- Born
- Died
- Birth nameUlysses Webb Richardson Jr.
- Nicknames
- Roderic Redwing
- Rodric Redwing
- Height6′ 1¼″ (1.86 m)
- Roderic (Rodd) Redwing claimed to be a Chickasaw Indian, although recent data raises questions about his heritage. He was born on August 24, 1904 in New York City, New York, USA. His father, Ulysses Redwing, was a stage actor. He traveled with his family to England and attended London's Westminster Grammar School while they toured with a circus. His mother left the Chickasaw reservation in Oklahoma to study hair styling in New York City. She and her four sisters built up a chain of twenty-two beauty parlors from New York City to Miami. When they returned to New York he attended Herron High School in Hell's Kitchen, then graduated from New York University. He was a gifted athlete, excelling in football at both levels.
Redwing had stage credits in the 1920's on Broadway, i.e., "Bad Man" with Holbrook Blynn and "Queen of Sheba with Greta Wilson. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant. All during his acting, stunt double, and technical advisor years to the movie and television industries he was a gunsmith with Stembridge Gun Rentals, the largest and best known firearms rental company in Hollywood. Realistic shooting scenes were pioneered by Redwing. He first showed the violent impact of a .45 Colt cartridge. While filming Shane (1953), Redwing attached wires to a chest harness worn by Elisha Cook Jr., jerking him violently backward when he was shot down in the street by Jack Palance. He is known for his work on The Ten Commandments (1956), The Mole People (1956), and Shalako (1968). He had a publicity appearance at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the late 1950's as part of the first Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season. In 1961 he required abdominal surgery and half of his stomach was removed.
In 1959 he married German-born Ericka Rosa (Nicki) Wagner. He was only married once. His mother died on the Cherokee Reservation in Oklahoma, USA in 1953. He died on May 30, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA as he was returning from Spain to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). After being stricken with a heart attack in flight he succumbed thirty-five minutes later.- IMDb Mini Biography By: SAGE STEPS
- SpouseEricka Rosa "Nicki" Wagner(March 30, 1959 - May 30, 1971) (his death)
- While on the set of Gunga Din (1939) in the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA, he was asked by director George Stevens if he could "whip these guys into shape." Being a military expert, Redwng took on the task of training 3,000 Hindus, Gurkhas (Nepalese) and East Indians the military drills of their own nations. The movements of the regiments in the movie are considered classic to this day.
- He coached Alan Ladd, Glenn Ford, Jerry Lewis, Henry Fonda, Clayton Moore, Ronald Reagan and many other film and TV cowboys in use of firearms for westerns. He was able to hit a target the size of a quarter at 20 feet.
- Known widely as a trick shooter, he delighted in shooting Necco wafers out of the air with .22 LR single-action revolvers and Marlin lever-action rifles. His best known feat was holding a throwing knife at shoulder level with his right hand, throwing the knife at a target, and in the same hand motion draw an SA Colt revolver and fire a shot. The knife would stick in the edge of the bullet hole. Bob Argenbright, nationally known firearms and security expert and author of books on guns, stated in 2010 that Redwing had perfected a magic act to create this illusion, but admitted that "it required exceptional gun handling skill and hand speed to get that shot off before the knife stuck in the target, as well as being a skilled knife thrower.".
- In 1967 he observed that men instinctively blinked their eyes when pulling the trigger, while a woman never bats a lash. When asked to explain why that is so he replied, "Quien sabe" (who knows?), "I think it's natural for a woman to keep her eyes open because she instinctively doesn't want to miss anything".
- On the February 2, 1958, CBS program What's My Line? (1950), hosted by John Daly, the four panelists--Arlene Francis, Jonathan Winters, Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf--all failed to identify his line of work. In conversation with Daly at the conclusion of the game, Rodd said he was able to shoot in the center of something the size of a quarter at 20 feet in two-tenths of a second. Winters asked why Indians didn't make out better in the westerns and Rodd replied because the studios don't hire Indians to play Indians. There was no reply and Rodd rose and shook hands with each of the four panelists.
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