Don Stroud Interview(s) by:
Bruce Earl Bowell (in California)
and Nicarnor Loreti (in Argentina)

Donald Lee Stroud was born in Honolulu, Hawaii (then a U.S. territory) on Sept. 1, 1944 (some sources say 43) during WWII. A little family background: The Stroud Twins (Clarence and Claude) from Kaufman, TX, were a vaudeville and radio team. At RKO they appeared in ACE OF ACES (33) and SING IT AND LIKE IT (34) and later starred in the comedy short TWIN CUPLETS (40). Claude went on to small roles in many movies. Clarence was married to Betty Wheeler after she left Bert Wheeler of Wheeler and Woolsey fame. He later married singer Ann McCormack, who at some point toured with Sinatra. Don only saw his father Clarence Stroud “a couple of times” and also has claimed that he really didn’t know which twin was his father! From 1946 to ’51 McCormack was married to former child actor and recent Army vet Jackie Coogan. The future Uncle Fester (!) was Don’s first stepfather. Paul Livermore, his next stepfather, later owned and operated Embers Steak House, a Honolulu nightclub where Ann sang nightly.

At school Don was the only haole (caucasian) among native Hawaiians, Polynesians, Filipinos, Chinese and Japanese kids. As a teenager he earned a black belt in karate and loved surfing. Surfers named Blackout, Mud, Buckshot, Rabbit and Steamboat helped teach him. “To be a beach boy in Hawaii is like being a sultan. Those guys were kings back in those days.” Meanwhile he worked as a towel boy at the Kahala Hilton, as a lifeguard, and as a surfing or sailing instructor. He sometimes played bongos with native groups. In 1960, at the age of 17, he placed fourth in the Duke Kahanamoku World Surfing Championship at Makaha. “I grew up on the beach in Waikiki and it was one of the wonderful times in my life. Those were wonderful days. I grew up with Paul Strauss, another great surfer and we really had quite a great crew and a lot of fun.”

“Marlon Brando used to come into my folks’ restaurant. I took him surfing.” Meeting a less famous Warner contract player led to Stroud’s acting career though. The detective show HAWAIIAN EYE had been on ABC since 1959. Original co-star Anthony Eisley had been replaced by Grant Williams, then, for the last season (62/63) Troy Donahue, who had already been on SURFSIDE SIX (60-62). “Where I started was in HAWAIIAN EYE, with Troy Donahue, Bob Conrad and Connie Stevens. That old television show was the first color television show of that era. And Troy Donahue was the star. He was making 3000 dollars a week at that time. He was the top dog there and I was sitting there on the beach and they were filming HAWAIIAN EYE. And I saw he couldn’t surf. He could surf a little, but not very well. By the way, he was a dear friend of mine, and God rest his soul, he just passed away (in ’01). My dear wife and I spent a lot of time with him before he passed, along with his lovely gal Whoopi. Anyway, I got a job doubling and doing the stunts. At that time, I was fourth in the world of surfing. We had very long hair in those days, way before long hair was in style. We were surfers in Hawaii, long before Jet Planes. With Pan American, it used to take twelve hours to fly over there to Hawaii.” 6’2″ 18 year old then 175 pound Don was hired on the spot for $35 a day. He also became Donahue’s bodyguard.

He later decided to go to Hollywood where he worked parking cars, then as the doorman, bouncer and then a manager of the famous Whisky A Go-Go nightclub on the Sunset Strip. Johnny Rivers had recorded hit LPs there and the idea of having dancing girls in cages was soon copied by the HULLABALOO TV show and other clubs around the country. Soon it was THE place for progressive new bands to be seen by record industry people. “It was the Byrds, Leaves, Buffalo Springfield, the Grass Roots, the Doors, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Chambers Brothers… These were my buddies, these were the people I hung out with. Remember Arthur Lee and Love? Chicago, the Turtles, these were the bands that were playing when I worked as a bouncer. I had just started acting. There were shows every night, sometimes they’d last till 7 or 8 the next morning and you’d take it from there. Nobody even drank ’cause they were all on acid! The cover charge was about ten bucks, which was a lot in those days and they (sold a lot of) Coca Cola. And the broads. It was what you’d call free love from San Francisco. You wanna talk about some good looking broads, ooh man, flowers in their hair… We lived up in Laurel Canyon and it was incredible to live in those days. These little chicks would be hitchhiking up the canyon and they’d say ‘You wanna smoke a joint?’

You’d never even learn their names and they’d be gone. It went on for years. A lot of people were taking acid in those days. Boy I’m glad I quit taking acid! I surfed on acid! It’s not something you want to do if you’re an amateur. There’s nothing like taking off on a big 15 footer on acid. It’s just ‘WHOOOA! FUCK!’…. One night I was working at The Whisky and the fucking Green Bay Packers came in. The Rams had already kicked their ass and they came in already drunk and just started wrecking the place. So the owner said, ‘Don, take care of this!’ So you know what I did? I fucking split! Take care of the Green Bay Packers!? I went next door to a place called Sneaky Pete’s and had about five martinis! The Packers finally took off and I went back and everybody’s like ‘What happened? Where were you?’ So many stories from those days, where do I start?”

Don sometimes sat in playing drums with various bands and became friends with Zappa. His neighbors in Laurel Canyon were the members of Canned Heat. At the time he also was friends with actors William Smith and Dan Haggerty (they all rode bikes and later played bikers in movies). Many big celebrities came and checked out the action at The Whisky. “That’s where I met my good buddy Sidney Poitier. He turned me on to acting, got me in the business. “Poitier introduced Stroud to his MCI agent and in 1966, Don Stroud signed a Universal contract. He kept his Whisky job for a while though. His first role was on THE VIRGINIAN featuring guest Pernell Roberts. In ’67 he had a small uncredited part in the Robert Wagner movie BANNING, a good role in GAMES (PV #34) directed by Curtis Harrington (PV #16), and landed several other TV parts.

In ’68 Universal put him in five features. Two were directed by Donald Siegel. He played a pimp in MADIGAN. “I didn’t know Henry Fonda that well, but it was great for me to work with him and Richard Widmark. It was a great fucking part. That was New York. I used to hang out with Paul Butterfield in the East Village.” He dyed his blonde hair and wore psychedelic sunglasses as Ringerman in COOGAN’S BLUFF and even got to ride his own motorcycle. “COOGAN’S BLUFF was like my second film. I think it was the third, MADIGAN was the second. I had to dye my hair black for that one. First of all, Clint Eastwood was one of the nicest guys I‘ve ever met. I did COOGAN’s and JOE KIDD with him. But COOGAN’S BLUFF was my first trip to New York. Wow! That‘s the first thing I can say about my first trip to N.Y. Because I was drinking in those days. You see, I‘ve been sober for twelve years now. Clean and sober by the way, clean and sober for twelve years (laughs). But those days I was drinking a lot, taking a lot of drugs, doing cocaine, smoking a lot of marijuana.

So being uptown, in Club 21, down in the Village was wild. The Village in New York was insane, man. Susan St. James was in the film, so Suzy and I would hang together, we had a great time. We did a film called WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD? right after that. We shot that down in the Village.” WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD? starred Mary Tyler Moore and George Peppard. Stroud played a hippy.

“I loved New York. I was playing those kind of people in the movie. I was playing people from N.Y. and I was from Hawaii. COOGAN’S BLUFF was my first experience riding a horse. I mean, I rode all my life, but it was my first experience riding a motorcycle on film, which is different. You know, you don‘t just drive around. You have to make it in the movie, you have to hit your marks. You have to take off at the right place, You can’t hit the cameramen. That camera was sometimes right next to you, two feet away from you on the freeway, just leaning on the car with these guys shooting you, and you are right on the freeway, and they are shooting close ups of you. It was a great experience. Sometimes you put the camera on your head, on your helmet, so you are the camera, you’re shooting. They put the camera on the bike sometimes. There was a great motorcycle chase on the end of that movie. It was really hard too, because you had to change the gears with your toe, you know, your foot on your right side with the brakes, and your gears on the left. And it was so cold and I didn’t have gloves on either, just a thin leather jacket. It was freezing doing those scenes and changing the gears and getting around those corners and stuff. Of course, we both had stuntmen. Clint was a good rider and I was a good rider, but if Clint would have got hurt or myself, it would have certainly been a real problem. Those things cost about 4000 or 5000 dollars a day to shoot. It was a lot of money to put that stuff together, and those were the old days. Now it costs a lot more to shoot some of these films. It’s just ridiculous. But Clint was just the greatest guy in the world, if it weren’t for him a lot of times… He’ll hire you back. Clint doesn’t pay millions of dollars to his actors. He pays a nice salary to them, but he calls them back for years and years to come. I’d rather do ten Clint Eastwood movies than do one regular studio movie. Believe me. Because you get money from them for years and years to come. Clint Eastwood movies play every day in every state of this country. They play all over the world. That was also the great thing about doing the James Bond one that I did.

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, Robert Walden and Clint Kimbrough played the younger brothers. “Corman is a fine director. He was great directing BLOODY MAMA. He was also producer in a lot of other films. But BLOODY MAMA was awesome. It had a great cast and crew. Shelley and I had quite an affair in those days. I don’t know how good Shelley is right now.” In one scene Stroud punched Winters in the nose for real and she was sent to the hospital. He “nearly married” the star who was playing his mother (she would have been around 47 at the time) AND had an affair with Diane Varsi who played his prostitute girlfriend Mona. AIP released BLOODY MAMA in ’70.

The next year, the larger U.A. released Corman’s historical WWI film VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN starring Stroud as the Canadian pilot Ray Brown and John Phillip Law (PV #12). “There were no stuntmen in for me ‘cause it was a Roger Corman film. So we’re chasing the Red Baron, the camera is on the wing and the pilot had to lean out of his seat to get out of the camera shot. Machine guns blazing. He’s leaning out of his seat and WHAM! A fucking duck hits him right in the face, knocks him out! The plane goes down and hits the river and skips along like a stone. The wings are breaking off, the propeller flies off, and we’re both strapped in. The fucking plane sank and we’re both under water in some dirty river in Ireland and I thought ‘This is just like surfing!’ So I got my belts off, I unstrapped the pilot and swam him to the surface, unconscious, and held him there for 45 minutes. True story… and I was on hash! I’ll never forget when we’re going down, just before I hit the water, I saw this big velvet curtain close and the words THE END. I swear to God.” Four men died during the filming in Ireland (although in his book Corman says they died working on another movie nearby). Roger Corman then got married, retired from directing, and formed New World.

MURPH THE SURF
Kirk Douglas directed and starred as a peg legged pirate in the comic Robert Lewis Stevenson adaptation SCALAWAG (71) filmed in Yugoslavia. Stroud was a pirate named Velvet. THE D.A.: CONSPIRACY TO KILL (71) was a pilot starring Robert Conrad. Stroud was the right hand man of Robert Duvall’s character in John Sturges’ JOE KIDD from Universal. “JOE KIDD was kind of a B–western, but we had a pretty good cast. Robert Duvall and Clint played this spaghetti western type of hero, and I was your bad guy, Lamarr, with this great gun, this tremendous gun. I‘ll never forget it, it was a German Mauser. If you take off the case of the gun, which is made out of wood, you may put it in the bottom of the gun, and it becomes an automatic rifle. It was quite a piece of machinery for those days.”

In ’73 Don Stroud posed naked doing sit ups and lifting weights for the November Playgirl magazine. (Burt Reynolds had recently made headlines posing in Cosmopolitan.)

His interview was about being physically fit and how he didn’t do drugs anymore (except grass). “I got paid a lot for that, but it pissed me off. I’ve got a cock about this fucking big and they made it look like this (holds thumb and forefinger a few inches apart). When I saw the picture I thought ‘What the fuck is this?’ I hate that picture. I really do. But then we went to a convention, a hookers convention and we fucked them on the elevators, on the escalators, in the hallway, in the bathroom, it was amazing. A hookers convention! Me and Larry Hagman. Larry’s a great guy. And we’re doing this thing and I’m signing my centerfolds. Thousands of chicks walking around with my nude picture! I’ve gotta be careful, I could get in a lot of trouble for this!” Hagman, at the height of his wild pre DALLAS days, had just directed BEWARE THE BLOB! Stroud married stripper Sally Ann Little (she was in FOXY BROWN) and adopted her son around this time.

He was a hitman after star Jim Brown in SLAUGHTER’S BIG RIP OFF (74) from AIP and acted on KUNG FU. “David Carradine is a bitching guy and his wife is a gas. We did KUNG FU together. We did a lot more than that together but that was the old days. David used to drink a lot, too much actually. But then I drank a LOT, half gallon of vodka a day and all the coke I could get my hands on! I could afford an eightball a day so that’s what I did. I remember driving around Hollywood with a bottle of vodka between my legs. It was a great time in my life but it was a bad time in my life. But, you know, don’t forget, ten years clean and sober! I do these interviews and they love to talk about the drug shit, and if you look up my M.O., it’s a little shady. I got arrested ten times. I used to get out of jail at six in the morning and go to work at seven! I’d call my lawyer and tell him to get me out ’cause I was shooting a movie! I was stupid. That was the drugs.”

Stroud starred with Robert Conrad as Florida beach bum thieves in the fact based MURPH THE SURF aka LIVE A LITTLE, STEAL A LOT from AIP. “Robert Conrad is my dear friend. Y’know Bob is not six foot one. I’m a foot taller than Bob. I’m not saying what size he is, but a lot of guys his size won’t use big guys like me in their movies. Like when I did WALKER, TEXAS RANGER. Chuck Norris is a little guy, but MURPH THE SURF, I never had so much fun in my life. Jack Murphy and his accomplice didn’t get busted for stealing those jewels. Jack got busted for killing two girls. And he beat that rap! They didn’t have enough evidence. Jack had a great lawyer, but he turned out bad, he started shooting morphine, and then his wife started having an affair with my wife! We were down in Florida shooting MURPH THE SURF and my wife is a bottomless dancer and she starts running around with Jack Murphy’s wife, doing drugs. It was a terrible time in my life. I got divorced.

Then I went to death row to meet Murphy. We were doing research for the movie, and he had turned born again Christian and they let him out! That stuff does work sometimes, that born again bullshit.” Donna Mills played his girlfriend in the movie. “Donna Mills is one of the few chicks who never turned me on. Real cold, cold lady. She’s really good looking and she spends all her time putting on her fucking makeup.” He also played another hitman in SUDDEN DEATH (PV #2) which starred Robert Conrad and was filmed in the Philippines. Stacy Keach starred as a psycho sheriff in THE KILLER INSIDE ME (76) from Warners. Stroud played a dumb redneck in love with a hooker (Susan Tyrrell).

TV roles were still plentiful, including a memorable HAWAII 5-0 in ’76. “Did you ever see the HAWAII 5-0 I did in the wheelchair? The guy is in a wheelchair, and he shoots cops. That was a good part. That guy was a mean motherfucker. I’ve had some nasty parts on TV. CANNON, MARCUS WELBY M.D., STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, CHARLIE’S ANGELS… they were good gals. I did three or four of those ‘cause Aaron Spelling was a good friend of mine, he gave me lots of parts and Quinn Martin did too. Any time they wanted a bad guy, like Son of Sam, they’d call me.”

HOLLYWOOD MAN aka DEATH THREAT (PV #2) starred Stroud’s friend William Smith. Ivan Reitman produced and William Fruet directed the controversial Canadian DEATH WEEKEND aka HOUSE BY THE LAKE (76) with an I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE type revenge plot. Stroud stars as Lep, leader of a group of sadistic punks who terrorize a rich womanizing dentist and the model he brought to his remote estate. Brenda Vacarro from MIDNIGHT COWBOY who was Michael Douglas’ girlfriend at the time starred as Diane. “Talk about a lot of time on screen, that was a lead role for me. I lived with Brenda Vaccaro for two years. Brenda’s great. We had a deep deep love. We almost got married. That was around the time of THE HOUSE BY THE LAKE.” AIP/Hallmark released it to drive-ins on a Triple House Of Horror bill with LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and the much lighter HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD. SEARCH AND DESTROY aka STRIKING BACK (78) was another violent movie directed by Fruet. Stroud and Perry King starred as Nam vets in Niagara Falls who are tracked down by a Vietnamese soldier that they had abandoned. Robert Aldrich’s THE CHOIRBOYS (77) from Universal was based on Joseph Wambaugh’s book about L.A. cops. It was a box office flop but the semi fictional THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY (78) from Columbia was a critical and box office hit. Gary Busey (whose drug use and motorcycle crashes soon rivaled Stroud’s) starred, Stroud was the drummer Jesse, and Charles Martin Smith was the guitarist Ray Bob.

All three actors played their instruments in the movie and played out live to promote it. Busey was Oscar nominated and the soundtrack LP charted. Stroud announced he wouldn’t do any more TV show guest villain roles.

A smaller role was in the THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (79), Stroud’s last role for AIP which would soon become Filmways. He played the priest Father Bolen. “I think it’s the best in the series. The sequels suck! Did you see any of them? First of all, there‘s only one true AMITYVILLE HORROR, and it’s the one with Jimmy Brolin, Margot Kidder, myself and Rod Steiger. The sequels were a hundred percent junk. They were just trying to redo the original. But the real Amityville was a great thing. It was a small part, but I got to work with Rod Steiger, and we shot over in Long Island, New Jersey. We were in Connecticut, it was great, great shoot. We shot with all of the costars, and Rod Steiger was great. He taught me a lot about taking my time a little more. That sometimes in your life you should think it over for a second before you speak. Even if you know the answer. When you are acting, you have to learn to lie. Even to lie with your eyes. There must be a lie in your eyes. He taught me a lot of stuff about that. And Stuart Rosenberg, that was another good director. I didn’t think it was the scariest movie in the world, to say the truth.”

The on again off again MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER (see our Spillane interview in PV #28) was a show known for the cool theme song (“Harlem Nocturne”), big breasts, and cast member coke use. Stroud, who wanted the lead, was cast as Hammer’s cop friend Pat Chambers. The series stopped production when star Stacy Keach went to jail. “Stacy Keach is my bro, but I’ve got to go straight for the throat. When he got popped if I’d been with him I would’ve got popped too. Most people who do TV, if they do 22 shows a year, that’s a major accomplishment. We had 44 shows ordered and then he got busted. Everyone lost their job and some of those people didn’t get work for years after that. That was tough. He didn’t get busted for possession, he got busted for smuggling, at the airport in London. He’s my dear friend but that bust really hurt him. Now he’s finally working again. But look at some of these guys today, like Robert Downey Jr. or Charlie Sheen. They get busted and a limo picks them up at jail and delivers them to the set! Talk about some lucky motherfuckers. Think about that.”

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.

It’s the last time I ever worked non union, because I’m on pension now, and I won‘t mess with my pension (laughs). So they came and offered me a thousand bucks a day to be in the movie. And being in a low budget film where they paid you cash under the table, it’s as good as ten thousand a day, or as two in my business. And my business is cheap! (great laugh). What a great, great part that was. I do a lot of autograph tours all over the country, and a lot of times people ask me stuff from that picture and I haven’t paid much attention to that film. But I‘m glad I did it. It was back on those low budget days, when I was doing a lot of B-films.”

“Jan-Michael Vincent was in that one. I’m playing a psychopath and Jan is a priest and we’re doing a scene where we’re in a confessional booth and he’s so fucking drunk that he has a guy behind him holding him up and another guy in front holding his lines! He’s driving this car up Topanga Canyon and the car stalled just three blocks from his house. So he walks to his house, drunk out of his mind at four in the morning, gets a shotgun, walks back to the car and shoots the car about 50 times. And then he walks home! Lucky thing no one was sleeping in the back seat. He’s a lucky son of a bitch, he should’ve done time for that but the judge said ‘I’m going to give you a blessing,’ and let him off. He’s a great kid but it’s a shame when you have to hire a bodyguard to keep you sober. Anyway, I wish him the best, he’s been down a long hard road.”

Even cheaper were several Donald Jackson movies (see PV #36), also with William Smith and Brion James (PV #20), but more TV roles were offered and producer Roger Corman started to hire Stroud again. “Roger is just magical. I’ve known him for thirty something years now, and he helped me a few times when I was really down. He got me a lot of jobs. God bless Roger Corman! He’s done a lot of little great low budget films, with real good actors. He pays them a few bucks but keeps ’em working and it’s wonderful. And he always comes through for you. He came through for a lot of actors. I know a lot of actors who can say this. He just kept me in the business. Roger is always kind of there, because of these little B-films that take a lot of money and are on Showtime and all this.”

Stroud’s best movie in many years was the Mexican DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (PV #32) by Alex De la Iglesia and starring Rosie Perez. He played Marcelo Santos in a sort of sequel to WILD AT HEART.
“God, that’s another great director! You know, I‘m very fortunate for an actor. A character actor gets those monster parts, but I get to act with the best directors in the world. And Mexico City, oh I love Mexico City. We had a wonderful time there. The director, the producers, everybody in that situation… And they are all from Spain. The actors were wonderful in that film. It was a KILLER’S INSIDE OF ME type of film. But with Alex it was like this: he was looking for someone to play that part and he was running out of time, and they were in Los Angeles looking for an actor and I got the call and I went there, and of course my eye was bad, and had this look about me… I auditioned and got this weird, weird terrific part. And Alex told me ‘You are lucky, because I said: The first guy that crosses the door and can play it straight will get the part.’ And you never get the part that easily. They see a lot of people, and when they’ve seen the first hundred people, then they get serious about someone. Then, towards the end, when they haven’t found anybody, someone yells ‘There‘s our guy!.’”

Stroud lives in Manhattan Beach with his wife of many years Teri and has a retirement home in Cambria near the Hearst mansion. His most recent roles were in WILD AMERICA, a high quality Warner production with kids and wild animals, the kids movie LITTLE BIGFOOT (from PM), two more for Corman (HAUNTED SEA and DETONATOR), and MEN IN WHITE, a Fox Family TV movie that spoofs DR. STRANGELOVE (!) and other sci fi movies. It was his third feature with the late Brion James. “I’m semi retired. It’s lost a lot of the glamour. I’m taking some time off. Besides S.A.G. has the best pension plan in the world. You know 90% of the actors I’ve worked with, I see them at shows (fan conventions) but I don’t really keep in touch with them. Because I don’t like to do that whole ‘Give me my limo, talk to my press agent’ routine, that whole attitude some actors have. You know most of these guys wouldn’t give you the time of day, but it’s my pleasure to sit down and talk with you guys.”

Thanks to Gene Freese and Bowell would like to thank Steve Watson, Dave, Marlon and Fred.

Don Stroud FILMOGRAPHY

YEAR APPEARANCE
66 on THE VIRGINIAN
67 GAMES (Uni.)

BANNING

on IRONSIDE, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, THE

VIRGINIAN, CHRYSLER THEATER
68 MADIGAN (Uni.)

COOGAN’S BLUFF (Uni.)

JOURNEY TO SHILOH

THE BALLAD OF JOSIE

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT FEELING GOOD?

SPLIT SECOND TO AN EPITAPH (NBC

IRONSIDES movie)

SOMETHING FOR A LONELY MAN (NBC)

A HATFUL OF RAIN (ABC)

on THE NAME OF THE GAME IS KILL, THE

VIRGINIAN, THE OUTSIDER
69 EXPLOSION (Canada)
70 TICK…TICK…TICK…

BLOODY MAMA (Vestron)

VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN

ANGELS UNCHAINED

on HAWAII 5-0, THE F.B.I., MARCUS WELBY
71 SCALAWAG

THE DEADLY DREAM (ABC)

THE D.A.: CONSPIRACY TO KILL (NBC pilot feature)

on DAN AUGUST, THE BOLD ONES, THE

DOCTORS, McMILLAN AND WIFE
72 JOE KIDD (MCA)

THE ROLLING MAN (ABC)

THE DAUGHTERS OF JOSHUA CABE (ABC)

on IRONSIDE, ADAM 12, JIGSAW, O’HARA U.S.

TREASURY
73 on HAWAII 5-0, THE F.B.I., CANNON, IRONSIDE,

GUNSMOKE, MARCUS WELBY M.D., HEC RAMSEY,

OWEN MARSHALL, BANACEK, INSIGHT
74 SLAUGHTER’S BIG RIP OFF (MGM)

THE ELEVATOR (ABC)

On KUNG FU, POLICE WOMAN, GUNSMOKE,

BARNABY JONES, THE MANHUNTER, INSIGHT,

STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO (twice)
75 MURPH THE SURF / LIVE A LITTLE, STEAL A

LOT

SUDDEN DEATH

THE RETURN OF JOE FORRESTER (NBC)

on THE ROOKIES, S.W.A.T., POLICE WOMAN,

HARRY-O, PETROCELLI
76 THE KILLER INSIDE ME (Simitar)

HOLLYWOOD MAN /DEATH THREAT

DEATH WEEKEND (VSOM)/HOUSE BY THE

LAKE (Can.)

HIGH RISK/THE TROUBLESHOOTERS (ABC pilot

feature)

on HAWAII 5-0, POLICE WOMAN
77 THE CHOIRBOYS
78 THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY (RCA/Col.)

SEARCH AND DESTROY/STRIKING BACK (Can.)

KATIE: PORTRAIT OF A CENTERFOLD (NBC)
79 THE AMITYVILLE HORROR

EXPRESS TO TERROR (SUPERTRAIN)

KATE LOVES A MYSTERY (NBC series)

on INSIGHT
80 on CHARLIE’S ANGELS, FANTASY ISLAND (twice),

DUKES OF HAZZARD, INSIGHT
81 THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN GEORGIA

SWEET 16 (Vestron)

on THE INCREDIBLE HULK, VEGAS, ENOS,

THE FALL GUY, HART TO HART, TRAPPER

JOHN, CHiPs
82 on FANTASY ISLAND, KNIGHT RIDER, THE

POWERS OF MATTHEW STAR, KNOT’S LANDING,

SIMON AND SIMON, CHiPs, STRIKE FORCE
83 MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER: MURDER

ME, MURDER YOU (CBS pilot feature)

I WANT TO LIVE (ABC)

on ABC WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS, THE A

TEAM, THE FALL GUY, MATT HOUSTON,

THE RENEGADES, THE ROUSTERS
84 MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER: MORE

THAN MURDER (CBS pilot feature)

MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE HAMMER (CBS series

to 85)
85 GIDGET’S SUMMER REUNION (syn. tv pilot feature)

on HELLTOWN, THE A TEAM, MURDER SHE

WROTE, HUNTER
86 ARMED AND DANGEROUS (Col.)

THE RETURN OF MICKEY SPILLANE’S MIKE

HAMMER (CBS pilot then series to 87)

on HOTEL
87 on JAKE AND THE FATMAN, THE LAW AND

HARRY McGRAW
88 TWO TO TANGO (MATAR ES MORIR UN POCO) (Arg.)

on T&T
89 LICENSE TO KILL (MGM)

CARTEL (Southgate)

HYPER SPACE (Silver Star)

DRAGNET (series)

MIKE HAMMER: MURDER TAKES ALL (CBS)

on MacGYVER, PARADISE
90 DOWN THE DRAIN (RCA)

MOB BOSS (A.I.P.)

TWISTED JUSTICE (Arena)
91 PRIME TARGET (Hemdale)

THE DIVINE ENFORCER (Prism)

THE ROLLERBLADE SEVEN (York)

KING OF THE KICKBOXERS

on QUANTUM LEAP, SUPERFORCE, MacGYVER, FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES, SHADES OF L.A., TOP COPS, FBI
92 on MURDER SHE WROTE
93 FROGTOWN 2 (York)

IT’S SHOWTIME

THE FLESH MERCHANT

CYBERSEEKER

on BAYWATCH, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT,

MURDER SHE WROTE, DR. QUINN, WALKER,

ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.,

RENEGADE, NED BLESSING, RIVERBOAT
94 on BABYLON 5 (twice)
95 CARNOSAUR 2 (New Horizons)

SAWBONES (Concorde)

SOLDIER BOYZ (HBO)

DILLINGER AND CAPONE (New Horizons)

CRIMINAL HEARTS (Libra)

UNKNOWN ORIGIN (New Horizons)/THE

ALIEN WITHIN

on WALKER: TEXAS RANGER
96 PRECIOUS FIND (Rep.)

on BABYLON 5
97 DANCE WITH THE DEVIL (Trimark)/PERDITA

DURANGO (uncut from VSOM)

WILD AMERICA (Warner)

LITTLE BIGFOOT (PM)

HAUNTED SEA (Concorde)

on NASH BRIDGES (twice)
98 DETONATOR (Concorde)

(NATIONAL LAMPOON’S) MEN IN WHITE

on PENSACOLA: WINGS OF GOLD
99 on L.A. HEAT