Rodd Redwing


Roderic Redwing was an American trickshooter, stunt performer, and actor known for his work in Western films. He was known as a top gun, knife, tomahawk, whip, and drill instructor in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Though he presented himself as Chickasaw Native American, he was actually African American without any known Indigenous ancestry, a fact not widely revealed until after his death.

Biography

Redwing was born Webb Richardson on August 24, 1904, to Black parents in Tennessee. His father, Ulysses William Richardson, was an elevator man. His mother, Lillian Webb, was a manicurist and hairdresser. Lillian divorced her husband William in 1920. Webb moved to New York City to attend New York University and pursue a career in acting; he appeared in the 1929 musical Malinda in Greenwich Village, with a cast of African American performers.

Native American persona

Webb later changed his name to Roderic "Rodd" Redwing, adopted a fictitious Native-American identity, and reported his birthplace as New York City. Such a deception was not uncommon in early 20th-century America, where Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance had fooled New York high society. Redwing claimed that his mother was from a Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma, and that his father was a stage actor. Some sources reported that he used the Hindi-sounding name Roderick Rajpurkaii, Jr., and said his father was a Brahmin mind reader from India.

Career in Hollywood

As Redwing, he was one of the top gun, knife, tomahawk, and whip instructors in Hollywood. After claiming that he began in films in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1931 Western The Squaw Man, Redwing soon became a gun-handling coach to Alan Ladd, Ronald Reagan, Burt Lancaster, Glenn Ford, Richard Widmark, Anthony Quinn, Charlton Heston, Dean Martin, Fred MacMurray, and many other actors. He performed Alan Ladd's fancy gunspinning seen in the film Shane during the climatic showdown.
Between 1951 and 1967, Redwing appeared in more than a dozen television programs, including on the CBS celebrity quiz show, What's My Line?. He played the role of Mr. Brother, a Cheyenne friend and informer of Marshal Wyatt Earp's, in eight episodes of the television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

Death

After filming his part in Red Sun, Redwing died at the age of 66. On a flight from Spain to Los Angeles, he suffered a heart attack and died 35 minutes later, just before the plane landed. The urn containing his ashes was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Filmography

White Hunter - Farid Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake - Native When Johnny Comes Marching Home - Egyptian Clerk Daredevils of the West - Indian Frontier Fury - Captured Indian The Story of Dr. Wassell - Javanese Orderly Sonora Stagecoach - Indian Rainbow Island - Queen's Guard Objective, Burma! - Sgt. Chattu Out of the Depths - Mike RawhideThe Scarlet Horseman - Comanche Warrior Singin' in the Corn - Indian BraveUnconquered - Indian The Last Round-Up - Louie Intrigue - Spy in Editor's Office Key Largo - John Osceola Song of India - Kumari We Were Strangers - Riders of the Pony Express - Bearclaw - Henchman Laramie - Indian Lookout Rope of Sand - Oscar - Waiter Apache Chief - TewaSamson and Delilah - Temple Spectator Cargo to Capetown - Native Cab Driver Kim - Creighton's Servant The Redhead and the Cowboy - Betien - Indian Guard Little Big Horn - Cpl. ArikaThunder in the East - Hassam Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory - Running Deer Rancho Notorious - RioHellgate - Pima Son of Geronimo - Porico, Son of GeronimoThe Pathfinder - Chief ArrowheadWinning of the West - Pete Littlewolf Last of the Comanches - Indian Conquest of Cochise - Red KnifeSaginaw Trail - Huron Chief Flight to Tangier - Police Orderly Creature From the Black Lagoon - Luis - Expedition Foreman The Naked Jungle - Indian Gunfighters of the Northwest - Bear ToothElephant Walk - Servant Cattle Queen of Montana - PowhaniThe Twinkle in God's Eye - Indian The Treasure of Pancho Villa - Yaqui Tracker Jaguar - Porter #1The Ten Commandments - Taskmaster / Hebrew at Golden CalfThe Mole People - NazarCopper Sky - Indian The Sad Sack - Bartender The Flame Barrier - WaumiHeller in Pink Tights - Indian Flaming Star - Indian WarriorOne-Eyed Jacks Sergeants 3 - Irregular4 for Texas - Indian The Virginian - Black Feather's BraveApache Uprising - Archie WhitewaterJohnny Reno - Indian BraveThe Shakiest Gun in the West - White Buffalo Shalako - Chato's FatherCharro! - Lige