Saw part of that, rave. Unfortunately, it was the parts with Tarzan and Bomba. Still, the man cut an impressive figure. My favorite role of his was as the scout Jake Sharp in the IMO-excellent Richard Books western "The Professionals" (which may pop up from time to time on Encore Westerns, for those interested). I like quiet, competent characters.
On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 1:38 PM, Kelwyn <ravena...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > I know this is a day late and a dollar short but TMC had a Woody Strode > marathon on yesterday. > > Strode, an All-American athlete at UCLA (he played football with Jackie > Robinson) was one of the first blacks to play in the NFL. 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 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. > > 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 appeared in smaller roles in Ford's later > films "Two Rode Together" (1961), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962) > and "Seven Women" (1966). > > I watched "Sargeant Rutledge," which contains some of the best and worst > black characterizations I have ever seen on film juxtaposed against Ford's > iconic Monument Valley tableaus, and "Once Upon A Time in the West," a truly > great spaghetti western directed by Sergio Leone and starring Henry Fonda, > Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, Jack Elam, Strode and Claudia Cardinale. > > The opening shot of 6 foot four inch Strode from his boots to the top of > his cowboy hat is worth the cost of admission. > > Henry Fonda, as a truly evil man; Bronson, as a zen-like drifter, and > Cardinale as a strong-willed frontier heroine, are all revelations. > > > -- "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
