Tom Laughlin, star of 'Billy Jack' films, dies at age 82

[Omaha Steve]

Source: LA Times

By Steven Zeitchik

Tom Laughlin, the maverick actor and filmmaker best known for the "Billy Jack" films, has died. He was 82.

Laughlin died Thursday in Thousand Oaks, his family announced.

Laughlin had been married to actress Delores Taylor since 1954 and also had several ill-fated runs for president. But he was best known for the "Billy Jack" films, which also starred Taylor. In 1967, he wrote and directed (under the pseudonym T.C. Frank) and starred in "The Born Losers," a motorcycle exploitation film that became a big box-office hit. It introduced the world to the part-Native American Vietnam veteran title character.

The 1971 sequel, the vigilante-themed "Billy Jack," was, after a legal battle with studio Warner Bros., released independently. It also became a box-office smash, though it generated controversy for its suggestion of guns and violence as a justice-seeking tool.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-tom-laughlin-billy-jack-films-dies-20131215,0,5952470.story#axzz2naWtPIuo

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http://www.trbimg.com/img-52ae33c8/turbine/la-et-mn-tom-laughlin-star-of-billy-jack-films-001/525

Actors Tom Laughlin and Delores Taylor starred in the 1971 movie "Billy Jack." (File photo)

[FredisDead]

1. One Tin Soldier - The Legend of Billy Jack

[lastlib]

14. One of my favorite anti-war songs--thanks for posting!

[RebelOne]

18. Always loved, loved, loved that song. n/t

[Dustlawyer]

22. Thanks, brought back some good memories watching the movie as a kid and my 2 hippie older

sisters trying to explain their culture to my East Texas dad who grew up having to hunt and raise crops to live. He came all the way around well before he died.

[Diego_Native 2012]

24. Thanks for posting this.

Watched this as a kid. It's message made a big impact on me.

[edbermac]

2. Holy crap, they're dropping like flies today.

Peter O'Toole, Ray Price and now Billy Jack himself.

[lastlib]

15. I always wanted a hat like his!!

Another good one taken from us.

[SamKnause]

17. Billy

I had one.

[deutsey]

3. "Billy Jack" wasn't the kind of movie a third grader should see

but it was 1972 or '73 and times were different back then.

I saw this movie at least twice and possibly three or four times at the drive-in back when I lived in California as an 8 year old.

My parents were probably thinking I would fall asleep in the backseat before the movie began, but I didn't. A lot of the movie didn't make sense to me then (and today parts are kind of embarrassing to watch), but I loved the character Billy Jack when I was a kid. He was one of my childhood heroes.

RIP, Billy/Tom.

[go west young man]

6. I also saw it at the drive in.

Ah the good ole days. Billy Jack was one of my favorite movies as a kid. Still love the song today.

[exboyfil]

13. Nothing says pacifism like a front kick

Saw it first run when I was about 3rd grade as well. Not a movie a child should see. Still good bye Billy Jack.

[deutsey]

19. I've thought about it in the ensuing years

and have concluded that one of the reasons Billy Jack was so popular at the time was that the "non-violent" "flower power generation" was fed up with the pacifistic response to the assassinations and state violence of the '60s and early '70s.

It was kind of a hippie wish fulfillment, in other words.

[Tom Ripley]

23. This third grader thought it was the greatest movie in the world...

with the exception of Vanishing Point.

[SamKnause]

4. Billy

[MoreGOPoop]

5. Kick

Billy Jack was a hugely important film in a time when we were
trying to wage peace (the first time around).

R.I.P. Tom Laughlin

[Archae]

7. I saw part of the first Billy Jack movie.

About a half hour, maybe a little more.

This was in the 1980's, I was in my 20's.

I found the movie preachy, pretentious and horrendously boring.

Since then I've read Laughlin could be a real pain in the ass on the set.

[AlbertCat]

16. I found the movie preachy, pretentious and horrendously boring.

Yes.... it was. I thought so when it cam out.... I was in jr high school.


Bad production values too.

[CBGLuthier]

26. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in most of his movies

If he was difficult on set who was he difficult with? He WAS the boss.

[Archae]

30. Just watch "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"

William Shatner directed and starred in that fiasco.

[MrModerate]

8. Meanwhile, a real actor, Peter O'Toole, has also died n/t

[DirkGently]

11. Stay classy.

[MrModerate]

12. Up to a point.

[CBGLuthier]

27. Churlishness unneeded. They were both actors. Yes one was better than the other

and now they are both equally dead if they were not equals in life.

[MrModerate]

32. Good point. I withdraw my snark. n/t

[DirkGently]

9. I remember learning that kick

where he says, "I'm gonna take this right foot, and I'm gonna whop you on that side of your face...and you wanna know something? There's not a damn thing you're gonna be able to do about it."

Outer crescent kick. Our instructor called it "The Billy Jack kick." A fun move, although not the badass super weapon it was in the movie, for non-Billy Jack practitioners.

I dug the whole 70s Freedom School vibe of that flick once I finally saw it.

Go in peace, Mr. Laughlin.

[KansDem]

21. The Kick

[DirkGently]

25. That's IT.

The whole thing's kind of dated looking now, of course, but I thought Laughlin captured a certain righteous anger at the smug, corrupt powers-that-be well.

Violence isn't the answer. But some people do need to be kicked in the face occasionally.

[PatrynXX]

10. looked up Ray Price, he's still alive

so says the wife. the son made it in error

[louis-t]

28. I heard two reports of Ray Price's death.

A few days apart.

[tofuandbeer]

20. From what I read, he was a good-hearted man.

When I first joined FaceBook, I happened to be watching Billy Jack, so I looked him up on FaceBook; I requested being a friend on his Billy Jack page.

I eventually left because of the right wing nuts posting so many rants.

When I first looked him up, I kind of thought he may be a conservative type, but he was just the opposite.

R.I.P. Tom Laughlin.

[Archae]

31. Could be because of Chuck Norris.

Norris is another martial-arts movie and TV star, and Norris is so far-right he falls off the keyboard.

[gordianot]

29. I always felt this movie marked the end of 1960's pacifism in popular culture.

Main lesson for today do not turn the other cheek to those who call themselves Christian.