Facts About Woody Strode

He was a remarkable athlete and actor.

Old drive-in theaterPhoto byDavid ClodeonUnsplash

I haven’t seen Woody Strode in a lot of movies, but when I have, he made an impression. One of the westerns where he made an impression was, The Professionals. More about that later. In addition, he was great as John Wayne’s hired hand in, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence.

Perhaps his biggest star turn was in Sergeant Rutledge. It really didn’t catapult Rutledge to huge stardom despite the quality of the movie. In addition, Strode was a tremendous athlete.

While Strode had a great career, in a different time it seems like he would have had so many more opportunities. So, here are some things you didn’t know about Woody Strode.

1: Woody, from Toy Story, was named after Woody Strode.

It’s nice that the movie makers named the character Woody after Woody Strode, but I couldn’t help but notice the character didn’t look like Woody Strode.

2: The cast of The Professionals was a macho bunch including Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan and Woody Strode.

It’s reported that Burt Lancaster challenged Woody to various feats of strength and came away a dejected loser. I wonder if he had another chance, Woody do it again? Ok, sorry about that.

3: During the 1940s Woody tried his hand at professional wrestling and had success.

He was a good guy but got out of the ring to appear in movies. So, if Dwayne Johnson is The Rock, Woody Strode was The Boulder.

4: Woody was one of the first four blacks to enter professional football. He played for the LA Rams in 1946.

For context, Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers in 1947. He was 32 at the time.

5: Strode was one of the four black players on the undefeated 1939 UCLA football team.

The backfield was known collectively as the Gold Dust gang.” However, I doubt that much of that gold made it down to Strode.

6: Woody had an unusual modeling career.

Strode posed nude for an acclaimed exhibition of athletic portraits shown at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I’m curious as to how Hitler could see that and talk about an Aryan super race. The Nazis did close the exhibit down.

7: Director John Ford was Strode’s advocate when it came to getting the starring role in Sergeant Rutledge.

The studio wanted someone like Sidney Poitier or Harry Belafonte, but Ford had a different take. Ford was quoted as saying, “Well, they’re not tough enough to do what I want Sergeant Rutledge to be.” None of them had played pro football or been pro wrestlers.

8: Strode was able to double dip in “The Ten Commandments.

He played a slave for $500 a week for five weeks. When they couldn’t find somebody to play the Ethiopian King, Strode got to play that role too. I’m not sure if playing a king paid more than a slave.

9: Woody also defeated Spartacus.

When forced to face Spartacus in combat, Woody’s character, Draba, defeated Spartacus, but refused to kill him. Instead attacked the Roman military commander who set up the fight. Sounds like a dynamic character, certainly not somebody who was Draba. Draba was also voted, “Least Likely to be Mistaken for Spartacus.”

10: Strode also appeared in “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and “The Quick and the Dead.”

Strode played on of the three gunman who faced “Harmonica” when he got off the train and proceeded to shoot it out with him. Strode was the only henchman to actually get a slug in the Charles Bronson character. In The Quick and the Dead, Woody played Charlie Moonlight, the town undertaker. It seems that Charlie had figured out how to make money on gunfights.

I could write a bunch more on Woody Strode, but I stopped after ten facts. I will say that Strode had one of the more interesting careers I’ve come across. I just scratched the surface on interesting aspects of his life.