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7 Gents Who Played Geronimo
We don’t know the calendar birth dates of many historical Native American leaders but somehow it appears to be established that June 16 was the birthday of Geronimo (1829-1909).
We’re just a few years out from the bicentennial of the Chiricahua Apache leader’s natal day, and it’s one worth marking. The defeat of the Southwestern Apaches looms particularly large in the history of western films. To those who knew the real history of the white vs. red struggle it could understandably be baffling that so many movies dwell on that particular chapter. After all, the populations of the tribes and bands in question were not so numerous as many that had fallen before, nor the battles as large in scale. But I have my theories as to why the Apache Wars were popular with both film-makers and audiences. One is that the Apache peoples were among the very last to be subdued by the U.S. Army. The rocky desert terrain they occupied during their last years provided countless places for them to hide out and as many features from which to stage ambushes. So efforts to pacify the remaining warriors took quite a while, and fueled newspaper headlines and dime novels the entire time, feeding the legend. (Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886, but there were skirmishes with Apaches as late as 1924). Another reason for telling this particular chapter of the Indian Wars so often also has to do with the land: the Southwestern desert, associated especially with Arizona, is so damned picturesque. It looks gorgeous in movies. So beautiful in fact that scores of movies have been shot there that don’t historically belong there.
The rocky, dry, mountainous landscape of Afghanistan is not unlike that of the U.S. Southwest, and I deduce that this is why the American military made “Geronimo” the code word for its operation to nab Osama bin Laden (that and the fact that he was legendarily clever at evading capture). There were protests about this code word after the fact, and the name of the operation was retroactively changed. And for years, U.S. paratroopers used to shout Geronimo’s name as they made their leaps from planes, almost superstitiously, like a prayer, like “here goes nothing!” It became kind of a holy name, with a power. And as it happens, Geronimo was technically a medicine man, not a chief, though he personally led many brilliant military actions. Cochise has probably been depicted even more times in movies, but that’s a subject for a different post.
Geronimo is mentioned in movies many more times than he is depicted. Usually, as in John Ford’s Stagecoach(1939), it’s a plot point. He’s on the warpath so we’d better watch out! But on several occasions he’s presented as a character. Here are some who have played him:
Chief Thundercloud’s tribal identity is ambiguous. He claimed to be a Cherokee from Oklahoma but most documentation points to an Arizona origin that puts him closer to the subject at hand. He played Geronimo in the eponymous 1939 Paramount film that also featured Andy Devine, Gene Lockhart,Ralph Morgan, and Ellen Drew. Chief Thundercloud reprised his role later in I Killed Geronimo (1950).
Monte Blue, part Cherokee and part Osage, played Geronimo in Robert Aldrich’s 1954 film Apache starring Burt Lancaster. Blue’s Native identity is to the film’s credit. Lancaster’s casting as a fellow Apache is less fortunate.
Ian MacDonald
Rock Hudson (in redface) is the titular star of Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), directed by Douglas Sirk. The equally non-native MacDonald is best known for playing the villain in High Noon(1950), but was in dozens of other westerns, occasionally in Native parts.
Best remembered as Tonto from The Lone Ranger, Jay Silverheels got to play Geronimo in Walk the Proud Land (1956) starring Audie Murphy. Murphy plays the historical figure John Clum, who was the Indian Agent on the San Carlos reservation during the time of the troubles. This film was Silverheels second bite at the apple though. He had previously played the same character in Universal’s The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)
The star of The Riflemanplayed the Apache leader in Geronimo (1962). It’s a pretty cheesy movie, and not just because Connors is white.
Native Cherokee Wes Studi starred in Walter Hill’s Geronimo: An American Legend (1993). It was a natural and sweet climax to a career that had begun with Pow Wow Highway (1989), Dances with Wolves (1990), The Doors (1991, and if you don’t know why there’s an Indian in a movie about The Doors you don’t know enough about either topic), and The Last of the Mohicans (1992) in which he had the plum role of Magua. Studi’s had a terrific career in the years since, as well. The film is mostly about Geronimo’s arrest and is not Apache-centric as you might expect. It has a stellar cast though: Jason Patric, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Matt Damon, Kevin Tighe,Scott Wilson, Stephen McHattie, et al.
Joseph Runningfox
Joseph Runningfox is Pueblo. He starred in the tv movie Geronimo which aired in TNT in 1993, the same year as the Hill film.
Okay, that was 30 years ago! More than high time for a new one, wouldn’t you say? It’s a minefield of course, and these days you can’t blame movie producers from staying well away from sensitive topics. All the more reason to get it right, so say I! I will add, however, that finding an actor of leading man stature who physically resembles the real person (top of post) will be a TALL order.
As for Geronimo himself, in later years, he too was in show business, as he performed in the Wild West shows of Zack Mulhall, the Miller Brothers, and others. Because this is America, dammit!
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