Cast

Iron Eyes Cody

Acting

Cast

Iron Eyes Cody

Known for

Acting

Born

1907-04-03

From

Gueydan, Louisiana, USA

Died

1999-01-03

Also known as Iron Eyes, The Crying Indian (nickname), Espera Oscar de Corti

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.

Iron Eyes Cody

Iron Eyes Cody

Biography

Broken Arrow

Nevada Smith

Ace in the Hole

Kit Carson

Unconquered

Sitting Bull

North West Mounted Police

A Man Called Horse

Western Union

Wild Girl

El Condor

Alias Jesse James

The Quest

Ernest Goes to Camp

Gun Fever

Grayeagle

Fighting Caravans

Overland Mail

Union Pacific

The Phantom

Oklahoma Jim

Ride Out for Revenge

Rose Marie

Blood on the Moon

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Arizona

Indian Agent

The Viking

Red Mountain

The Hypocrite

Fort Defiance

Green Hell

Colorado

Hudson's Bay

The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County

Untamed

Arrow In The Dust

Black Gold

When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion

Gun for a Coward

Fort Osage

Westward Ho, The Wagons!

Treachery Rides the Range

The Bold Caballero

Johnny Moccasin

The Cowboy and the Lady

Mrs. Mike

Ellis in Freedomland

Ride 'Em Cowboy

The Light in the Forest

California Passage

The Iroquois Trail

Overland Mail

The Spirit of '76

Winners of the West

Springtime in the Rockies

Son of Paleface

Crashing Thru

The Lone Ranger

Lost in Alaska

This Woman Is Mine

Fighting Mad

Saddlemates

The Great Sioux Massacre

Apache Ambush

The Oregon Trail

Young Bill Hickok

The Kid From Texas

Ten Gentlemen from West Point

My Gal Sal

Something for a Lonely Man

Pony Post

The Paleface

Fast Company

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Dawn on the Great Divide

Lawless Plainsmen