Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack) dead

[Guest TankerHC]

Man, lately the people who were all over TV, movies and lived in my neighborhood (WWII and Korean War Vets) are dropping like flies.

 

Just heard Tom Laughlin died. Some of my favorites in the 70's and one of my favorite songs off the album soundtrack. 

 

For those who know the movies, in Billy Jack, Dolores Taylor, the woman who ran the school,was actually his wife and the blond girl who sang and played guitar (And the reason I saw the movie like 20 times) was his daughter. He paid for all of his movies out of his pocket, althouth I did think The Born Losers was pretty stupid and Billy Jack goes to Washington was even stupider, Billy Jack and The Trial of Billy Jack were great movies. 

 

I have never heard of or seen the TV series "Riverboat" but I am sure some of the older guys here have. I dont even remember it in reruns in the 70's, but he was in an episode. 

 

(Had to correct that spelling)

 

http://youtu.be/qswm7lHp7oY

Edited December 16, 2013 by TankerHC

[Dustbuster]

I remember the billy jack movies when I was in jr high school. The first had one scene were the bad police frisk a woman and rub her boobs in a bad cop manner was the talk in school for weeks lol. Rip Tom Laughlin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 of course it ate my spelling.

[frankmako]

when the movies came out i went to see them.  they were the talk on base during the day.  been years, many years since i seen them. 

[hipower]

Sad. Another of my childhood heroes gone.

 

Loved the movie and the soundtrack.

 

Didn't know the singer was his daughter though.

[Dennis1209]

Know what? I'm going to kick you on the right side of the face, and the funny thing is, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. (paraphrased)

 

Heard that somewhere and I'm thinking it was my wife that said and did that when I came home drunk and passed out in bed many, many mango seasons ago :rofl:

[bersaguy]

Well they say is runs n 3's in Hollywood and I heard last night on news That Tom had died, Peter OToole died and I cannot remember her name but another female Actress also died. I remember the movies of Billy Jack and enjoyed them all. I can remember Peter O'Toole in Lawrence Of Arabia back when I was about 8 years old. Great movie..............jmho

[billyscott]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBEk97hNXw

 

 

RIP Tom.

[Guest Lowbuster]

I remember when billy made the kid drive his vette into the lake and his dad said " you just drove a $6,000 car into the lake?" Edited December 16, 2013 by Lowbuster

[Garufa]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBEk97hNXw

 

 

RIP Tom.

 

That's what happens when you open up a can of whoop-ass.

[Hershmeister]

Gotta love a 70's song with a flute! See: Marshall Tucker band - heard it in a love song Jethro Tull - aqualung and many more

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Am not familiar with his other work, but was of the opinion that billy jack was the worst hippy movie ever made. :) And there was no shortage of awful hippy movies.

The song was OK though.

[Tncobra]

I liked him until he rolled the 454 vette into the lake. It wasn't the cars fault the owner was a douche.

RIP. Edited December 17, 2013 by Tncobra

[Guest TankerHC]

Am not familiar with his other work, but was of the opinion that billy jack was the worst hippy movie ever made. :) And there was no shortage of awful hippy movies.

The song was OK though.

 

It wasn't a hippy movie, it was about a VN Vet half breed Native American defending the kids at an Indian School and trying to keep the school open.

Edited December 17, 2013 by TankerHC

[Guest Lester Weevils]

It wasn't a hippy movie, it was about a VN Vet half breed Native American defending the kids at an Indian School and trying to keep the school open.

 

Perhaps a communication problem is that some folks on here equate hippy == bad, and I don't think that at all. Not that hippy == good either. But it just am what it am. I'm not saying its got to be a bad movie because of its hippy-ness. Just that the hippy-ness doesn't keep it from being a cheezy movie. :)

 

The school in the movie has curricula which would be perfect prep for admittance to Sarasota's New College, which is about as hippy as you can get.

 

The school marm was a hippy social worker type, and the kids were long-haired peace and love hippies.

 

They represent the valuing of relationships, non-violence and communitarianism over materialism, money and power.

 

The bad kids (and their bad parents) are materialistic racist rich bullies. Obviously small-town evil landed redneck republicans. The bad guys in the film are Joan Baez's Drugstore Cowboys, just kicking hippies asses and raisin hell. The nemesis of hippies everywhere. :)

 

Billy Jack tries hard to accept the Ghandi non-violence passive meme, but the bad kids and their folks are so mean, he just can't follow the ideal, so he becomes a hero while also breaking every ordinance in the hippy by-laws.

Edited December 17, 2013 by Lester Weevils

[RobertNashville]

I liked the original "Billy Jack" movie; I think I've seen it once or twice since it was in the theaters and not all that long ago.

 

I've always liked "One Tin Soldier"...great song.

 

Tom Laughlin seems to have been a decent guy although politically I doubt we would agree on very much.

Edited December 17, 2013 by RobertNashville

[Guest Lester Weevils]

One of the better hippy movies was Silent Running, only slightly marred in the end by Joan Baez' vibrato so deep and wide that it can only be properly reproduced by the highest-quality most expensive wide-bandwidth speakers. :)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ0JGjKYVdU 

[Guest TankerHC]

There's still hippies? Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

[Guest Lester Weevils]

There's still hippies? Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 2

 

I hear tell there are still young hippies, though I don't know any personally.

 

The old SDS Commie Revolution Hippies are presently running the government of the United States of America.

 

Some of the Peace & Love Hippies are still making psychedelic candles and listening to the grateful dead, wheras other Peace & Love Hippies are now real estate tycoons or own auto dealerships, but most likely they still listen to the grateful dead.

 

Some of the Power To The People hippies swapped sides and are now tea party folk.

 

F. Buckminster Fuller, Whole Earth Catalog Engineering Hippies remain just as techno nerdy as they ever were, merely older and with less hair.

 

Some of the Back To The Land Hippies run the EPA and the Sierra Club, but others have devolved into elderly woods-roaming gun nuts who have either moved out in the country past where the asphalt ends, or they wish they could do so.

 

The Freebird Good-Old-Boy hippies are still Good Old Boys, and most likely still listen to Lynrd Skynrd.

 

I expect that several of the hippy species are alive and well right here on TGO. :)

[Jamie Jackson]

 

 

" The bad guys in the film are Joan Baez's Drugstore Cowboys, just kicking hippies asses and raisin hell. The nemesis of hippies everywhere. :)"

 

 

 

 

Just to senselessly add to the hippie ass kicking reference...my favorite version is from The New Riders of the Purple Sage

 

 

"Up against the Wall (Redneck Mother)"

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP8AxTgZ2g0

 

 

 

:cool:

[Guest TankerHC]

http://youtu.be/tBW2aQFVzCU

[Guest Lester Weevils]

This is a favorite C & C clip--

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpGGiCJ0z2U

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Merle before he turned hippy--

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYY2FQHFwE

 

Merle after he turned hippy--

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4AgZST_TG8

[ewingredneck]

Chuck Norris can come out of hiding now :rofl:

[Guest TankerHC]

Merle before he turned hippy--

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYY2FQHFwE

 

Merle after he turned hippy--

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4AgZST_TG8

 

Second song I ever learned to play was Silver Wing's. I considered Merle "Cool" back in the 70's. Cooler than Johnny Cash even.

[DaveS]

Second song I ever learned to play was Silver Wing's. I considered Merle "Cool" back in the 70's. Cooler than Johnny Cash even.

Whoa...whoa....ain't nobody cooler than Johnny Cash!!! 

 

Dave