{"id":225,"date":"2008-06-27T13:51:08","date_gmt":"2008-06-27T13:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattblake.wordpress.com\/?p=229"},"modified":"2010-03-30T13:13:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T13:13:24","slug":"wilbert-bradley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/performers-directors\/black-actors-in-italy\/wilbert-bradley\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilbert Bradley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/wilbert_bradley2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/europeanfilmreview.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/mimbo2.2\/images\/wilbert_bradley21.jpg\" onclick=\"javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http:\/\/europeanfilmreview.co.uk']);\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-241\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right;margin:5px;padding:1px\" title=\"wilbert_bradley21\" src=\"http:\/\/europeanfilmreview.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/themes\/mimbo2.2\/images\/wilbert_bradley21.jpg\" alt=\"Wilbert Bradley\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>Wilbert Bradley was another Minnesotan who ended up working in the Italian film industry, much like Harold Bradley (the two of them <em>aren&#8217;t<\/em> related). Bradley, however, was a dancer, a graduate of the Katherine Dunham school (like Archie Savage), who started off in Rome doing popular dance routines in Roman nightclubs &#8211; some of which featured in Mondos &#8211; before drifting into film, first as a choreographer, and then as an actor. He worked regularly with Umberto Lenzi, who also gave him possibly his best role, as Sitama, the ambiguous native who helps Richard Harrison&#8217;s English thief in Umberto Lenzi&#8217;s hugely entertaining <strong>La Montagna di luce<\/strong>, a kind of precursor to <strong>Raiders of the Lost Ark. <\/strong>He appeared in a handful of spy films (generally as a rather louche henchman) and peplums, before heading back to the states, presumably at some point in the seventies.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also a Wilbert Bradley credited with a number of roles in the US during the 80s; the IMDB has them down as being the same, and that could well be the case&#8230; especially as this Wilbert Bradley also worked as a choreographer (on <strong>Ferris Bueller&#8217;s Day Off<\/strong>!).<\/p>\n<p>Wilbert Bradley died in 1992.  According to a notice in the Chicago tribune of March 12th 1963:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A memorial celebration of life for Wilbert Bradley, 66, a former dancer with the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. tomorrow at Hyde Park Union Church, 5600 S. Woodlawn.<\/p>\n<p>A Hyde Park resident, he died Dec. 18 at Michael Reese Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his work as a dancer, Mr. Bradley was a model, choreographer and costume designer.<\/p>\n<p>From 1944 until the company disbanded in 1962, Mr. Bradley was one of its principal dancers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Films<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Gordon, il pirata nero<\/strong> (1961), aka Black Pirate<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trionfo di Maciste<\/strong> (1961) aka Triumph of the Son of Hercules<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sandokan, la tigre di Mompracem<\/strong> (1963) aka Sandokan the Great (as Pataan)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Superseven chiama Cairo<\/strong> (1965) aka Super Seven Calling Cairo<\/li>\n<li><strong>Montagna di luce, La<\/strong> (1965) aka Temple of a Thousand Lights (as Sitama)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Milione di dollari per sette assassini, Un<\/strong> (1966) aka Last Man to Kill (as Doney)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tecnica di una spia<\/strong> (1966) aka Target Goldseven (as Steiner)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Morte viene dal pianeta Aytin, La<\/strong> (1967) aka The Snow Devils (as Sharu)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Samoa, regina della giungla<\/strong> (1968 ) aka Samoa, Queen of the Jungle (as The guide)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dummy <\/strong>(1979) (as Bartender)<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Big Score<\/strong> (1983) (as Old Man #1)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Teachers <\/strong>(1984) (as Guard)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Windy City<\/strong> (1984) (as Joe the Janitor)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Code of Silence<\/strong> (1985) (as Spider)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Big Shots <\/strong>(1987) (as Social Service Man)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As choreographer<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nefertiti, regina del Nilo<\/strong> (1961) aka Queen of the Nile<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan<\/strong> (1961) aka Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World<\/li>\n<li><strong>Due samurai per cento geishe<\/strong> (1962)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ercole sfida Sansone<\/strong> (1963) aka Hercules, Samson &amp; Ulysses<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As assistant choreographer<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Ferris Bueller&#8217;s Day Off<\/strong> (1986)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As himself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tropico di notte<\/strong> (1961)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sexy al neon<\/strong> (1962)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wilbert Bradley was another Minnesotan who ended up working in the Italian film industry, much like Harold Bradley (the two of them aren&#8217;t related).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[733,10],"tags":[241],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}