Iron Eyes Cody

Iron Eyes Cody
Cody (left) in 1947, in Glendale, California.
Born	Espera Oscar de Corti (1904-04-03)April 3, 1904 Kaplan, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	January 4, 1999(1999-01-04) (aged 94) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Other names	Tony Corti, Tony Cody, The Crying Indian
Years active	1927–1987
Spouse(s)	Bertha "Birdie" Parker (m. 1936–1978; her death) Wendy Foote (m. 1992–1993)

Iron Eyes Cody (born Espera Oscar de Corti April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an American actor. He portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films.^[1] In 1996, his Italian ancestry was confirmed by his half-sister.^[2]

Early life

Cody was born Espera Oscar de Corti on April 3, 1904, in Kaplan in Vermilion Parish, in southwestern Louisiana, a second son of Antonio de Corti and his wife, Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from Sicily. He had two brothers, Joseph and Frank, and a sister, Victoria. His parents had a local grocery store in Gueydan, Louisiana, where he grew up. His father left the family and moved to Texas, where he took the name Tony Corti. His mother married Alton Abshire and had five more children with him.

When the three de Corti brothers were teenagers, they joined their father in Texas and shortened their last name to Corti. They moved on to California, where they were acting in movies, and changed their surname to Cody. Joseph William and Frank Henry Cody worked as extras, then moved on to other work. Frank was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 1949. The boys' father, Tony Corti, died in Texas in 1924.^[2]

Career

Cody began acting in the early 1930s. He worked in film and television until his death. Like many other Native impersonators, Cody claimed Cherokee-Cree ancestry, also naming several other tribes and frequently changed his place of birth. He appeared to live as if he were of indigenous Native American descent, on and off the screen, and was said to have supported Native American causes.

He appeared in more than 200 films, including The Big Trail (1930), with John Wayne; The Scarlet Letter (1934), with Colleen Moore; Sitting Bull (1954), as Crazy Horse; The Light in the Forest (1958) as Cuyloga; The Great Sioux Massacre (1965), with Joseph Cotten; Nevada Smith (1966), with Steve McQueen; A Man Called Horse (1970), with Richard Harris; and Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), as Chief St. Cloud.

In 1953, he appeared twice as Chief Big Cloud in Duncan Renaldo's syndicated television series, The Cisco Kid. 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.

Cody was widely seen in his "crying chief" role in the "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcement (PSA) in the early 1970s.^[3] The environmental commercial showed Cody dressed as a Native American, 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.^[4] He made a cameo appearance in the 1990 film Spirit of '76.

Marriage and family

In 1936, Cody married the archaeologist and ethnologist Bertha Parker. She was active in excavations during the late 1920s and early 1930s before becoming an Assistant in Archaeology at the Southwest Museum from 1931–1941. They adopted two children of Native American descent, said to be of Dakota-Maricopa origin. One son, Robert "Tree" Cody, was interviewed about his father in the 2009 documentary Reel Injun. Son Arthur Cody served in the United States Marine Corps as a Vietnam War veteran and died as a result of exposure to Agent Orange. Cody remained married until Bertha's death in 1978.

In 1992, Cody married Wendy Foote and they divorced the following year.

Honors

In 1995, the Hollywood Native community honored Cody for his contributions to the representation of Native American life, yet they tactfully pointed out his non-Native heritage.^{[5][N 1]}

In 1999, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.^[6]

Cody died on January 4, 1999 at ninety-four. He was survived by his adopted son, Robert "Tree" Cody, now known as a performer on the Native American flute. Robert is of Dakota-Maricopa ancestry.

Filmography

References

Notes

External links

• Iron Eyes Cody at the Internet Movie Database
• Iron Eyes Cody at Find a Grave