[4][5] Strode, Kenny Washington, and Jackie Robinson starred on the undefeated 1939 UCLA Bruins football team, in which they made up three of the four backfield players.

[8] They played eventual conference and Helms national champion USC to a scoreless tie with those championships and 1940 Rose Bowl on the line.

He had a small role in Star Spangled Rhythm (1942), as a chauffeur of Rochester (Edward Anderson), and could be glimpsed in No Time for Love (1943).

When World War II broke out, Strode was playing for the Hollywood Bears in the Pacific Coast Professional Football League.

[10] Strode and Kenny Washington were two of the first African Americans to play in major college programs and later the modern National Football League (along with Marion Motley and Bill Willis, who signed with the contemporary rival All-America Football Conference), playing for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946.

We used to sit in the best seats at the Coconut Grove (a nightclub in the Ambassador Hotel) listening to Donald Novis sing.

"[13] One instance where he became the victim of a racial barrier was when the National Football League acted in response to Caucasian players complaining about African Americans taking up job opportunities.

[citation needed] Strode's acting career was re-activated when producer Walter Mirisch spotted him wrestling and cast him as an African warrior in The Lion Hunters (1951), one of the Bomba the Jungle Boy series.

[20] Strode was in City Beneath the Sea (1953) with Robert Ryan and Anthony Quinn, directed by Budd Boetticher, and The Royal African Rifles.

He could be seen in The Gambler from Natchez (1954), Jungle Gents (1954) a Bowery Boys movie set in Africa, and The Silver Chalice (1954).

He was in a TV adaptation of Mandrake the Magician (1954), a pilot for a series not picked up, and had small parts in Son of Sinbad (1955), Soldiers of Fortune (1955), and Buruuba (1956) a Japanese film set in Africa.

He appeared once on Johnny Weissmuller's 1955–1956 syndicated television series Jungle Jim and was in an episode of Private Secretary.

In 1959 he portrayed the conflicted, some would say cowardly, Private Franklin in Pork Chop Hill, which brought him critical acclaim.

Draba wins the contest, but instead of killing Spartacus, he attacks the Roman military commander who paid for the fight.

Ford gave Strode the title role in Sergeant Rutledge (1960) as a member of the Ninth Cavalry, who is greatly admired by the other black soldiers in the unit and is falsely accused of the rape and murder of a white woman.

"The big studios wanted an actor like Sidney [Poitier] or [Harry] Belafonte," recalled Strode.

He was in The Sins of Rachel Cade (1961) and guest starred twice on Rawhide, playing an Australian aboriginal in one episode and a buffalo soldier in the other.

He had a bigger role in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) for Ford, playing Pompey, John Wayne's hired hand.

In the film, Strode's character recites the Declaration of Independence but apologizes for forgetting the phrase "all men are created equal", a poignant line for the 1962 audience.

He guest starred on The Lieutenant, The Farmer's Daughter and Daniel Boone and had roles in the features Genghis Khan (1965) and 7 Women (1966), the latter the last film he made for Ford.

Strode landed a major starring role as an Indian and soldier of fortune in the 1966 Western The Professionals.

His name was the only one of the four "professionals" which was left off the movie poster; nevertheless, the film was a major box-office success establishing him as a recognizable star.

[7] His 1968 starring role as a thinly-disguised Patrice Lumumba in Seduto alla sua destra (released in the U.S. as Black Jesus) garnered Strode a great deal of press at the time, but the film is largely forgotten now.

[citation needed] He was an Indian in Shalako (1968) and played a gunslinger in the opening sequence of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Strode's later appearances included Cuba Crossing (1980),The Dukes of Hazzard (1980), Scream (1981), Fantasy Island (1981), Vigilante (1982), Invaders of the Lost Gold (1982), Angkor: Cambodia Express (1983), The Black Stallion Returns (1983), The Violent Breed (1984), Jungle Warriors (1984), The Cotton Club (1984), The Final Executioner (1984), Lust in the Dust (1985), On Fire (1987), and A Gathering of Old Men (1987).

His last film was The Quick and the Dead (1995), which starred Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Russell Crowe.

Mr Strode Guest Starred as 'Willie' in The Dukes of Hazzard, Season 3, Episode 7 'The Great Ssnta Claus Chase.'