- Cody's Native American heritage was challenged on May 26, 1996, in the New Orleans Times-Picayune (Louisiana, USA) newspaper by reporter Angela Aleiss who revealed that he was in fact of Italian ancestry. Cody denied his Louisiana origins.
- He was the man who played the Indian that sheds a single tear for a blighted American environment in "Keep America Beautiful" ads that ran from 1971 into the 1980s. The commercial is briefly spoofed in Wayne's World 2 (1993).
- Following his death, he was interred with his wife Bertha "Birdie" Parker at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He passed away on January 4, 1999, only three months away from what would have been his 92nd birthday on April 3.
- Brother of J.W. Cody, Frank Cody and Victoria Cody. His mother remarried Alton Abshire and had five more children.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6655 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 20, 1983.
- He was posthumously awarded a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars in Palm Springs, California on January 15, 1999.
- His daughter allegedly died in a childhood hunting accident.
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