Chief Tahachee (born Jeff Davis "Tahchee" Cypert, March 4, 1904 – June 9, 1978) was a writer, a stage actor, a film

extra Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...

, and a

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

performer. He claimed to be a descendant of the Old Settler

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

s. Chief Tahachee wrote four books: ''Poems of Dreams'' (1942), ''Drifting Sands'' (1950), ''An American Indian Climb Toward Truth & Wisdom'' (1955), and ''The Rough and Rowdy Ways of an American Indian Cowboy'' (1957). ''Poems of Dreams'' was his most popular and he renewed the copyright on it October 1972. Chief Tahachee was an actor, stuntman and film extra in many Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1960s, including

westerns The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated wit ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

, and historical sagas. His first film appearance was in a

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

, ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is an 1826 historical romance novel by James Fenimore Cooper. It is the second book of the '' Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder'', ...

'', in 1920 at the age of 16. Tahachee was married to poet and Hollywood film extra Dorothy Lear Evelyn Teters Cypert "Nawana" Yarbrough, who also went by "Princess Neowana." After their divorce married six more times, he fathered ten children. He died June 9, 1978, in

San Gabriel, California San Gabriel (Spanish language, Spanish for "Gabriel, St. Gabriel") is a city located in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 39,568. San Gabriel was founded ...

of a heart attack.Chief Tahachee News, Chief Tahachee Videos, and Chief Tahachee Photos
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References

External links

* American writers 1904 births 1978 deaths People from Crittenden County, Arkansas Male actors from Arkansas American vaudeville performers American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American singers {{US-film-actor-1900s-stub