RIP Delores Taylor

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Vandal
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RIP Delores Taylor

#1 Post by Vandal » Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:21 am

Delores Taylor, who co-starred with her husband Tom Laughlin in his productions of the Billy Jack series of films, has died in Southern California, her daughter said Monday. She was 85.
Teresa Laughlin told The Associated Press that Taylor died March 23 of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Home near Los Angeles. She said her mother had suffered from dementia.

Taylor was born in 1932 in Winner, South Dakota. She grew up near the Rosebud Indian Reservation, an experience which she drew from when creating the namesake character of the Billy Jack films in the 1970s.

Taylor starred in three of the four Billy Jack films in which she played a teacher whose progressive school is defended by Billy Jack — a half-white, half-Native American Vietnam veteran who had come to hate war. The films became counterculture favorites.

Billy Jack was first seen in the 1968 biker movie Born Losers, but became widely known after Billy Jack, the second of four films Laughlin made about him (only three made it to theaters).

Billy Jack was released in 1971 after a long struggle by Laughlin to gain control of the low-budget, self-financed movie, a model for guerrilla filmmaking. The film became a surprise hit and the theme song, One Tin Soldier, was a hit single for the rock group Coven.
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BackInTex
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Re: RIP Delores Taylor

#2 Post by BackInTex » Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:29 am

Had a teenage crush on her. R.I.P.
..what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms.
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Re: RIP Delores Taylor

#3 Post by silverscreenselect » Tue Mar 27, 2018 7:48 am

I loved Billy Jack, preachy as it was. She and Laughlin weren't afraid to do their own thing. Unfortunately, they went way overboard with the sequel, The Trial of Billy Jack, and then did their remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which also featured some name actors like E.G. Marshall. Somehow they won the rights to remake Mr. Smith, even though John Denver was also interested. Somehow, I think Denver's version would have been better.

One Tin Soldier is great in that film the way it's used towards the end of the movie.
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Re: RIP Delores Taylor

#4 Post by jaybee » Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:14 pm

I made the tactical error of taking my high school GF on a date to see "The Trial of Billy Jack". She wanted to see something else, but I insisted on the Billy Jack movie. Very, very bad move for a guy in high school hoping to see some action other than on the movie screen. I think the mood started to go south after the kids shooting scene. A memorable date, but not a good one.
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Re: RIP Delores Taylor

#5 Post by silverscreenselect » Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:43 pm

jaybee wrote:I made the tactical error of taking my high school GF on a date to see "The Trial of Billy Jack". She wanted to see something else, but I insisted on the Billy Jack movie. Very, very bad move for a guy in high school hoping to see some action other than on the movie screen. I think the mood started to go south after the kids shooting scene. A memorable date, but not a good one.
Pepper Rodgers, who was the football coach at UCLA at the time and later came back to Georgia Tech as our coach (where he played), had a bit part in the film as one of the many cops whom Billy Jack beat the crap out of during the movie. Not exactly a high note in Pepper's brief acting career.
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Re: RIP Delores Taylor

#6 Post by Estonut » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:14 am

silverscreenselect wrote:Pepper Rodgers, who was the football coach at UCLA at the time and later came back to Georgia Tech as our coach (where he played), had a bit part in the film as one of the many cops whom Billy Jack beat the crap out of during the movie. Not exactly a high note in Pepper's brief acting career.
According to IMDB, it was both the high note and the low note in his acting career. It is the only role listed where he did not play himself.

Franklin 'Pepper' Rodgers
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