{"id":84930,"date":"2021-02-15T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T17:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=84930"},"modified":"2021-03-29T11:43:31","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T15:43:31","slug":"woody-strode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/02\/15\/woody-strode\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pioneers: Woody Strode Becomes Pro Wrestling’s First Hollywood Breakout"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pioneers is an on-going series looking at some of the earliest pioneers of professional wrestling as we know it, from the wrestlers to promoters to trainers who helped shape professional wrestling around the world. This article looks at Woody Strode, an early African-American and Native American star who left pro wrestling in the early 1960s to become an actor in Hollywood for decades.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past several decades, more and more pro wrestlers are capitalizing on their work in pro wrestling to work in Hollywood as bonafide stars in the movie industry. From Andre the Giant<\/strong> in\u00a0The Princess Bride\u00a0<\/em>to Roddy Piper<\/strong> in\u00a0They Lives\u00a0<\/em>to the expanding resumes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson<\/strong> and Dave Bautista<\/strong> to John Cena<\/strong>, pro wrestlers have found a way to transition to cinema. Hulk Hogan<\/strong> peaked with his first entry in\u00a0Rocky III<\/em>, while Jesse “The Body” Ventura<\/strong> became a reliable sideman in films like Predator\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The Running Man<\/em>, as well as other wrestlers like Diamond Dallas Page, Edge, John Morrison<\/strong>, and many more. But in the early 1960s, it was Woody Strode<\/strong> who really broke the mold for professional wrestlers to appear in Hollywood films without just portraying pro wrestlers.<\/p>\n

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Woody Strode was a Black Indian (his grandmother was Black Cherokee and his grandfather was Black Muscogee) and an outstanding athlete. A Los Angeles native, he excelled in athletics at UCLA in the late 1930s, where he was explosive as a decathlete as well as part of the college football team that also included Jackie Robinson<\/strong> \u2013 he, Robinson, and future NFL star\u00a0Kenny Washington<\/strong> made up three of the four backfields and were dubbed \u201cthe Gold Dust Gang\u201d by the press. Strode\u2019s family came from New Orleans and he was Black Indian \u2013 many Southern Native American tribes had welcomed slaves and free folk into their communities in the 1800s. He wasn’t just an athlete on a scholarship at UCLA, he was an academic. He majored in history and education.<\/p>\n

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In 1941, he began working as a professional wrestler, and in 1946, he and Washington became the first two African-American football players to play in the NFL, when they signed with the Los Angeles Rams. Strode played as an End with the Rams in 1946, playing in 10 games that season. He would retire from pro football after that first season. His fellow Gold Dust Gang member Jackie Robinson would break the color barrier in Major League Baseball a year later in 1947. The same year he broke into pro wrestling, he also got his start in Hollywood, making his debut in the 1941 film\u00a0Sundown<\/em>. He would find several extras roles over the decade, before turning to pro wrestling on a more full-time basis in 1949.<\/p>\n