# Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack) died. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431 "2013-12-16T01:58:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/1 "2013-12-16T01:58:09Z")
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. > **[‘Billy Jack’ actor-writer Tom Laughlin dies at 82 | CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/showbiz/billy-jack-tom-laughlin-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2)** > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/2 "2013-12-16T02:11:42Z")
Put on “One Tin Soldier” and raise your fist. RIP. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/3 "2013-12-16T02:15:46Z")
He karate-kicked the bucket. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/4 "2013-12-16T02:17:15Z")
My goodness gracias ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/5 "2013-12-16T02:46:28Z")
[I’m gonna take this right foot…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkDE8mWJWOA) RIP Billy Jack. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/6 "2013-12-16T02:47:05Z")
80 fucking 2?! _goes berserk_ RIP, Mr. Laughlin. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/7 "2013-12-16T02:54:04Z")
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/](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. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/8 "2013-12-16T02:58:42Z")
Older than Peter O’Toole who’d of thought! and married 60 years wow! ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/9 "2013-12-16T03:15:35Z")
Sniff. I just remembered my very first post here on the Dope in a thread called [My Secret Shame](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2885394&postcount=52). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/10 "2013-12-16T03:16:15Z")
Up Yours clip. 😉 One of my favorite comic moments from Billy Jack. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/j3IXu8K4CMk/maxresdefault.jpg "Cindy pwns Bernard - Up Yours! (in 1080p HD) BILLY JACK Classic Clips") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3IXu8K4CMk) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/11 "2013-12-16T03:41:35Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/12 "2013-12-16T03:46:36Z")
Ah, nuts. RIP, Billy. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/13 "2013-12-16T04:15:22Z")
LATimes did a really good job on Tom’s career and Hollywood battles. I didn’t know that Billy Jack was released twice. > **[Filmmaker behind the hit 'Billy Jack' series](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2013-dec-15-la-me-tom-laughlin-20131216-story.html)** > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/14 "2013-12-16T06:06:36Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/15 "2013-12-16T15:03:05Z")
I always remember the SNL satire of Billy Jack-with the indian kids getting sprinkled with flour! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/16 "2013-12-16T15:19:28Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/17 "2013-12-16T17:12:40Z")
Ah, _Billy Jack!_ One of the dumbest movies ever made, yet it seemed to encapsulate (certain sides of) the '60s zeitgeist so perfectly! ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/18 "2013-12-16T17:28:25Z")
one tin soldier rides away… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/19 "2013-12-16T18:28:02Z")
[SNL parody-skit.](http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76hbillypaul.phtml) With Paul Simon as Billy Paul. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431/20 "2013-12-16T18:58:48Z")
I’m going in the kitchen right now and dumping flour on my head to show solidarity. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-laughlin-billy-jack-died/676431.md?page=2)