DON STROUD

That way, people see your work. They see your work in China, they see your work in Germany, in Austria, they see your work in the Philippines. I know that because of my website (www.donstroud.com). I get e-mails from all over the world, and they know me from all the Eastwood movies. They say: ‘I saw you in JOE KIDD!’ and other stuff. That’s a lot of fun. Specially when you go to those places and see your movies dubbed. I always played the bad guy, so I was in Mexico this time and I heard myself saying ‘Hey, hombre!’ with this strong, Mexican voice. I was in Japan this other time, and I saw the movie with this bad Japanese actor’s voice. And then you go: ‘Oh, my god!.’ But I always get the best bad guy voices. ‘Hey, hombre! (laughs, then imitates Japanese).’ But I love New York. N.Y. is a million, million laughs.”

    THE BALLAD OF JOSIE was a Doris Day western and JOURNEY TO SHILOH was a western with James Caan, Harrison Ford and Jan-Michael Vincent. “Poor Jan-Michael Vincent. Let me say a little about Jan-Michael Vincent. I remember when we were just kids together in the Universal lot. And I say little kid and he was my age, but he had this look like he was a kid. He had this little babyface and I was playing the bad guys and he was always playing the good guy. He was a handsome son of a bitch. He‘s a wonderful friend and I love him dearly and it breaks my heart to see him do to himself what he’s done. We did a lot of movies together, but you know, it’s that fucking booze man.”

    Some TV roles in ’68 were in SPLIT SECOND TO AN EPITAPH (an IRONSIDES movie), also with Troy Donahue, SOMETHING FOR A LONELY MAN starring Dan Blocker, and a production of A HATFUL OF RAIN with Sandy Dennis and Michael Parks. He also read for the Joe Buck role in MIDNIGHT COWBOY, which, of course, went to Jon Voight. “I was drinking bad. I didn’t even know how to read a script. When you’ve done as many scripts as I have, you start to see it differently. I consider myself a good actor and if we were being filmed right now with a hidden camera you could play it back and think ‘great scene.’ But if you knew the camera was there, it’s a whole different ballgame. You have to go into a kind of vapor lock, in your head, and if you’re good then it’s the shit like you’ve never known in your whole fucking life. Friendship, violence… I did a fight scene once where I thought a guy was gonna fucking kill me! But it was all acting, and they we went to lunch!”

    Universal loaned him out for his first AIP release, the Canadian EXPLOSION (69) shot in British Columbia and Vancouver.

He stars as a hippy who teams up with an American draft dodger (Gordon Thomson) who starts killing cops after his brother dies in Nam. In 1970 he returned home for his first role on the long running HAWAII 5-0 (68 to 80). “I was called back to Hawaii, to do HAWAII 5–0 by Jack Lord, because he liked my work. He was a fan of mine, and we became dear friends, we became very good friends, Jack and I. As a matter of fact, a lot of actors didn’t really like Jack that much, but Jack and I got along fine. The first one I got was this hit man that came from Chicago and came to the islands to murder this girl. And then he falls in love with this girl, and had to murder another girl, and dump the body in the river. I get all kinds of parts like this. So, I fell in love with a girl, and the mafia made me shoot this girl. It was a great part. The next one I did was sort of a local guy and I could use the local accent, and a lot of that stuff. The third one I did was the best role. He was a sniper, at night who got to shoot cops from this car. Those were wonderful, wonderful days. But HAWAII 5–0 was great, and Jack Lord was real good to me. And it was real fun being there and staying at the Hilton where I worked as a kid.”

    He played a redneck sheriff in TICK…TICK…TICK… (MGM, 70) and became friends with star Jim Brown. He starred as Angel in ANGELS UNCHAINED from AIP with Tyne Daly. “I did a movie with the Hell’s Angels and that was quite an experience. The most exciting thing about riding with them was riding in front of 90 guys ’cause if you make one fucking mistake it’s all over! They told me about these accidents they had when the guy in front was a little too loaded or blew a tire. 90 guys behind him doing 70mph, oh man, but I wasn’t just worried about that ’cause we used to ride on LSD in the desert at night, me and Larry Bishop he was in the movie too. We were actors man, and we’re riding with the real fucking Hell’s Angels, smoking dope and WAAAAAH… I remember going down to Arizona one night. Pitch black, and I thought I was inside a round ball flying down the road. Talk about pushing the line, it was so fucking exciting! The Angels were all living on the set. It was the Superstition Mountains in California. Of course, I rode my own bike for many years. I had a Triumph 650 Bonneville with dual carbs, and then a chopped Sportster. I don’t ride anymore. I was on the fucking Hollywood Freeway one night, 3 o’clock in the morning, riding my chopper on angel dust, and WHAM! I hit the fucking wall and slid on top of my bike for 300 yards, 70 mph and no helmet! I rode a few times after that but it was a shaky ride.” Note: Larry Bishop, the son of Joey Bishop, was in several biker movies.

    Stroud starred in two of the last movies Roger Corman directed. He was Ma Barker’s oldest and favorite son Herman in the still shocking BLOODY MAMA, probably Corman’s best all around feature. It was written by Robert Thom and shot in Arkansas by John Alonzo. Shelley Winters starred and Pat Hingle and Bruce Dern were in the cast. Unknowns Robert De Niro,