Half-Indians are never blonde
not to mention that teenagers never look 40 years old
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MovieChat Forums > Nevada Smith (1966) Discussion > Half-Indians are never blonde
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Aren't Heather Locklear and Jewel Kilcher, part Native American?
"Name's Leonard Washington. Where I'm from? A little town called Nunyagot%@!&business!!"
Do you really think that heather and Jewel are blondes?
shareHalf the actors in Hollywood claim to be part Native American - and it's almost always Cherokee, the cool tribe to claim to be from.
shareYou can be blonde and have native ancestry but Nevada Smith is supposed to be half from his mother's side. If both his parents were half breeds, then he could've been blond. Unless good mother was mixed, I can't see him having blond hair and blue eyes.
Although I encountered a half Filipina with a white American father and supposedly pure Filipino mother, and she had very startling blue eyes and brown hair. Now the mom could've carried the blue eyed genes despite not looking mixed.
According to theory in this case that's genetically impossible, becouse blond genes are recessive and there are no blond genes among Natives. So it would be impossible to be blonde if one of the parents is fully Native American. If both of the parents were already part caucasian then the child could be blonde even if both parents are dark-haired. So yes, you are right that there could be blonde half-native, but in a different way "half" than the hero in this film.
Anyway McQueen as a half-native teenager is ridiculous.
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Not meaning to sound negative, but, please remember: It's Just A Movie!
Regards
Whatever, it's still an interesting thing brought up about the reality of a blond half-Native American. I didn't buy McQueen for a second as one but I also didn't think he was miscast either- he was the best thing about the picture.
shareI agree with you but in that case, it's so unbelievable it actually bothers me, even in a movie.
To enjoy a movie, you need to believe in it at least a little, and here they're showing me someone who's supposed to be a half-Native teenager who looks like a 100% white 40-year-old. It's not a good start.
And in the scene I'm watching now, he meets other white guys who apparently recognise him as a "mixed blood", after mistaking him for an Indian (!) REALLY difficult to believe. I don't think many cow boys who saw a blue-eyed blond would have thought "beware here's an Indian" lol...
I think Max Sand stood out as a mixed blood because he wore Indian moccasins in most of the movie where he wasn't trying to 'pass'. I imagine the movie makers did this to make sense of what you pointed out about an obviously white looking man being immediately recognized as a half breed.
shareYou are forgetting the possibility that (1) the Mother may have been part-white and (2) the Father, part Indian. The Kiowa had been in contact with contact with whites for several generations. Looks tell you little, Plenty of quarter-bloods like like full-bloods.
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they should have darkned his hair, i mean, why not? tanned his skin a bit too. it was kinda funny too that characters, just by looking at him, would know he was a "half breed", when in reality at first glance he is the whitest man on earth.
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this is all true. too old, and not very native looking. BUT, i don't care. i grew up watching this movie and it'll always be one of my favorite westerns. plus, steve mcqueen just about defines the cool. that said, just aobut anything he did is worth seeing.
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Sometimes, nothing is a real cool hand.-Luke,1967.
After seeing him in Flaming Star I think Elvis Presley would've been great as Nevada Smith.
shareNever say never voland. There are mutations that could account for blonde half-natives as well. And then there are the inexplicables. My first daughter was half Oriental and half Dutch. She was born with a full head of jet black hair. By 4 months of age she lost it all and was totally bald. Her next crop of hair grew in as a medium brown colour.
shareBrown isn't recessive though.
shareI'm glad to see I'm not the only person who notices (and is bugged by) genetic discrepancies like that. I myself can never watch "Seventh Heaven" without wondering why the storyline never mentions the fact that Ruthie obviously is adopted. She has brown eyes, while her parents both have blue/green eyes, which are recessive. Anyone knows that neither of her parents could have passed a dominant brown-eyes gene on to her without his/her own eyes appearing brown, since brown is dominant...... ;-)
shareIt does not seem plausible that McQueen is half Indian in the movie like everyone states. McQueen was a great actor but surely did not fit the role of a half breed but not sure who could in that day and age.
A better acting job and makeup was depicted by Paul Newman in Hombre. Although still blue eyed and blond, they used some sort of tanning/reddish makeup which may sound a bit over the top but it seems to have worked in that movie.
You forget- In "Hombre", Paul Newman played a WHITE man who was captured by Apaches as a boy and raised to young manhood as a member of the tribe. Even his character's name, John Russell, was given to him by the man from whom he inherited the boarding house.
shareWell, I beg to differ on this. My son's father was 95% Native American (blue-black hair, dark complection, brown eyes, classic Native American facial features); my son was born with light brown hair that turned blonde when he was one year old, and striking aquamarine blue eyes; he stayed blond until he was in high school. Now, at 32, he has medium brown hair. The only trace of caucasian blood on his father's side was a great-great grandfather, and he was only 1/2 white. Genetics can be unpredictable at times! BTW, I love this movie!
shareYou're right. Although it is very unlikely it is possible that recessive genes can become dominant and skip a generation or more. I don't know if you've all learned about Darwin in school two and the various examples which can possible happen if you e.g. cross flowers of different colours. The same principle basically applies to people.
One quite famous example of how the child of a dark and a pale person can turn out pale, is Boris Becker's daughter from his quickie with (I believe half-)black, dark-haired, dark-brown-eyed Angela Ermakowa, who is like her father very pale, green-eyed and ginger.
Look at Steve's own children. His daughter Terry was blond hair like him and Chad is dark hair like his mom.
shareBreathtaking information!
Perhaps the OP just wants to reach out for some sense of community.
I know we're several generations away from when this movie is set. BUT. My entire family on my mom's side is Cherokee, And all of us (except a couple of my uncle's) are Blonde. And my Great Grandma was Full Blooded !! As a very young boy (boy) I remember her sitting on the floor/ground almost every time she sat down. Of course almost all of us turned Dark Brown as we grew older. But we All were Blonde until our 30's. And I've met several others from different tribes that were also Blonde. Even back in the 1800's, Blonde Cherokee's were common, According to my Grandma. Hope this helps a little. Thx.
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