Biography

Iron Eyes Cody

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Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera or "Oscar" DeCorti, the son of two first-generation immigrants from Italy. In 1924 he moved to California, changed his name from "DeCorti" to "Corti" to Cody, and started working as an actor, presenting himself as a Native American. In 1936, he married Bertha Parker, a Native American archaeologist of Abenaki and Seneca descent. Together, they adopted two sons - Robert and Arthur, two brothers of Dakota and Maricopa descent. Iron Eyes Cody claimed Native American descent, although he was of Italian American descent, with ancestors from Sicily. He labored for decades to promote Native American causes, and was honored by Hollywood's Native American community in 1995 as a "non-Native" for his contribution to film.
- IMDb mini biography by: Susan C Mitchell, Christina Lehua Hummel-Colla (edited 08/24/21)

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 American 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.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6655 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 20, 1983.
Brother of J.W. Cody, Frank Cody and Victoria Cody. His mother remarried Alton Abshire and had five more children.

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