Sonny Landham

Infobox actor
name = Sonny Landham


caption =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1941|2|11|mf=y
location = Canton, Georgia

William M. "Sonny" Landham (born February 11, 1941) is an American movie actor and political candidate.

Biography

Acting career

At the beginning of his acting career, Landham was an actor in pornographic films. [cite news|title = Ex-Porn Star Enters Kentucky Governor's Race|publisher=WKMB / local6.com|date=July 3, 2002|url=http://www.local6.com/sh/news/stories/nat-news-154337220020703-140718.html|accessdate=2008-02-01] [cite news|title=Porn on candidate's resume|last=Crowley|first=Patrick|publisher=The Cincinnati Enquirer|date=June 30, 2002|accessdate=2008-02-01|url=http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2002/06/30/loc_crowley_porn_on.html] [http://www.iafd.com/person.rme/perfid=SonnyLandham/gender=m/Sonny-Landham.htm] He then became a mainstream movie actor, and appeared in a number of popular Hollywood films, including "Southern Comfort", "Predator", "48 Hours", "Action Jackson", and "The Warriors".

Personal and political life

Landham was born in Canton, Georgia. He is a descendant of the Cherokee and Seminole nations.

Landham suffered a number of legal setbacks after his acting career ended. He was involved in a protracted and bitter child custody dispute with his ex-wife, and was convicted in 1998 of three counts of making threatening telephone calls to her. After 31 months in federal prison, Landham's conviction was overturned on appeal. He later sued the federal government alleging false imprisonment. Landham also pursued an unsuccessful lawsuit against toymaker Galoob for royalties on the "Predator" related action figure that depicted his character.

In 2003, Landham ran in the Republican Party primary election for the post of Governor of Kentucky, hoping to repeat the success of his "Predator" castmates Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He based his candidacy on opposition to an amendment which endorsed the Kentucky Family Court, saying his bad experiences at the hands of the family court had convinced him that it was run for the benefit of lawyers rather than families or children. He was unsuccessful in gaining the party's nomination. He ran briefly as an independent candidate, but withdrew on June 18 and endorsed the Republican slate.

In January 2004, Landham announced his candidacy for the 27th State Senate District of Kentucky.

In the Spring of 2006, Landham also accepted a bid as an honorary member of Alpha Sigma Phi, Beta Chi Chapter at American University.

On September 19 2006, Landham was injured in a four-car accident in Ashland, Kentucky. [ [http://www.dailyindependent.com/local/local_story_261215113.html Daily Independent (Ashland, KY) - Actor injured in 4-car chain-reaction wreck ] ]

On June 25, 2008, Landham announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Mitch McConnell on the Libertarian line. [ [http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/25/actor.senate.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview CNN.com - Tough-guy actor eyes Senate seat] ]

On July 25th, 2008, Sonny Landham called for genocide against Arabs and referred to them as "ragheads". Following his statements, the Libertarian Party of Kentucky is considering preventing his name from appearing on the ballot. His comments were made on the Weekly Filibuster, a political radio show. [ [http://www.weeklyfilibuster.com - The Weekly Filibuster] ] Three days later, on July 28, the Kentucky Libertarians voted unanimously to withdraw Landham's nomination, citing his comments were not in keeping with the party's platform and values. [ [http://www.wtvq.com/news/1-latest/1025-libertarians-dump-landham-as-candidate.html - WTVQ Action News 36, Lexington, KT] ]

Filmography

Television

References

External links

* [http://www.sonnylandham.com Sonny Landham's website]
* [http://sonny2008.com/ Sonny Landham for U.S. Senate website]
*imdb name|id=0484739|name=Sonny Landham
* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=6th/01a0175p.html The US court of appeal's finding overturning Landham's convictions]
* [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=6th&navby=case&no=00a0328p Landham's lawsuit against Galoob]
* [http://www.betachi.org Alpha Sigma Phi, Beta Chi Chapter]
* [http://www.roughjustice.blogspot.com/The%20Big%20Indian%20from%20the%20East%20Bay%20--%20A%20tribute%20to%20Billy%20Bear.htm Tribute page]
*cite news|url=http://www.kypost.com/2002/aug/10/kinney081002.html|title=Fancy Farm picnic leftovers still pretty juicy|author=Courtney Kinney|first=Courtney|last=Kinney|work=The Kentucky Post|publisher=E. W. Scripps Company|date=2002-08-10|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070531075343/http://www.kypost.com/2002/aug/10/kinney081002.html|archivedate=2007-05-31