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Big Tree, Chief John (1865-1967)
Isaac Johnny John, as he
really was, became the greatest of Indian actors. His career lasted from 1915
to 1950. When he was 84, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, he and John Wayne
agreed they were too old for war, and Big Tree urged his friend to ride away to
smoke and drink together. Earlier, he appeared quietly in Claudette Colbert's
kitchen in Drums Along the Mohawk, and scared the wits out of that city
girl, and in Stagecoach, at 73, he stunted alongside Yakima Canutt. And
not until his 102nd year did Isaac Johnny John decide that it was a good day to
die.
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