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April 2, 2015

From Stampeder to silver screen

By Stampeders.com staff

Over the years, a number of Calgary Stampeders players have performed on the gridiron as well as on the silver screen.

Today’s movie audiences would likely be most familiar with Dwayne Johnson, whose movie credits include the Scorpion King, Get Smart, Hercules and, playing in theatres now, Furious 7.

Before going to Hollywood, Johnson achieved fame as WWE wrestler The Rock and before that — in 1995, to be exact — he was a member of the Stamps’ practice roster when Wally Buono was Calgary’s head coach and general manager.

A few months ago, when a photo of Johnson practising with the Stamps appeared on Twitter, Johnson commented: “$7 in my pocket when Wally released me. Defining low point, but motivated me to do more. #Grateful #Grind #UncleWally”

When it comes to all-around success, it’s hard to top the remarkable and diversified resume of Woody Strode.

The Los Angeles native was a world-class decathlete and was a teammate of future baseball legend Jackie Robinson on the UCLA football team. Much like Robinson broke the colour barrier in Major League Baseball when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, Strode and Bruins teammate Kenny Washington made history when they signed with the Los Angeles Rams in 1946. Prior to that, there had not been a black player in the NFL since the 1933 season.

After one season with the Rams, Strode made his way to Canada. He was the leading receiver and a West all-star on the 1948 Stampeders, who won the first Grey Cup in franchise history and are still the only team in CFL history to go undefeated for an entire season.

Strode played two more seasons with the Red and White before injuries forced him to hang up his cleats.

Fortunately, he had not one but two careers to fall back on.

Strode had worked as a professional wrestler in the early 1940s and he returned to the squared circle after his football career ended. Always in remarkable physical condition, he continued to wrestle until he was well past his 50th birthday.

Strode also made his mark as an actor, first in stereotypical roles for black actors at the time but eventually landing more substantial and multi-dimensional parts.

Classic movie fans remember him for a memorable gladiator fight scene with Kirk Douglas in the 1960 film Spartacus. Strode also became friends with legendary director John Ford and appeared in four of his movies — Sergeant Rutledge, Two Rode Together, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and 7 Women.

Strode, whose ancestors included Cherokees and Blackfoots, was especially excited about his role in Two Rode Together.

“This is a great part for me,” he said at the time. “It’s the first time I’ve played an Indian. If I can pull it off, it might open a whole new field for me.”

Strode continued to act for the rest of his life, appearing in everything from classic spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West to TV appearances on Tarzan and The Dukes of Hazzard.

His final role was in The Quick and the Dead, a Western released in 1995 a few weeks after Strode’s death.

One of Strode’s former Stamps teammates, Sugarfoot Anderson, also dabbled in Hollywood.

Anderson appeared in the 1949 Shirley Temple film The Story of Seabiscuit and had uncredited roles in five other movies including The Snows of Kilimanjaro starring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward and Ava Gardner.

Bruce Boa’s career with the Stamps lasted only one season — he played seven games in 1952 — but his acting career covered four decades. The Calgary native appeared in some of the biggest Hollywood movies of all time including The Empire Strikes Back (as a rebel general), Superman, Octopussy and Full Metal Jacket.

He became friends with Monty Python troupe member John Cleese and made a memorable appearance on Cleese’s Fawlty Towers TV series as a disgruntled American tourist who wants a Waldorf salad.

Stevie Baggs, who played briefly with the Stamps at the end of his CFL career, has a few movie and TV credits including a 2012 appearance on the show Necessary Roughness. The role wasn’t much of a stretch for him — he played a football player.

In the same vein, former Stamps quarterback Rick Johnson played a QB in the 1999 movie Any Given Sunday and was also in Jerry Maguire, which had a football-related plot.

Johnson also made numerous TV appearances in the Law & Order franchise.

Bronzell Miller, a defensive lineman with the Stamps from 1996-99, also did some acting — he was a baseball player in the 2004 Bernie Mac film Mr 3000 and played a bodyguard in Bringing Down the House with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah — while former Calgary QB Khari Jones has done some stage acting in addition to film and TV work.