Iron Eyes Cody

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Iron Eyes Cody (April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor born in Kaplan, Louisiana. He was famous for portraying Native Americans in Hollywood films, though in fact his ancestry was Italian.

[edit] Biography

Cody was born Espera de Corti, a son of Antonio de Corti and his wife Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from Sicily. In some of his earliest acting credits Cody was listed as Tony de Corti. He would soon change his name and claim to be part Cherokee and part Cree.

In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported his Sicilian heritage, but Cody denied it at the time because he was "ashamed" of his Italian heritage. Cody and his wife Bertha adopted several children, all Native Americans.

[edit] Film career

Cody began his acting career at the age of 12 and continued to work until the time of his death. He appeared in more than 200 films, including The Big Trail (1930) with John Wayne, A Man Called Horse (1970) with Richard Harris, and Ernest Goes to Camp in 1987 with Jim Varney.

However, he is most famous for his "Crying Indian" role in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement in the early 1970s. It was an ecology commercial in which an Indian (Cody) sheds a tear after some trash is thrown from a speeding car and lands at his feet. The announcer-- William Conrad, of "Bullwinkle" and "Cannon" fame-- sternly and memorably declares: "People start pollution; people can stop it."

The Joni Mitchell song "Lakota", from the 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, features Cody chanting. [1]

He had a cameo in the 1990 film, Spirit of '76.

Cody died in 1999 at the age of 94. He was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. He was survived by his adopted son, the Native American flautist Robert "Tree" Cody.

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