DON STROUD

    In ’85 Stroud was cast as the surfing Kahuna on GIDGET’S SUMMER REUNION, a pilot shot in Hawaii for a short lived syndicated series. He said in an interview “I’ve been straight for four years now.” He played a crooked police Sgt. in the comedy ARMED AND DANGEROUS (86) with his doomed friend John Candy. He played a hit man in Hector Olivera’s TWO TO TANGO filmed in Argentina and was in a nude love scene with Adrianne Sachs. “We were doing a low budget film called TWO TO TANGO, and Roger Corman was producing. He’s done a lot of films down there. It was a great situation and Hector Olivera was one of the greatest, nicest, best directors I’ve ever met. He was just a wonderful man. And Argentina... You know, when I went from Hawaii to Los Angeles, and then went to New York, I thought ‘Wow, New York is really different from Hawaii, and Los Angeles is really different from New York.’ And then you go to Argentina, and think you’re going to some kind of third world country. Oh, Argentina was, from all the countries I’ve been in throughout the world, one of the greatest, and I’ve been to almost every country there is. Well, I fell in love with Argentina so much. The people, the men and the women, they were just wonderful, wonderful people and the food... I never had steak like that in my life! All the wonderful costars I had in the movie, and all the extras. We all had mate (a local beverage) in the afternoon. I played a lot of tennis down there, I was in great shape. And I still think the movie is great, and Hector is really a special guy and I wish him the very, very best of luck. I remember LA NOCHE DE LOS LAPICES (The Night Of The Pencils) which he directed, was excellent. It was a great experience, I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed being in Argentina and staying there. And I was there for a couple of months too, which was great. I really got the feel of the people, and the food, and it felt good. Roger got me the part. And he loves Argentina too.” COCAINE WARS and PLAY MURDER FOR ME were some other Argentine Corman productions.

    The biggest movie in Don Stroud’s career was LICENCE TO KILL (89). He played the right hand man to Sanchez (Robert Davi). “My agent calls up and says ‘How’d you like to go to Acapulco for 20 weeks?’ I won’t mention the number but it was more than $15,000 a week! Then they called me and said that they had changed their mind, and I wouldn’t be able to play the original part. So then they offered me this smaller part. So I got the part of Howard. Same twenty weeks, same money, same deal. The other part was Felix Leiter, the guy that got married at the beginning of the movie, that got knocked off and eaten by the shark. But Howard turned out to be a great, great part. Doing that film was cool. I spent twenty weeks in Acapulco and Mexico City. What more would an actor want than to be in a James Bond movie? I had the time of my life! I worked every day for a few hours, they picked you up with a limo, Robert Davi, Timothy Dalton, John Glen... another great director. I really have worked with some excellent directors. Doing James Bond, it’s fun to do the movie, but it‘s more fun to travel the way they do. You‘ll never travel like this. You fly in Lear jets, and fly to these islands, these exotic places, and there are a lot of exotic people around too. Let me tell ya. The stuntmen were brilliant. They were all English stuntmen.

These guys have so much balls... I mean, they hang from helicopters and drop into the water, drag from the back of planes. These guys are incredible. I love all those guys, wonderful stuntmen. So I did some good films, and I loved James Bond. I’ve done over 100 movies, but making a James Bond movie, man… Acapulco is like, you leave the hotel at night and you think ‘should we go this way or that way?’ There’s 500 whore houses this way and 10,000 clubs that way. ‘Well do you want to get fucked or have a drink?’ ‘Let’s go have a few drinks first!’ You can get used to a place like that.”

    “To be a good actor you have to be a little tough to get through the soft parts. Like you finish doing a James Bond flick, you think, ‘Well I’ll probably never work again.’ After two weeks of no phone calls then you’re sure you’ll never work again. And most guys don’t get calls every two weeks, you might get a month without working and then you’re sure that it’s fucking over. I know so many guys who were doing TV series, making 80 or 90 thousand a week, and they quit the fucking series to go become a movie star! I could name ten of ’em, like that guy Larry Wilcox from CHIPS, they quit to be a movie star and then they never make any movies.” He was a drug lord in CARTEL (89) with William Smith and Miles O’Keefe. In early 1990 Stroud was pulled over for reckless driving and arrested for carrying a concealed .357 magnum under his seat. He then was busted in South Central L.A. as part of a drug dealing crackdown. He was allegedly buying from the late actor James Wainwright (who he had been in JOE KIDD with) while making TWISTED JUSTICE with Jim Brown. Incredibly the police let him go.

    But things got worse. He tried to help a young man who was being mugged by six guys in NYC’s Greenwich Village. The victim got away but Stroud was stabbed 10 times. He had emergency operations but lost an eye and suffered partial facial paralysis. He had to go through rehabilitation while going through another divorce. That’s when he gave up drugs and booze. The roles got worse and worse. He was in Fred Olen Ray’s MOB BOSS and another direct to video comedy with a perfect title - DOWN THE DRAIN. THE DIVINE ENFORCER (91) with a kick boxer priest hero was one of the most bizarre ones. Stroud plays a serial killer who thinks he’s a vampire and the cast includes Jan-Michael Vincent, Eric Estrada, and Jim Brown. “Oh, God, I never thought someone would ask me this question! That was a great, great little film. The film itself was incredible. It was a low budget film, it was a non union film, I even had trouble with the union over that film.