![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2013\/z121513rip_tomlaughlin.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Tom Laughlin’s family<\/strong> announced via his website that Mr. Laughlin<\/strong> passed away on Thursday. \u00a0Mr. Laughlin<\/strong> was 82. \u00a0Tom Laughlin<\/strong> was a writer, director, producer<\/strong> and actor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Best known for his role as Billy Jack<\/strong>, Laughlin<\/strong> played the character in four films. \u00a0Billy Jack<\/strong> was a half-white\/half native American, former Green Beret solider looking for a peaceful way through life who more often than not found himself in violent situations not of his making.<\/p>\n Although Tom Laughlin<\/strong> has over 35 acting credits it was Billy Jack<\/strong> that made him an international superstar.<\/p>\n Laughin<\/strong> first played the role in the 1967<\/strong> film The Born Losers<\/strong><\/em>. \u00a0Billy Jack<\/strong> found himself the only person willing to make a stand against a violent motorcycle gang.<\/p>\n In 1971,<\/strong> Laughlin<\/strong> returned as Billy Jack<\/strong> in the film of the same name. \u00a0This time out Billy Jack<\/strong> finds himself going against corrupt city officials, including cops as he tries to find justice for a rape victim and protect the students of the Freedom School.<\/p>\n The Trial of Billy Jack<\/strong> <\/em>was released in 1974<\/strong>. \u00a0After his release from prison Billy Jack<\/strong> returns to the Freedom School only to find things are worse than ever. \u00a0Corrupt cops and politicians decide to put a permanent end to Billy Jack<\/strong> and the school.<\/p>\n In 1977,<\/strong> Billy Jack Goes to Washington<\/strong><\/em> received a couple of showings but was never given a widescreen release.<\/p>\n After the Billy Jack<\/strong><\/em> series Tom Laughlin<\/strong> starred in The Master Gunfighter<\/strong> <\/em>and played a few small roles, but he never found another character that resonated with the viewing public like Billy Jack<\/strong>.<\/p>\n How could he? \u00a0Billy Jack<\/strong>\u00a0had become an American icon<\/strong> and Tom Laughlin<\/strong> was Billy Jack<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Tom Laughlin<\/strong>\u00a0is survived by his wife of 60 years, Delores<\/strong> [who co-starred in the Billy Jack<\/strong><\/em> films], his three children, and his five grandchildren. His family has asked that in lieu of flowers or gifts, please make donations to:\u00a0Friends of Pine Ridge<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in Tom’s honor<\/strong>\u00a0or the\u00a0Alzheimer’s Foundation\u00a0in honor of\u00a0 Delores Laughlin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Our thoughts and prayers go out to Tom Laughlin’s family, friends<\/strong> and fans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom Laughlin’s family announced via his website that Mr. Laughlin passed away on Thursday. \u00a0Mr. Laughlin was 82. \u00a0Tom Laughlin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-rip"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9306"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26694,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9306\/revisions\/26694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}