Rodd Redwing

Rodd Redwing (August 24, 1904 – May 29, 1971) was an American actor and a noted quick-draw artist with six-guns. He claimed to be Native American, although in the 1940 United States Census, his birthplace was listed as India^[1] and some sources reported his real name was Roderick Rajpurkaii Jr.^[2] He was also known as Roderic Redwing and Rodric Redwing.

Biography[]

Redwing was one of the top gun, knife, tomahawk, and whip instructors in Hollywood. After claiming that he began in films in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1931 The Squaw Man (although no cast list shows that he acted in that movie), Redwing soon became a gun-handling coach to Alan Ladd, Ronald Reagan, Burt Lancaster, Glenn Ford, Richard Widmark, Anthony Quinn, Charlton Heston, Dean Martin, Fred MacMurray and many other actors. He performed Alan Ladd's fancy gunspinning seen in the film Shane during the climatic showdown.

Between 1951 and 1967, Redwing appeared in more than a dozen television programs, including a guest appearance on CBS's celebrity quiz show, What's My Line?

In eight episodes of the ABC/Desilu western television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Redwing appeared in the part of "Mr. Brother," a Cheyenne friend and informer of deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp (Hugh O'Brian). Rico Alaniz similarly appeared with Redwing in the role of the Cheyenne "Mr. Cousin." In the 1958 episode "One," "Mr. Brother" is killed by the four-man Dry Gulch Gang. Several episodes of the series are spent as Marshal Earp hunts down the gang, one of whom has been given a haven by his girlfriend, the daughter of a rancher. All of the gang are ultimately hanged.^[3][4]

Death[]

After filming his part in The Red Sun, Redwing died at the age of 66. On a flight from Spain to Los Angeles he suffered a heart attack and died 35 minutes later, just before the plane landed. The urn containing his ashes was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Film credits[]

References[]

External links[]

• Rodd Redwing at IMDb
• Rodd Redwing at Find a Grave