I’m asked a lot why I wasn’t in the ‘Billy Jack’. I have to explain a) I didn’t want to be (at which point people look at me like I’m from Mars), and b) I was in the film (kind of). While I don’t appear in the film in any way that the audience would recognize as me, I do appear frequently as the star and hero, Billy Jack.

The marketing of ‘Billy Jack’ during the re-release in 1973 remains legendary even today. In order to get the theaters to play his two-year-old film, Tom had to rent the theaters, called 4-walling in the industry and he produced …

Tweet Tom Laughlin’s film career took a zig-zag course. He came to Hollywood in 1955 and although struggled at first, gained some footing and began getting regular jobs in TV and in films like ‘Tea and Sympathy’, ‘Lafayette Escadrille’, ‘South Pacific’, and ‘Gidget’ (as Loverboy). Tom studied the craft and made his first film, ‘The…

Tweet Tom Laughlin directing ‘Billy Jack Goes to Washington’ on location at the Howard Lloyd estate in Beverly Hills, CA. Actor Richard Gautier, who played Gov. Hubert Hopper (yes, Hubert Hopper), and Sarah Purcell, who plays Mrs. Hopper, looks on. Tom has ever-present Diet Dr. Pepper in tow (Tom LOVED Diet Dr. Pepper).

Tweet Ever the provocateur, Tom placed ads in the Hollywood trade papers nipping at Warner Brothers (the pair would have a many-decades-long love-hate relationship) and trying to promote Delores Taylor’s (his wife, co-star) performance in ‘Billy Jack’ for Academy consideration. Delores did not receive the hoped-for nomination.