This page uses content from the Iron Eyes Cody biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Iron Eyes Cody (April 3, 1907 – January 4, 1999) was an actor born in Kaplan, Louisiana. He was born Espera DeCorti, the son of Sicilian immigrants Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti. He was not born a Native American, but he claimed to be part Cherokee and part Cree. Cody and his wife Bertha Parker adopted children that were Native American. Cody began his acting career at the age of 12 and continued to work until the time of his death. In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune "exposed" his "true" heritage, but Cody denied it.

He appeared in more than 200 films including A Man Called Horse (1970) and Ernest Goes to Camp in 1987. However, he's most famous for his "Crying Indian" role in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement in the early 1970's, an ecology commercial in which he shows a tear after looking at a polluted river.

On his passing in 1999, Iron Eyes Cody was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. He is survived by his adopted son, the Native American flautist Robert "Tree" Cody.

The issue of Iron Eyes Cody's ancestry was featured as a minor plot device in a 2002 episode of The Sopranos. In that episode, members of the Mafia threaten to expose Cody's Sicilian ancestry in order to embarrass Native American activists.

Trivia

• He was parodied in The Simpsons when Homer literally "trashed" Springfield, and an Episode of Futurama when Bender dropped a can on the ground.
• He was referenced during the end credits of Wayne's World 2, when the "naked Indian" was cleaning up after Waynestock.
• He has also been referenced in stand up routines by Dave Chappelle.

External links

• Google Video - 'Crying Indian' public service announcement
• Snopes article: Was Iron Eyes Cody an American Indian?
• Find-A-Grave profile for Iron Eyes Cody
• "Snakes All Around Us" - a poem inspired by one of the talks Cody gave on the dangers of drugs for American Indian kids.

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