But Ford had a cruel streak, PBS reports, and it emerged on the set of his movies. I almost died inside when I heard he was a racist. But as a key supporting player, Woody is absolutely perfect, and his many oddities are all the more welcome because of that. Hi James, thanks for commenting. 'The Harder They Fall' owes a tip of the hat to the pro footballer turned actor, who played the title role in one of the first mainstream films to plainly address racism. Thank you for more information for understanding. But when it came to shooting 1962s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance with Duke and Jimmy Stewart on the Paramount lot, the director opted for black and white instead. Was Jimmy Stewart Racist? Thanks for reading Brice! 1936 Strode posed for one of two paintings commissioned by Adolf Hitler for the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. 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. NWA USA: Tag team main event is full of SVGS, SmackDown: Rhodes and Reigns lay WrestleMania goals, Mat Matters: Forecasting the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2023, Drago and Aero Star showcasing lucha libre abroad. To promote Brotherhood Week, Jimmy Stewart opened and closed a 3 minute trailer that played before feature films at theaters across the United States. The leader's evil brother is plotting to prevent the youthful heir from assuming his rightful position. 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. THRs review of Sergeant Rutledge on April 8, 1960, Stephanie Hsu Hopes Breakthrough Indie Spirit Award Will Protect That Freak Flag, Roald Dahl Publisher Bends to Controversy, Will Release Classic Version of Controversial Kids Books, Andrea Riseborough: Oscars Most Talked-About Nominee Breaks Her Silence, Film Independent Spirit Awards: Winners List (Updating Live), Spirit Awards: Everything Everywhere All at Once Starts With a Bang, The Bear Wins First TV Award, Spirit Awards: Ke Huy Quan Thanks His Everything Everywhere All at Once Family in Best Supporting Performance Acceptance Speech, Spirit Awards: Hasan Minhaj Pokes Fun at IFC for Not Broadcasting Ceremony, How to Watch the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards Livestream, Star Hairstylist Jen Atkin Reveals Must-Have Hair Tools, Tutorials and Pro Tips In New MasterClass, Rihannas Puma x Fenty Is Coming Back Heres Where You Can Still Buy Those Cult-Fave Creepers, The Best Bridesmaid Dresses for Every Budget, From Under-$100 Gowns to Hollywood-Inspired Classics, BTS Army: Heres When and Where Legos Dynamite-Inspired Set Arrives Online and In Stores, The Big Lebowski Turns 25: People Didnt Get It, Jeff Bridges Recalls, How the Landscape of Native-Led Stories Has Changed Between Avatars: Were Flexing Our Sovereignty, The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News. 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. There are different takes over why, including that he thought it was a better medium. Its such a disheartening rumor thats unfortunately made its way across the internet. The spiritual leader of an oriental country is dying. That means everything, working with a man like that. Ford and Strode would also work together on Two Rode Together, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. I once played a part written for an Irish prize fighter. Additionally, the director kept mocking Wayne for not enlisting in World War II, which made the star feel guilty in his later years. Strode appeared in at least 90 films, from Sunrise in 1941 to his last, The Quick and the Dead, released in 1995. I was too young at the time to realize Ford was using me to get at Stewart. But in the early 1960s, it was Woody Strode who really broke the mold for professional wrestlers to appear in Hollywood films without just portraying pro wrestlers. Subscribe to our newsletter for new stories, tips & events. This story first appeared in the Nov. 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Next James Bond: Tom Hardy leapfrogged by 007 outsider, Robert Shaw Harrison Ford fury on Force 10 From Navarone 'total bull', John Wayne was really p***ed off: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was miserable shoot, John Wayne was constantly mocked by John Ford and even Jimmy Stewart was attacked too, Rio Bravo: Angie Dickinson on cute John Wayne being so different', Pompey star Woody Strode on John Wayne's left, John Wayne felt he couldn't hit back at John Ford since the director made him a star, John Wayne: The Searchers set revelation that saw John Ford speechless, How the West Was Won: Idiot drunk producer, near-death and more, John Wayne: Why Elvis turned down Dukes offer to co-star in Western, John Wayne: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon set feud that led to best scene, John Waynes final movie was NOT The Shootist Duke was in Star Wars, John Wayne never learnt his lesson over Hollywood roles. Ford had to accept those terms or not make the film.. I want to thank you for your research into one of my favorite actors. Thanks for your kind words, and for reading Damon! 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. Posse (1993) You could smell the orange blossoms. 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. 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. He died the following year at age 80. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Another reliable source for Woody Strodes feelings towards Jimmy Stewart is a, If we are to take Michael Munns 1976 interview with Woody Strode as fact, then Munns alleged interview with. Jim and Duke upset distributors of the film for a scene in which the two are seated next to each other on a piano bench, jamming at the piano of a bar filled with dancers. Woody Strode. All the while, he continued to work in often uncredited roles in Hollywood films in minor roles, before landing the role of the King of Ethiopia in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments featuring Charleton Heston. 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. Thankfully, the show never subjected Woody - or viewers - to that possibility. In 1939 he played for one of UCLA's greatest football teams ever, alongside future baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Michael Munns integrity as a biographer has been questioned. Shawn and Gus have been the best of friends ever since they were children, and maybe even since they were infants. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. Michael Munns dangerous habit of mixing truth with exaggeration and fallacy calls his alleged interview with. 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. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with Kirk Douglas in Spartacus (1960)." Played . But it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense for him to make his first logical leap either. > Gaming Spartacus (1960) Strode as a member of the Calgary Stampeders. Born in Los Angeles in 1914, Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode died at age 80 on New Year's Eve 1994. > Photo Galleries Santa Barbara Coroner Woodrow "Woody" Strode may have been a late addition to the world ofPsych, but there's no denying that he's arguably one of the series' weirdest and most memorable characters. Not many sports historians report, No one is more deserving than Frank Manchel, Emeritus Professor of English and Film at the University of Vermont, to be recognized by Film & History as a pioneer in film studies. LUltimo guerriero (1984) Also Stewart even stayed up late much to director Premingers chagrin during Anatomy Of A Murder to play with Duke Ellington. Jim hit it off particularly well with Duke Ellington during filming of 1959s Anatomy of a Murder, for which Ellington made history as the first black musician to compose the score for a major Hollywood production. Jims daughter, Kelly Stewart Harcourt, also knew her father was not racist: There were not a lot of black people in Dads life, but he was not a racist.. Ford discovered Wayne, then Marion Morrison, when the latter was a University of Southern California student with a summer job on a studio lot. 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. Katharine Hepburn & Woman of the Year, Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Chickpeas and Tarragon Tahini. Thank you for bringing the evidence together. Con Jock Mahoney, Woody Strode, Tsu Kobayashi, Earl Cameron. In this, the last interview Strode ever gave, he expresses only respect for Jimmy Stewart, calling Jim one of the screens greatest actors.. Cowboysan (1977) (A small role in 1941s Sundown marked his actual debut.) According to Strode, John Ford then called the whole cast and crew over, and twisted the comment into something Jimmy Stewart never said. Theyre like father and son.. Vigilante (1983) Youre so right, Jims own words and actions prove that he was not racist. Regarding your claim that the FBI agent character was written out of The Jimmy Stewart Show after Stewart objected to NBC: in my extensive research on the subject, Ive never found any evidence to support this. Thanks so much for your kind words, and for reading! Woody Strode and Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Hi Wyman! In 1962, he retired from pro wrestling to concentrate on his film career, which exploded after his role in John Fords Sergeant Rutledge, and then his first starring role in the Western The Professionalsthat starred Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster in 1966. Another reliable source for Woody Strodes feelings towards Jimmy Stewart is a 1994 interview with Lee Marvin biographer, Dwayne Epstein. The Lion Hunters (1951) At many times throughout the stressful saga, Woody is also fearing for his life, even pleading desperately with his captor and the episode's villain. Producer Julian Blaustein, who produced Jims 1950 film, Jim spoke of his Hollywood career in a series of interviews with. Woody's whispered warning - "Don't pick up" - is easily one of the series' best line deliveries. Mar 5: AEW Revolution As the two actors filmed an exterior shot on a horse-drawn cart, Wayne was close to losing control of the horses. The Ten Commandments (1956) Strode served in the Air Force from 1942 to 1946, including time in Guam and the Marianas where he unloaded bombs. Jim and Duke got to know each other during filming in Marquette County, Michigan, where the entire company stayed at the same hotel and shared meals. Stewart said that he didnt like it. Bill Fryes exact words to biographer Marc Elliot about Jim turning down Mockingbird were: He turned down To Kill a Mockingbird because he felt the racial thing was too controversialtoo liberal really, but he would never say it that way.. Was Vera-Ellen Anorexic in White Christmas? Hulk Hogan peaked with his first entry inRocky III, while Jesse The Body Ventura became a reliable sideman in films like PredatorandThe Running Man, as well as other wrestlers like Diamond Dallas Page, Edge, John Morrison, and many more. Also in the Munn interview, Strode relates an incident in which. Strode continued acting for decades his final film was as Charlie Moonlight in the 1995 film,The Quick and the Deadthat also featured Leonardo Di Caprio, Sharon Stone, and Gene Hackman sadly, Strode passed away from lung cancer in late 1994 before the film was released and the film was dedicated to him upon release. Apparently, that tendency to over share can get even worse than what viewers are already used to. If Michael Munns interview with Woody Strode did take place, its craftily presented, with Munns own words inserted in key places to suggest that Jimmy Stewart was a racist. Even in his later films, like Vigilante (1982) and Jungle Warriors (1984), the 70 year-old Strode looks Two Rode Together (1961) Ive done everything but play an Anglo-Saxon. The Man Who Made The Stars Shine Brighter: An Interview with Woody Strode. Thanks for commenting! 7 Women (1966) Sharing hotel, meals, and a piano jam session on and off film with Duke Ellington. A small donation would help us keep this available to all. Woody Strode, the football player turned actor who had supporting roles in John Wayne films and costume period epics such as "Spartacus" and "The Ten Commandments," has died at age 80. He went on to play in the Canadian Football League before becoming a prolific Hollywood actor,. City Beneath the Sea (1953) His words, actions, and moral code prove the fallacy of any rumor to the contrary. Hal Kanter is our only primary source on the alleged conversation. The stated primary focus of the 1947 campaign was: to enroll as many people as possible in the fight against racial intolerance, bigotry, and discrimination.. Her brother Peter said that Jimmy Stewart was not racist.