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Woody Strode

 
Actor: Woody Strode
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Jul 25, 1914 in Los Angeles, California
  • Died: Dec 31, 1994 in Glendora, California
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '50s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Western, Action
  • Career Highlights: The Professionals, Sergeant Rutledge, Black Jesus
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Sins of Rachel Cade (1960)

Biography

Towering (6'5") black athlete Woody Strode, together with fellow U.C.L.A. All-American Kenny Washington, successfully broke the NFL's "color line" in 1946 when he signed with the L.A. Rams. Strode went on to play with the Canadian Football League, then attracted a TV following as a pro wrestler. Though he'd made an isolated movie appearance in 1941, Strode's film career didn't really take off until the 1950s. At first, little in the way of acting was required; it was enough for him to convey strong, silent dignity in such fleeting roles as the King of Ethiopia in De Mille's The Ten Commandments (1956). Like many other black athletes-turned-actors of the era, Strode was often called upon to play African warriors and tribal chieftains.This he did in a variety of small parts on the 1952 TV series Ramar of the Jungle; as Lothar on an obscure 1954 video version of Mandrake the Magician; and in the 1958 feature film Tarzan's Fight for Life. A close friend of director John Ford, Strode received some of his best acting opportunities in Ford's films of the 1950s and 1960s -- notably Sergeant Rutledge (1960), in which he starred as a black cavalry soldier unjustly charged with rape and murder. He was also well-served in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) in the role of Draba, the gladiator who refuses to kill Kirk Douglas in the film's pivotal scene. During the 1960s, Strode was a familiar presence in westerns and actioners filmed in the U.S. and Europe. In 1968, he starred in Black Jesus, an Italian-made roman a clef based on the life of African activist Patrice Lumumba. In 1990, Strode published his candid, life-affirming autobiography Coal Dust. Woody Strode continued acting up until his death at age 80, accepting such prominent roles as the Storyteller in Mario Van Peebles' Posse (1993) and Charlie Moonlight in the Sharon Stone/Gene Hackman western The Quick and the Dead (1995). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Woody Strode
Born Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode
July 25, 1914(1914-07-25)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died December 31, 1994 (aged 80)
Glendora, California, U.S.
Occupation Sportsman
Actor
Years active 1941–1994
Spouse(s) Princess Luukialuana "Luana" Kalaeloa Strode (1941 - 1980)
Tina Strode (1982 - 1994)

Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was a decathlete and football star before finding even greater fame as a pioneering African-American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960. He served in the US Army during World War II.

Contents

Early life and athletic career

Strode was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended college at UCLA. Strode was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter organization established for African Americans.[citation needed] His world class decathlon capabilities were spearheaded by a fifty foot plus shot put (when the world record was fifty seven feet) and a six-four high jump (world record at time was 6-10). 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).[1]

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.[2] Along with Ray Bartlett, there were four African-Americans playing for the Bruins, when only a few dozen at all played on other college football teams.[3] They played eventual conference and national champion USC to a 0-0 tie with the 1940 Rose Bowl on the line. It was the first UCLA-USC rivalry football game with national implications.

Professional football

Strode and fellow UCLA alumnus Kenny Washington were two of the first African-Americans to play in the National Football League, playing for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946.[4] UCLA teammate Jackie Robinson would go on to break the color barrier in Major League baseball (in fact, all three had played in the professional Pacific Coast Professional Football League earlier in the decade). In 1948 and 1949, he played for the Calgary Stampeders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. He also spent a few years in professional wrestling, wrestling the likes of Gorgeous George.

Acting career

Woody Stode in Spartacus (1960)

As an actor, he was noted for film roles that contrasted with the stereotypes of the time. He was 6' 4" (1.93 m) tall. He is probably best remembered for his brief Golden Globe-nominated role in Spartacus (1960) as the Ethiopian gladiator Draba, in which he fights Kirk Douglas to the death.

Strode made his screen debut in 1941 in Sundown, but became more active in the 1950s, in roles of increasing depth. He played dual roles (billed as "Woodrow Strode") in The Ten Commandments (1956) as an Ethiopian king as well as a slave, and in 1959 portrayed the cowardly Private Franklin in Pork Chop Hill.

He became a close friend of director John Ford, who gave him the title role in Sergeant Rutledge (1960) as a member of the Ninth Cavalry falsely accused of rape and murder; he would later appear in smaller roles in Ford's later films Two Rode Together (1961) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Strode was one of the last friends of legendary director John Ford. He came to visit Ford while the director was feuding with the Hollywood film studios. A studio head called as the two were talking and Ford said "Tell him I'm busy, sitting here with my good friend Woody Strode."

Strode played memorable villains opposite three screen Tarzans. In 1958, he appeared as Ramo opposite Gordon Scott in Tarzan's Fight For Life. In 1963, he was cast opposite Jock Mahoney's Tarzan as both the dying leader of an unnamed Asian country and that leader's unsavory brother, Khan, in Tarzan's Three Challenges. In the late 1960s, he appeared in several episodes of the Ron Ely Tarzan television series.

Strode played a heroic sailor on a sinking ship in the 1960 film The Last Voyage. In 1966 he landed a major starring role in The Professionals, a major box-office success which (almost) established him as a major star. Another notable part was as a gunslinger in the opening sequence of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968); after this, he would appear in several other spaghetti Westerns of lesser quality. His starring role as a thinly disguised Patrice Lumumba in Seduto alla sua destra (released in the U.S. as Black Jesus) garnered Strode a great deal of press at the time, but the film is largely forgotten now, despite his impressive performance. He remained a visible character actor throughout the '70s and '80s, and has become widely regarded (along with Sidney Poitier and Brock Peters) as one of the most important black film actors of his time. His last film was The Quick and the Dead (1995).

Personal life

Strode was the son of a Creek-Blackfoot-black father and a black-Cherokee mother.[5] His first wife was Princess Luukialuana "Luana" Kalaeloa, a descendant of Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii.[6] Strode was a dedicated martial artist under the direction of Frank Landers in the art of SeishinDo Kenpo.[7]

Death

Strode died of lung cancer on December 31, 1994, in Glendora, California. He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, California.

Pop culture references

Filmography

Author

References

  1. ^ Stowitts, Hubert Julian. American champions; fifty portraits of American athletes by Stowitts, Tiergartenstrasse 21a, Berlin, 9.-15. September 1936, unter dem Protektorat des Amerikanischen Botschafters und Mitwirkung der Vereinigung Carl Schurz, anlässlich der XI. Olympiade, special sport exhibition. Stowitts, 1936
  2. ^ B.J. VIOLETT - TEAMMATES RECALL JACKIE ROBINSON’S LEGACY. UCLA Today magazine, 1997
  3. ^ Encyclopeǣia Brittanica article on Kenny Washington
  4. ^ NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Workman Publishing Co, New York,NY, ISBN 0-7611-2480-2, p. 280
  5. ^ Woody Strode, Goal Dust, Madison Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8191-7680-X, pp. 1-3)
  6. ^ Woody Strode, Goal Dust, Madison Books, 1990, ISBN 0-8191-7680-X, p. 78
  7. ^ Fighting Stars Magazine - July 1978

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Woody Strode".  Read more

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