Tom Laughlin, aka: Billy Jack

[JJ_BPK]

RIP Bad Ass, Vaya con Dios..

He stared in, wrote, directed a set of "Billy Jack" movies in the 60t's. A cross between a hippy, kung fu fighter, social activist, & conservative. Married Delores Taylor in 1954..

Tom Laughlin, the maverick actor and filmmaker best known for the "Billy Jack" films, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. He was 82.

Laughlin, who played football at Milwaukee's Washington High School and attended Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, died Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif., his family announced Sunday.

Laughlin's website, billyjack.com, also reported his death but doesn't list a cause. In 2001, it was reported that the actor was being treated for "base-of-tongue cancer" at a Los Angeles hospital.

Laughlin was best known for the "Billy Jack" films, which also starred his wife, Delores Taylor. In 1967, he wrote and directed (under the pseudonym T.C. Frank) and starred in "The Born Losers," a motorcycle exploitation film that became a big box-office hit.

The 1971 sequel, the vigilante-themed "Billy Jack," was, after a legal battle with Warner Bros., released independently. It also became a box-office smash, though it generated controversy for its suggestion of guns and violence as justice-seeking tools.

Laughlin co-produced and starred in all four "Jack" films, including the final one, 1977's "Billy Jack Goes to Washington," about the title character taking on corruption in the U.S. Senate.

In a case of life imitating art — or more specifically, imitating "Billy Jack Goes to Washington" — Laughlin ran for president three times, the last time in 2004 for the Republican nomination against incumbent President George W. Bush.

Read more from Journal Sentinel:

http://www.jsonline.com/tablet/enter...#ixzz2nap1nLRO

[mojaveman]

"Billy Jack" became something of a cult classic after it came out in the early '70s. Saw it at the drive in back then.

Rest in Peace Tom Laughlin.

"You think those Green Beret karate tricks are going to help against all of these guys?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVX-voqWuwY

[glebo]

Wow, RIP Tom, always did like his movies. Although, some were a bit "corny"

But, I was young once...

RIP Mr. Tom

[MR2]

and one tin soldier rides away...

RIP

[Snaquebite]

One of my favorite scenes from his movies....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVX-voqWuwY

[mark46th]

I thought "Billy Jack" was a little too hippy-ish. I enjoyed "Born Losers" a lot more, better bad guys. He also popped up as the PBY pilot in the musical "South Pacific".

RIP, Tom...

[TrapperFrank]

The old inner crescent kick is a mofo....RIP Tom Laughlin

[ZonieDiver]

Originally Posted by mark46th

I thought "Billy Jack" was a little too hippy-ish. I enjoyed "Born Losers" a lot more, better bad guys. He also popped up as the PBY pilot in the musical "South Pacific".

RIP, Tom...

Ditto. I loved "Born Losers" - but also enjoyed "Billy Jack" and "The Trial of Billy Jack" - portions of which were filmed at the high school where I later taught in Chandler, AZ. (The fight sequence shown in a post above was filmed in the town square in Prescott, AZ - near the "Rough Rider" statue that is NOT "Bucky" O'Neill.)

I also love "South Pacific" and never realized, until now, that the PBY pilot was Tom Laughlin. Thanks, Mark! Some enchanted evening, I'll watch it again.

[atticus finch]

If I recall correctly, his line on what constitutes mental toughness is still I think one of the most accurate I've heard to this day.

[Dusty]

I remember that cheesy movie. In the scene where the brat is pondering whether he's gonna rape Billy Jack's girlfriend (or whatever the lead hippy chick was), there's a boom mike in the foreground big as the moon.

[Beef]

As a teenager at the time, I loved those movies. If someone challenged you to "meet them behind the gym after school," you had to take off your dingo boots with a lot of show before the fists flew. RIP, Billy Jack.