"WOODY" STRODE: Big Strong & HARD!

At 6'4", he was BIG!  As a decathlete, pioneer football star, and professional wrestler, he was STRONG!  And as an actor in the movies, he was as HARD as they come!  Woody Strode seperated the men from the boys, and he wasn't nobody's punk.  And few were as good-looking as Woody Strode!  "He could've made me have his babies" says a buddy of mine - a straight male.  Yes, even today Woody Strode can make you forget your purpose!  Once you get rid of the woodie, you can concentrate on the Woody!

Did I say he started out as a decathlete?  In the mid-30's, Strode was a student at UCLA, and a member of the first African American intercollegiate Greek letter organization, Alpha Phi Alpha.  Pish tosh!  That was nothing compared to his extraordinary skills on the field that would have led to him competing for a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics - if UCLA hadn't required him to complete a shop course FIRST!  Strode was actually in training right up until cut-off time, and was expected to break the record set by Glenn Morris, a sort of "great white hope" from Colorado, but the school said he needed another half-unit to maintain his eligibility.  No matter, the 1936 Olympics in Germany may have hoped to showcase Adolf Hitler's master race, but they instead turned out to be a stunning showcase for the black American athlete - just without Woody.

Hitler's friend and supporter, Leni Riefenstahl, whose documentary on the 1936 games, Olympia, is considered one of the greatest sports films ever made, was certainly mesmerized by the young Woody Strode.  Somewhere, the two of them saw pictures of a young, strong Strode, and the visuals rocked their world so much so that the athlete was contacted.  She brought a painter friend with her, and together they stripped Woody down to the bare essentials and went to work.  Painting, that is!

 

The friend Riefenstahl brought with her may have been the gay dancer, photographer and artist, Hubert Stowitt.  This painting is described as one of the two nudes that he painted of Woody for an art exhibition in the '36 Olympics.  A total of 55 nudes in the collection, the exhibit, called American Champions caused a sensation in Berlin, but was promptly shut down when the depictions of "inferior" black and jewish athletes offended the "superior" Nazi sensibilities.  Whatever the exact connection between Riefenstahl, Stowitt (or Hitler's commission of the paintings) Stowitt is definitely the artist.

 

 

It was on a football scholarship that Strode was able to go to UCLA in the first place. This was at a time when black athletes were not often seen in college sports, and certainly not on professional sports teams.  With only a few dozen playing on other college teams, UCLA boasted four African American players on their 1939 UCLA Bruins football roster.  Consequently, Woody and the legendary Kenny Washington were two of the first brothas to play in the NFL in 1946 (with the Los Angeles Rams).  "Integrating the NFL was the low point of my life. There was nothing nice about it. History doesn't know who we are. Kenny was one of the greatest backs in the history of the game, and kids today have no idea who he is. If I have to integrate heaven, I don't want to go" quotes Strode.  Their teammate, the iconic Jackie Robinson, went on to break the color barrier in Major League baseball just a year later in 1947.  Poised for success in so many different areas, these brothas had to be hard on and off the field.  (Strode - L, Robinson - M, Washington- R).

With devastating Dark-Gable, matinee-idol good looks, it seemed perfectly natural that Woody Strode would be recognized by Hollywood.  Like many African Americans, Strode had a heavy dose of Native American heritage.  He was proud of the fact that he was the son of a half-Cherokee, half-black mother and a half-Blackfoot/Creek, half-black father.  In 1940, Strode married Princess Luukialuana Kalaeloa (known as Luana), a descendant of Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii, and they had two children.  He said "When I married her, you'd have thought I was marrying Lana Turner, the way the Whites in Hollywood acted."

Still, Hollywood focused on "the exotic" and by 1954, Woody had appeared in more than 20 movies.  Never given the type of roles his talent demanded, Strode usually appeared in bit parts, in loin cloths (and usually unbilled) on the screen.  No matter how he may have measured his own personal success, it took Strode a little bit longer to find it in the movies.  But, there was no denying....he was a PRESENCE!

Most people remember Woody as the Ethiopian gladiator, Draba, in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960).  Indeed, that is the film that catapulted him to fame (and a Golden Globe nomination).  But my favorite is of Sergent Rutledge (1960), the proud, dignified Buffalo Soldier on trial for his life - falsely accused of raping a white girl.  Strode was the bonafide star of the movie, yet received very low billing over the more "well-known" personalities associated with the film, but again it could not be denied how Woody Strode walked away with everybody's stuff in that excellent film! 

It also marked a burgeoning professional and personal relationship with the film's legendary director, John Ford.  Ford was as brittle and tough as they come, and the two men respected each other so much that the director was intent on using the actor in film as much as possible.  With Ford's casting, Woody Strode became a formidable character actor to be reckoned with in the movies.  And when the director was taking his last breaths, it was Strode (and no one else) who was by his side.  John Ford wanted it that way!

In the mid-70's, Strode moved to Rome where he became an international movie star playing mob bosses, hit men, gun slingers and wild-west heroes and villians, too.  He was making $150,000 per film!  He never needed needed a double, and did all of his own stunt work, thus proving good black don't crack, nor break too easy.  Woody Strode's filmography has over 75 films listed through Hollywood's golden years with the top directors and co-stars, through campy films like Lust In The Dust with Divine, and as Patrice Lumumba in Black Jesus.  Coming full circle as an old man, he co-starred in (and narrated) Mario Van Peebles' Posse.  Of Peebles, he said "I still can't believe I've lived to see the day when a young black man like Mario would be given money to direct this kind of movie and get to say the things he's saying. And I'm the one who gets to say it. Let me tell you, it's a real kick."  

For a long time, Woody Strode stayed big, strong and hard & enjoyed the good life with family, friends and film since about 1940.  He was a "man's man" who lived rough and called it like he saw it whether anybody liked it or not.  He spent his later years making and bottling his own wine on his ranch in Glendora, CA.  He died on New Year's Eve, 1994, at the age of 80 from lung cancer.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Stanley Bennett Clay]

Woody Strode was a true legend, highly respected, extremely talented, and looked up to as a role model by us young black actors working in Hollywood in the early nineteen seventies. It was an honor and a privilege to meet the great man at a Screen Actors Guild function back in, I believe 1973. It was indeed a great time for 23-year-old me. That same year my agent introduced me to my ultimate hero, Mr. Sidney Poitier!

[Corey]

@WOW! Actor, Author, Activist, Filmmaker....Stanley Bennett Clay! Welcome to my blog and thank you for leaving a comment. When will we get to read YOUR memoirs - that's what I'M looking forward to! BRAVO!

[DesperateArtist]

Great post Corey! I always love reading your posts on the influence of people whom I might not have known about otherwise.

[Spellbound By The Fudge]

Gosh he was so magnificent and played the game as it was supposed to be played, on your own terms. He was a gorgeous man. Havent seen to many like him sense he left.

[Toddy English]

What a beautiful and BEAUTIFUL dude!
It wasn't just his physical appearance but his overall aura of refinement and prestige. I loved the black stars back then. They had so much elegance and dignity!

[Ronald Wallace]

Truly, one of the many great performers of the Twentieth Century and so overlooked in so many areas. As a Black American on a mostly white Western movie forum, it has been heartening to hear so many sing the man's praise. I first knew his acting but to then find out all of his other accomplishments just brings home how much of our history is missing and yet is so important. The strength and dignity he portrayed in Sergeant Rutledge could be a starting point for all Black actors.