Although made independently, like all of his films, and with his own money, several studios were on board to distribute it at various points in time. American International Pictures refused to release it unless a lot of the political references were cut out, leading to the Laughlins taking the film's sound reels, making it so the studio had, in effect, a silent movie^[23].^[2][24] Eventually Warner Brothers released it, but Laughlin, upset with the studio's marketing of the film, sued to get it back and re-released it himself.^[1]

The film's re-release was highly successful and very controversial,^[25] even being banned by the Catholic Church. Roger Ebert, in his review of the film, wrote "Billy Jack seems to be saying that a gun is better than a constitution in the enforcement of justice. Is democracy totally obsolete, then? Is our only hope that the good fascists defeat the bad fascists?".^[26] However, the film was embraced by much of America's youth, with Laughlin stating in 1975, "The youth of this country have only two heroes, Ralph Nader and Billy Jack".^[27] It is currently the highest-grossing independent film of all time.^[28][28] The film was also among the first to introduce martial arts, especially hapkido to American audiences and also contained elements of Jungian psychology, the Ghost Dance religion, and the teachings of Wovoka.^[29]

The second sequel The Trial of Billy Jack (1974), was also a box office,^[30] if not critical,^[31] success. It is notable for its casting of Native American icons such as Sacheen Littlefeather and Rolling Thunder. However, it was Laughlin's unique promotion of the film, which was its real legacy. Unlike most films of the era which opened in only a few cities before gradually spreading across the country, The Trial of Billy Jack opened in cities nationwide on the same day and commercials were broadcast for it during the national news. The film forever changed the way films are marketed.^[32]

In 1975, Laughlin released The Master Gunfighter, a western set in the 1840s, detailing the plight of the Chumash people. Laughlin grew a full beard for the film and his character fought with both a 12-barrel pistol and a samurai sword. Although it did reasonably well at the box offics, critics were not pleased with the film.^[33]

He returned to the Billy Jack franchise in 1977. However, the fourth entry in the franchise, Billy Jack Goes to Washington was a failure due to distribution problems^[34] and proved to be Laughlin's last film as a director, to date. Tom has blamed the United States government for the failure of the film,^[35] telling CNN's Showbiz Tonight in 2005, "At a private screening, Senator Vance Hartke got up, because it was about how the Senate was bought out by the nuclear industry. He got up and charged me. Walter Cronkite's daughter was there, [and] Lucille Ball. And he said, 'You'll never get this released. This house you have, everything will be destroyed.' [I]t was three years later, he gets indicted for the exact crime that we showed in the movie."^[36]

At the time of the film's release, Laughlin's company, Billy Jack Enterprises had plans for a new Montessori school funded by his own foundation, a record label, an investigative magazine, books, a distribution company and more message-laden movies (one of which was to star Jane Fonda). He told People magazine at the time, "Three years from today, we'll be the new United Artists. Either that, or we'll be out on our butt on the street."^[5]

After the failure of Billy Jack Goes to Washington, Laughlin played small parts in a few films, such as The Big Sleep and The Legend of the Lone Ranger. His last acting role to date was in a 1991 BBC production entitled The War that Never Ends.^[37][38]

In 1986, he attempted to make a fifth Billy Jack film, entitled The Return of Billy Jack,^[39] which was to feature the character fighting child pornographers in New York City. He was injured during the shooting of the film and it was put aside. In 2009, several scenes from this unfinished film were released on Laughlin's website. A notable incident occurred while he was in New York City, when he broke up a street fight on Manhattan's West Side, threatening to rip a man's arm off.^[1] The incident was carried by United Press International at the time.

He has been seeking funding for a fifth Billy Jack film, since at least 1997^[40] and at one point had plans to make a Billy Jack TV series.^[41] In 2004 he announced that the film was entitled Billy Jack's Crusade to End the War in Iraq and Restore America to Its Moral Purpose; this was shortened to Billy Jack's Moral Revolution in 2006. In 2008, the film was titled Billy Jack for President.^[1] Recently, it has been re-titled Billy Jack and Jean.^[42] Laughlin promises it will be a "new genre of film": a great deal of social commentary on politics, religion, psychology, etc. will be discussed,^[43] and a debate will take place between Billy Jack and President George W. Bush via computer manipulation of archived speeches.^[36][44] In 2009, Laughlin released plot details of this film on a video on his website. The video also contained several scenes from the film.^[45]

Other work

Politics

In recent years, Laughlin has turned his attention to politics. In 1992, as a protest^[28][28] he sought the Democratic Party nomination for President,^[46] and appeared on the primary ballots in New Hampshire^[47] and Louisiana. He campaigned on a platform of a tax cut for "ordinary Americans," term limits, an overhaul of public education, and universal health care.^[48] Despite being excluded from debates^[49] by party officials who did not consider him a serious candidate, he received 3,251 votes, or about two percent, in the New Hampshire primary. He participated in the Independent Presidential Candidates Debate on March 25, 1992, along with Eugene McCarthy and others who had been excluded from the major debates.^[50]

He ran for president again in 2004,^[51] this time as a Republican.^[52] Campaigning as an opponent of the Iraq war , he received 154 votes (0.23 percent).^[53] He has also expressed interest in running for Governor of California.^[46]

He ran again in 2008^[54],^[55][56] as a Democrat, getting 47 votes on the New Hampshire primary.^[57]

Laughlin has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War^[58][59][60] and President George W. Bush,^[61] and his website presents several writings calling the conflict worse than the Vietnam War, in addition to pieces on what he calls "realistic exit strategies."^[62] He also devotes several pages of the Billy Jack website to reasons that he feels justify an impeachment of George W. Bush,^[63][64] and has also repeatedly stated the need for a viable, mainstream third political party.^[65] In addition, he has criticized the Christian right, which he has called "false Evangelicals" and "false prophets"^[66] He released several videos and writings during the 2008 election.^[67]

Psychology and counseling

Although he is not a trained psychologist, Laughlin has always had an interest in psychology, studying it independently. A 1975 profile of Laughlin in People magazine mentioned his deep interest in psychology and mentioned that he had a personal "dream secretary" who Laughlin told his recollections of his dreams to. They were written down to be analyzed later.^[5]

He has written several books on psychology including Jungian Psychology vol. 2: Jungian Theory and Therapy, published in 1980, 9 Indespendable Ingredients to Writing a Hit (1999), which details the psychology involved in the box office and hit filmmaking^[68] and The Psychology of Cancer (1981)^[69] and The Cancer Personality (1998), which are his theories as to the cause and treatment of cancer.^[70][71]

One of Mr. Laughlin's concerns is the issue of domestic abuse. He became involved in this after witnessing a neighbor, who happened to be a police officer, beating his wife.^[28][28] He blamed the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson on domestic abuse, saying,

O.J. Simpson was my neighbor up the street on Rockingham. He lived at 300 Rockingham Drive, I lived at 100 Rockingham. I've known O.J. forever. This is one of the sickest, sorriest days in our culture, that he was not guilty. I've told him since 1985 he'd end up in jail. Eight times [Nicole] cried out and eight times, because it was O.J. and it was woman-battering, it was dismissed. But now, with the trivialization, people are afraid to call because they don't trust that the system will help them. The fact that [O.J.] was found not guilty is going to make that 10 times worse. If you can't get help, if there is no justice, if there is no legal system that will help them, where do you go? Who's going to call? Why call if you're not going to get help?^[72]

Personal life

Laughlin has been married to Delores Taylor since 1956. They have three children: Frank, Teresa, and Christina. His daughter Teresa (known by the family as T.C.) is currently a fashion designer.^[73] He derived at least two of his pseudonyms from his children. Frank Laughlin, the name he used to direct The Trial of Billy Jack and The Master Gunfighter, being his son's name and T.C. Frank, which stood for Teresa Christina Frank.^[20]

In 2001, the public learned Laughlin was suffering from cancer of the tongue.^[74] His website says it is in remission.^[75] He has written The Psychology of Cancer, a book about faith, attitude and such factors that may have an alternative effect on the progression of cancer.^[76]

On November 20, 2007, he posted a video on YouTube explaining that his poor health caused him to leave his BillyJack.com website in a dormant state. He is suffering from Coeliac disease, an auto-immune disorder. In the video, he announced that he had the condition under control, has updated the website, is continuing his plans for a new Billy Jack film.^[77][78]

See also

• Delores Taylor
• political cinema
• independent film
• American Indian Movement
• hippie
• hapkido
• Michael Moore
• Jack Webb

References

External links

• Official Billy Jack website, including information on Tom Laughlin's political aspirations
• Tom Laughlin at the Internet Movie Database