Iron Eyes Cody

Acting · 0.9 popularity

Age

119

Movies

122

Born: April 3, 1907 – January 3, 1999
From: Gueydan, Louisiana, USA

Biography

Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti), was an Italian American actor. He portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films, famously as Chief Iron Eyes in Bob Hope's The Paleface. He also played a Native American shedding a tear about litter in one of the country's most well-known television public service announcements, "Keep America Beautiful". Cody began acting in the early 1930s. He worked in film and television until his death. Cody claimed his father was Cherokee (and his mother Cree), also naming several different tribes, and frequently changing his claimed place of birth. To those unfamiliar with Indigenous American or First Nations cultures and people, he gave the appearance of living "as if" he were Native American, fulfilling the stereotypical expectations by wearing his film wardrobe as daily clothing—including braided wig, fringed leathers and beaded moccasins—at least when photographers were visiting, and in other ways continuing to play the same Hollywood-scripted roles off-screen as well as on. He appeared in more than 200 films, including The Big Trail with John Wayne; The Scarlet Letter, with Colleen Moore; Sitting Bull, as Crazy Horse; The Light in the Forest as Cuyloga; The Great Sioux Massacre, with Joseph Cotten; Nevada Smith, with Steve McQueen; A Man Called Horse, with Richard Harris; and Ernest Goes to Camp as Chief St. Cloud, with Jim Varney. In 1953, he appeared twice in Duncan Renaldo's syndicated television series, The Cisco Kid as Chief Sky Eagle. He guest starred on the NBC western series, The Restless Gun, starring John Payne, and The Tall Man, with Barry Sullivan and Clu Gulager. In 1961, he played the title role in "The Burying of Sammy Hart" on the ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. A close friend of Walt Disney, Cody appeared in a Disney studio serial titled The First Americans, and in episodes of The Mountain Man, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. In 1964 Cody appeared as Chief Black Feather on The Virginian in the episode "The Intruders." He also appeared in a 1968 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood featuring Native American dancers. Cody was widely seen as the "Crying Indian" in the "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcements (PSA) in the early 1970s.The environmental commercial showed Cody in costume, shedding a tear after trash is thrown from the window of a car and it lands at his feet. The announcer, William Conrad, says: "People start pollution; people can stop it." The Joni Mitchell song "Lakota", from the 1988 album, Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, features Cody's chanting. He made a cameo appearance in the 1990 film Spirit of '76. Living in Hollywood, he began to insist, even in his private life, that he was Native American, over time claiming membership in several different tribes. In 1996, Cody's half-sister said that he was of Italian ancestry, but he denied it. After his death, it was revealed that he was of Sicilian parentage, and not Native American at all. Cody, at age 94, died of mesothelioma at his home in Los Angeles on January 4, 1999.

Works

122 films

Broken Arrow

19506.7

Unconquered

19476.5

Nevada Smith

19666.7

Ace in the Hole

19517.8

Western Union

19416.0

Union Pacific

19396.7

Ernest Goes to Camp

19875.3

A Man Called Horse

19706.4

The Hypocrite

2024

Alias Jesse James

19596.0

Murders in the Rue Morgue

19326.1

The Paleface

19486.1

North West Mounted Police

19406.4

Blood on the Moon

19486.3

Grayeagle

19775.9

Red Mountain

19516.7

When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion

1979

El Condor

19705.4

Arizona

19406.5

The Great Sioux Massacre

19654.5

Fort Osage

19526.5

Vaudeville

19978.0

Gun for a Coward

19566.0

The Cowboy and the Lady

19386.3

The Light in the Forest

19586.7

Green Hell

19404.5

Son of Paleface

19526.4

Wild Girl

19326.2

The Spirit of '76

19904.6

Westward Ho, The Wagons!

19565.8

Ten Gentlemen from West Point

19426.4

Texas Pioneers

19329.0

Something for a Lonely Man

19687.6

The Bold Caballero

19366.0

Ride Out for Revenge

19575.7

The Farmer Takes a Wife

19356.2

Lost in Alaska

19526.2

Young Eagles

19347.5

Ride 'Em Cowboy

19416.0

The Quest

19768.5

My Gal Sal

19425.8

Rose Marie

19366.2

Pierre of the Plains

19424.9

Dawn on the Great Divide

19425.3

The Cowboy and the Indians

19497.0

Sitting Bull

19545.3

The Oregon Trail

19397.5

The Omaha Trail

19427.0

Kit Carson

19406.1

Treachery Rides the Range

19364.0

Massacre River

19496.6

Johnny Moccasin

1956

Springtime in the Rockies

19426.9

Arrow In The Dust

19546.3

Too Many Girls

19405.9

Apache Ambush

19556.3

Can't Help Singing

19446.0

Don Winslow of the Navy

194210.0

Fighting Caravans

19314.9

Cody of the Pony Express

19508.0

Hudson's Bay

19406.1

In Old Cheyenne

19414.6

The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County

19706.8

Apache Country

19529.0

Prairie Thunder

19374.3

Massacre

19345.5

Gun Fever

19585.2

King of the Texas Rangers

19417.0

Cherokee Uprising

19507.0

The Rainbow Trail

19329.0

The Lone Ranger

19387.0

Custer's Last Stand

19365.3

The Iroquois Trail

19506.6

Overland Mail

19394.5

Young Buffalo Bill

19404.6

Ellis in Freedomland

1952

Fighting With Kit Carson

19336.5

King of the Stallions

19427.3

The Senator Was Indiscreet

19476.2

Valley of the Sun

19426.3

Colorado

19406.4

Perils of Nyoka

19428.0

Indian Agent

19485.9

This Woman Is Mine

19414.5

California Passage

19506.0

Train to Alcatraz

19487.7

Young Bill Hickok

19405.4

Mrs. Mike

19496.0

Bowery Buckaroos

19476.6

Oklahoma Jim

19319.0

The Kid From Texas

19397.0

Black Gold

19624.5

The Viking

19286.8

The Great Indian Wars 1840-1890

19916.7

The Golden West

19325.5

King of the Arena

19338.5

Overland Mail

194210.0

Winners of the West

19407.0

Fort Defiance

19516.5

Custer's Last Stand

19368.0

Overland with Kit Carson

19395.3

The Phantom

19436.6

Fighting Mad

19394.5

The Return of Chandu

19344.8

Night Raiders

19524.7

Sand

19495.6

Untamed

19405.0

Lawless Plainsmen

19427.0

Chandu on the Magic Island

19355.2

The Gallant Legion

19487.2

Saddlemates

194110.0

The Wild Dakotas

19569.0

Apache War Smoke

19525.0

Pony Post

19408.0

Scouts to the Rescue

193910.0

Fast Company

19537.5

The Boss Rider of Gun Creek

19366.5

Ride, Ranger, Ride

19365.2

The Last Round-up

19477.3

Across the Plains

19395.0

Crashing Thru

19397.5

Maintain the Right

19407.0