I loved the Born Losers and Billy Jack . Never realized Tom Laughlin was this old. His wife Delores Taylor costarred in his films.
R.I.P.
Tom Laughlin, the actor who wrote and starred in the “Billy Jack” films of the 1970s, died Thursday, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 82.
Tom Laughlin, the actor who wrote and starred in the “Billy Jack” films of the 1970s, died Thursday, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 82.
Laughlin’s Billy Jack character was a heroic Native American ex-Army Green Beret who used his karate skills to fight racism and oppression.
The second of the series – titled “Billy Jack” – was a low-budget independent film that became a box-office blockbuster in 1971. Laughlin’s vigilante character defends a counterculture “Freedom School” from townspeople who harass and discriminate against the Native American students.
E-DUB
December 16, 2013, 2:11am
2
Put on “One Tin Soldier” and raise your fist. RIP.
He karate-kicked the bucket.
Interview with David Roya. He played the rich kid villain in Billy Jack. Killed the indian girl, raped Billy Jack’s gf. Billy Jack beats the crap out of him.
Gives some insight into Tom Laughlin and the making of the movie. Tom was a complicated & controversial guy that made one of the 70’s best independent, low budget movies.
http://popcultureaddict.com/interviews/davidroya-htm/
Yet every good film needs an even better villain, and David Roya stepped up to plate to play the emotionally damaged young stud Bernard Posner, in which he gave, only after Laughlin and his leading lady/wife Delores Taylor, the most memorable performance in the film. Whether he is dumping flour on Indian kids, striking out with Little Miss Up Yours or driving his car into the lake, Bernard Posner was the villain you loved to hate, but you also hated to love.
Older than Peter O’Toole who’d of thought! and married 60 years wow!
Sniff. I just remembered my very first post here on the Dope in a thread called My Secret Shame .
Up Yours clip.
Sampiro
December 16, 2013, 3:41am
11
By all accounts he was a very intelligent but very very odd man, and revolutionized movie distribution. He was still working to resurrect the Billy Jack franchise (with himself as star) until well into the 21st century.
I’ve never seen Billy Jack Goes to Washington but I’ve always wondered how they explained a man with BJ’s criminal record and enemies being appointed to a senate seat. Anybody know?
LATimes did a really good job on Tom’s career and Hollywood battles. I didn’t know that Billy Jack was released twice.
Tom Laughlin, a filmmaker who drew a huge following for his movies about the ill-tempered, karate-chopping pacifist Billy Jack, died Thursday at a Thousand Oaks hospital.
Dissatisfied with what he felt was a lukewarm Warner Brothers publicity campaign for “Billy Jack,” he fought three years for the film’s re-release, finally acquiring the rights to it and running ads touting “one of the most popular motion pictures of all time.”
After a bitter legal battle with Warner Brothers, Laughlin broke Hollywood custom by massive “four-walling” — renting 1,200 individual theaters across the U.S. and marketing the movie like a rock band.
The film, featuring the theme song “One Tin Soldier,” initially grossed $6 million, but its re-release eventually made an additional $100 million and changed Hollywood marketing strategies, The Times said in 1985.
Magiver
December 16, 2013, 6:06am
14
Sampiro:
By all accounts he was a very intelligent but very very odd man, and revolutionized movie distribution. He was still working to resurrect the Billy Jack franchise (with himself as star) until well into the 21st century.
I’ve never seen Billy Jack Goes to Washington but I’ve always wondered how they explained a man with BJ’s criminal record and enemies being appointed to a senate seat. Anybody know?
next to the real thing nobody would know. We had KKK Grand Wizzards, child molesters, drunks who killed people… He’d fit right in.
I always remember the SNL satire of Billy Jack-with the indian kids getting sprinkled with flour!
lieu
December 16, 2013, 3:19pm
16
Boy those movies were huge when I was a kid. The Born Losers were my introduction to evil.
Interesting to read these stories about Tom, especially the one by David Roya. Even taken with a grain of salt, it kind of explains a lot.
Ah, Billy Jack! One of the dumbest movies ever made, yet it seemed to encapsulate (certain sides of) the '60s zeitgeist so perfectly!
one tin soldier rides away…
SNL parody-skit. With Paul Simon as Billy Paul.
I’m going in the kitchen right now and dumping flour on my head to show solidarity.
