Previously on Once Upon a Time, we looked at the European adventures of one of Hollywood’s biggest and most enduring stars, Rock Hudson. This time we’ll meet an actor on the opposite end of the spectrum. Perhaps even more strikingly handsome than ol’ Rock is today’s subject, Tony King.

Who? Glad you asked. Tony King was born in Canton, Ohio in 1947. His brother was Charles King who played football – defensive back – for Purdue. Charlie was chosen by the Buffalo Bills Number 64 in the eighth Red Shirt Round of the 1965 American Football League draft. Brother Tony was taken in Round Three of the Red Shirt draft by the Buffalo Bills out of the University of Findlay (Ohio). Tony played defensive end for the Bills alongside his brother during the 1967 AFL season. It was not a good year for the Bills who the previous year had been one win away from the Super Bowl. In ’67, the Bills could manage only a 4-10 record finishing 4th in the East. More importantly, this 1967 season marked the first time that African-American brothers had played for the same team at the same time in pro football history. Tony would last only that one year.

He hit New York at the dawn of the Seventies and went into modeling before landing small film roles in some significant pictures. Tony’s first two films? Only Shaft and The Godfather; as a stable hand who works for Jack Woltz, Tony is the only African-American in Coppola’s gangster epic. Later he was seen in The King of Marvin Gardens with Nicholson and Hell Up in Harlem with Fred Williamson. He then had a larger role in the substantial Report to the Commissioner (1975) before re-teaming with the Hammer – Williamson, another ex-football player – in Bucktown, the movie in which I first noticed Tony. Then in 1976, Tony appeared in Sparkle, a dramatization of the story of the Supremes that has since gained a cult following. Then, Tony came to the attention of a notable Italian director – and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.

Antonio Margheriti (1930-2002) was an Italian filmmaker born in Rome. His work encompasses basically all of the significant genres of Italian film; sword and sandal, giallo, EuroSpy, spaghetti western and action films of many stripes. Margheriti was noted for working fast and for his ability to make entertaining films on low budgets. Employing many pseudonyms, Antonio made movies with an array of stars including Claude Rains, Tab Hunter, Barbara Steele, Anthony Eisley in 1966’s Lightning Bolt (aka Operazione Goldman) and Yul Brynner in his final film, Death Rage (1976). Margheriti later made films that cashed in on Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Deer Hunter and his last two films were Indio (1989) and its sequel. These two “starred” Anthony Quinn’s kid, Francesco and Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Quinn bailed on the sequel and Hagler was left to carry the load and be the “star” of the movie. Antonio Margheriti’s filmography is loaded with outrageous and bombastic films and his CV is one of the most stunning of its kind. The director also received the Tarantino Stamp. In QT’s Inglorious Basterds, Eli Roth’s character adopts the alias “Antonio Margheriti” when posing as an Italian film director. Additionally, in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it is said that one of the films Rick Dalton makes abroad, Operazione Dyn-o-mite, is directed by Margheriti.

Antonio directed the film we are looking at today. Kiwi and Nicholson lookalike David Warbeck (Duck, You Sucker) stars in The Last Hunter, aka L’ultimo cacciatore as Capt. Morris who drops into the jungles of Saigon with a mission to carry out. He meets with a band of soldiers including Sgt. George Washington (King) who takes the captain to his commanding officer. Morris is given a small unit to accompany him on his trek and also of the party is photo journalist Jane Foster played by Tisa Farrow, sister of Mia, who sadly died in January of 2024. Capt. Morris meets with many horrors in the field and loses much of his team as he penetrates deep into the jungle to silence a Hanoi Hannah-type radio voice.

We are exploring a new sub genre today on Once Upon a Time – it’s our first look at a “macaroni combat” film. Euro War or Spaghetti Combat films are just what you would think by the name – war films made in Italy and other European countries. You’ve heard of spaghetti westerns? Well…macaroni combat. These films really gained traction in the 1970s and by the Eighties, they were mostly copies of Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter. The Last Hunter steals from both – it was filmed in the exact locations in the Philippines as was the Coppola film and – stay with me – The Deer Hunter was released in Italy as “Il Cacciatore” and so, to capitalize, Margheriti’s film was christened similarly, some posters even bearing the title “Cacciatore 2“, if you can believe it.

The Last Hunter is not a bad film. It borrows more from Apocalypse Now in that Capt. Morris is on a one-man mission that he keeps secret. He is given a band of soldiers to help him and he burrows ever deeper into the jungle until he is taken prisoner and dropped into a cage in the water where he is harassed by rats – much like a scene in The Deer Hunter. The body count is off the chain and, while it took me awhile to warm to the film, the final acts are handled well with a bit of a surprise when Morris runs into the “Hanoi Hannah”. The ending is bold but Margheriti said at the time that his film was bereft of messages and sought only to entertain.

This episode of Once Upon a Time was pretty hard work and actually cost me money. I viewed three Tony King films, assuming each would be the one featured. The first was another Margheriti film with John Saxon called Cannibal Apocalypse. But not only was it terrible but Tony was under-utilized. Next was Raiders of Atlantis, a film directed by Italian Ruggero Deodato – a man with an amazing story that should be told. This film, though not great either, would have suited mostly because I was worried that I would have no way of viewing proper, complete versions of Tony’s other two European films, The Last Hunter and Tiger Joe. Then in the middle of writing this article, I visited my son in the Yonge & Eglinton area of Toronto where we visited a BMV book store. There on the shelves in the “Rare & Out-of-Print” section? The Last Hunter on DVD so I gambled and bought it – even though it was twenty bones. See what I do for you people?

Tony was not prolific on television but his one job is notable. He was a regular cast member during the one season of Bronk, a show created by Carroll O’Connor and starring Jack Palance. King played Sgt. John Webber on this show that aired during the 1975-76 season and one that featured early work from the likes of Richard Donner and Michael Mann.

Tony King’s final films include big budget releases Sharky’s Machine (1981) and The Toy (1982) and smaller films like Daughters of the Dust from 1991. This independent movie was written, produced and directed by Julie Dash, making it “the first feature film directed by an African-American woman distributed theatrically in the United States”. But for this film, Tony King was not billed by his birth name.

In the 1980s, Tony King converted to Islam and is now known as Malik Farrakhan. Shortly afterward, he became head of security for the group Public Enemy, a position he held for over 20 years. He and his brother also feature in a documentary. The Long Road to the Hall of Fame charts the King brothers’ journey from Alliance, Ohio to the Pro Football Hall of Fame where they are featured in the Remember the AFL exhibit. You can watch this doc – as I did – here.

This installment of Once Upon a Time was not easy but the resuts are satisfying. In our subject, Tony King, we have learned of an intriguing character who is still with us, as of this writing; a pioneering African-American footballer, a model and an actor in but a few movies, info on King and his films is not easy to come by. But added to his film career is his unique journey afterwards. We visited the 1980s and a different type of film this time – stay tuned for more stories from the world of ExPat Cinema here at Vintage Leisure.