Tom Laughlin
Tom Laughlin was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States on August 10th, 1931 and is the Director. At the age of 82, Tom Laughlin biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Thomas Robert Laughlin Jr. (August 10, 1931 – December 12, 2013) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator, and activist. Laughlin was best known for his series of Billy Jack films.
He was married to actress Delores Taylor from 1954 until his death.
Taylor co-produced and acted in all four Billy Jack films.
His unique promotion of The Trial of Billy Jack (TV trailers during national news and an "opening day" nationwide release) was a major influence on the way films are marketed.In the early 1960s, Laughlin put his film career on hiatus to start a Montessori preschool in Santa Monica, California; it became the largest school of its kind in the United States.
In his later years, he sought the office of President of the United States in 1992, 2004, and 2008.
He was involved in psychology and domestic abuse counseling, writing several books on Jungian psychology and developing theories on the causes of cancer.
Personal life
Laughlin married Delores Taylor in 1954. They had three children: Frank, Teresa, and Christina. His daughter Teresa is a fashion designer. He derived at least two of his pseudonyms from his children: Frank Laughlin, his son's name and the name he used to direct The Trial of Billy Jack and The Master Gunfighter, and T.C. Frank, which stood for Teresa Christina Frank.
In 2001, it was announced that Laughlin was suffering from a cancer of the tongue that was inoperable. His website claimed the cancer was in remission. His book The Psychology of Cancer was about faith, attitude, and other factors that might affect cancer.
In January 2007, a tearful Tom Laughlin gave the eulogy for the man who taught him hapkido for the movie Billy Jack, the late hapkido grandmaster Han Bong-soo, whom Laughlin remembered as "a holy man".
On November 20, 2007, he posted a video on YouTube explaining that poor health had caused him to leave his BillyJack.com website in a dormant state. The site was later revived. Laughlin suffered from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, and suffered a series of strokes. In the video, he announced that he had his health issues under control, that he updated the website, and that he was planning a new Billy Jack film. However, that film was never made.
Early life and career (1931–1960)
Laughlin was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the son of Margaret and Thomas Laughlin. He attended Washington High School, where he was embroiled in a sports scandal that made national television news, owing to Laughlin's transfer to another college for a short time, making him ineligible to play football at his old high school on his return.
Laughlin attended the University of Wisconsin before transferring to Marquette University; he played football at both universities. At Marquette, he competed in safety and halfback.
After seeing a film titled Desire, Laughlin decided to become an actor. He joined Marquette's drama program after being encouraged by a university professor, Father John J. Walsh, in a 1956 newspaper interview.
As a student, he formed a stock group and starred in a Arthur Miller's All My Sons production. He then moved to University of South Dakota, where he concentrated on radio acting, directing, and producing. Delores Taylor, his future wife, was born in South Dakota.
After seeing the treatment of Native Americans in his wife's hometown, Winner, South Dakota, Laughlin created the original screenplay for Billy Jack in 1954. On October 15, 1954, the two were married.
In the 1955 television series Climax!, he began his screen-acting career. He went on to appear in several films, including: These Wilder Years (1956), Tea and Sympathy (1956), Lafayette Escadrille (1958), and South Pacific (1958).
Throughout the late 1950s, he appeared in many episodes of various television series. Mr. Laughlin appeared in South Pacific, the film version of the James Michener book and Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as a Navy pilot. In 1959, he appeared as young Tom Fowler in the NBC Western series "The Fight Back" episode "The Fight Back." Fowler has made himself the boss of Hampton, a impoverished river town near Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the story line. Farmers are reluctant to sell their produce to market due to him. The Enterprise, a lynch mob led by Fowler, has fallen out after Captain Grey Holden's (series actor Darren McGavin) was killed in a controversy over a wedding held on the river vessel. Ansel Torgin is also appearing in this episode, with John Ireland as Chris Slade and Karl Swenson. Laughlin appeared in the western series Tales of Wells Fargo in the year 2000, as part of the series "The Quiet Village."
Laughlin was also featured in the film Gidget as Lover Boy in 1959. However, he struggled to make a living in the early years, having told People magazine in 1975, "We were living on $5 a week and eating Spam." I took Christmas cards from a church so I could write home and share how much we did, but I couldn't afford the stamps."
Laughlin's first film appearance was in Robert Altman's 1957 film The Delinquents, in which he played Scotty White, a teen who is involved with a family after he is told he will not see his wife again. Despite the film's low budget, it became a cult film, with Alfred Hitchcock as one of its supporters. However, Laughlin and Altman did not get along well, with differing views on acting; Altman later described Laughlin as "an incredible pain in the ass."
Laughlin's debut with The Proper Time came later this year, but it wasn't released until 1962. On UCLA's campus, the film was a romantic drama set. On the campus in six days, Laughlin shot the film with a $20,000 budget.
In The Young Sinner, Laughlin wrote, directed, and performed. It was shot in Milwaukee in 1960 and lasted for a period of 14 days. It's the story of a celebrity high-school star who has fallen evermore into disinterest after being trapped in bed with his girlfriend. The film was supposed to be the first of a trilogy called We Are All Christ. It debuted in 1963 under the original name Among the Thorns, but the Young Sinner was renamed to The Young Sinner on its 1965 re-release. Laughlin planned to make Poison in Our Land in 1960, but the project was never realized.
Later career
He purchased a series of 12 ads in Variety in 1984, all of which criticized various aspects of film culture and the treatment of independent filmmakers. He laid out a blueprint for capturing the home video distribution market as a way for independent films to be seen. In 1985, Billy Jack began filming The Return of Billy Jack, which featured the title character vs. child pornographers in New York City. However, he sustained a concussion and neck injury during filming, causing the production to be suspended. During this period, the picture was unfunded, and production was never restored. On Laughlin's website in 2009, a few scenes from the unfinished film were posted. On Manhattan's West Side, he broke up a street fight, threatening to rip a man's arm off. Since an argument over Laughlin's driving, he gained notoriety at this time for making a man's arrest of a man.
When he disclosed it in a lawsuit against a man who had (Laughlin) unlawfully changed his name to "Billy Jack"), Laughlin wanted to finish the fifth Billy Jack film since at least 1996, and Laughlin said he wanted to make a Billy Jack television series. Billy Jack's Crusade to End the War in Iraq and Restore America to Its Moral Purpose was a film directed by Billy Jack's Moral Revolution in 2004.
Billy Jack for President was the film's name in 2008, before it was changed to Billy Jack for President. Billy Jack and Jean were renamed. Billy Jack's debut as a "new genre of film" and a considerable amount of sociological analysis on politics, religion, and psychology will be addressed, as well as a lively discussion of archived speeches will take place.
Laughlin revealed plot information of this film on his website in 2009. Several scenes from the film were included in the video.
Frank, Chris, and Teresa Laughlin co-founded Billy Jack Rights, LLC, which holds the rights to all of Tom Laughlin's films, as well as the Billy Jack series.