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, United States
Died	January 4, 1999(1999-01-04) (aged 94) Los Angeles, California, United States
Resting place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Other names	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 a Sicilian-American actor. He portrayed Native Americans in Hollywood films.^[1] He also played an Indian shedding a tear about litter in one of the country's most well-known television PSAs, "Keep America Beautiful".^[2] In 1996, Cody's half-sister said that he was actually of Italian ancestry, but he denied it.^[2][3]

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.^[3]

Career

Cody began acting in the early 1930s. He worked in film and television until his death. Like many other non-Indigenous people who have impersonated Native Americans, Cody claimed his father was Cherokee (and his mother Cree),^[2] also naming several different tribes, and frequently changing his claimed place of birth. To those unfamiliar with Native American or First Nations cultures and people, he apparently gave the appearance of living "as if" he was Native American, fulfilling the stereotypical expectations by wearing his film wardrobe as daily clothing - including braided wig, fringed leathers and beaded moccasins^[1] - at least when photographers were visiting, and in other ways continuing to play the same Hollywood-scripted roles off-screen as well as on.^[1][3]

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. A close friend of Walt Disney, Cody appeared in a Disney studio serial titled The First Americans, and in episodes of The Mountain Man, Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. He also appeared in an 1968 episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood featuring Native American dancers.

Cody was widely seen as the "Crying Indian" in the "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcements (PSA) in the early 1970s.^[4] 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.^[5] He made a cameo appearance in the 1990 film Spirit of '76.

Marriage and family

In 1936, Cody married 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 to 1941. They adopted two children said to be of Dakota-Maricopa origin, Robert Tree Cody and Arthur. The couple remained married until Bertha's death in 1978. In 1992, Cody married Wendy Foote and they divorced the following year.

Although the public who knew him from the movies and television thought of Cody as an American Indian, a 1996 story by The Times-Picayune in New Orleans questioned his heritage, reporting that he was a second-generation Italian-American. This was based on an interview with his half-sister, and documents including a baptismal record. Cody denied the claim.^[2][3]

Cody died on January 4, 1999, at age 94.^[2]

Honors

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

Filmography

References

External links

• Iron Eyes Cody at the Internet Movie Database
• Iron Eyes Cody at Find a Grave
• "Keep America Beautiful" 1970s PSA on YouTube