The Father Whose Life Story Inspired the Son Who Wrote “Braveheart”

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Speaker 1: This is Lee Habeeb and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American People. Randall Wallace is the writer director of films such as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Heaven Is for Real, and a family favorite, Secretariat. Movies rooted encourage, sacrifice, and faith. These traits which embodied Randall’s heart, were exemplified throughout his life. Here’s Randall to tell the story of his father.00:00:39
Speaker 2: My father was the greatest man I ever knew, and he had a remarkable childhood. His father died of typhoid fever eight months before my father was born. So I suspect my grandmother didn’t know she was pregnant when she became a widow. But my father was not without a father figure. His mother had a lot of sorrow and brokenness in her life. She started a one room schoolhouse in Lizard Lick, Tennessee. That’s where they were from. So I love to share. The men in my father’s family are Alton Elton, Dalton, Lyman Gleam and Herman Thurman and Clyde Thurman’s my father and his grandpa. The father of all those guys was Jake Rhodes and my father told me that once his grandfather leaned down to him face to face and said, I want you to understand something, Thurman. I’m not a wealthy man, but you can walk into town and buy anything there by telling him you’re my grandson, because they know I’ll keep my word. And those stories were just profound for me. My father had no help with his mother really had her hands full when he was in school, and of course they had corporal punishment in Lizard Lick, Tennessee and the depression, and when my grandmother was going to discipline a student, meaning spank, she would spank my father first so no one could say that she was playing favorites. So he got spanked most every day he was in school. He was incredibly charismatic, and all of his relatives said he always had this glow and he could sell anything. He went to work full time when he was fourteen, and the fascinating thing about that he sold candy through all of my life. What really amazed me about my dad is you hear the stories of the traveling salesman, and you have the CONTs of manipulating people to sell them things. My father loved people, and when he met anyone. He always found something about them that he found delightful. He knew the name of the guy that swept the floor in the warehouse, as well as the name of the president of the company. He didn’t really want me to be a writer. He knew that I loved doing it, but he felt that if you work hard at being a lawyer or a doctor or certain professions, then you will find some success. But he thought it was too much of a crapshoot to be in a profession in which you might you might be gifted, you might work really hard, but you couldn’t guarantee that you’d have a career. He had a long talk with me, advising me to man up and become real. He had always wanted me to go to law school. I realized, well, I can’t borrow money from him, but I don’t know how to stop, and I’ve got to keep going. And about that time, I wrote Braveheart, and there was nobody more proud of me than my dad. I was directing We were Soldiers, and it was the first film that I was shooting on a studio lot, and I thought that would be a great experience for my dad. So I invited him out for the last three days of filming, and he came. It was the happiest and most care free time of his life. He went around the set, spoke with everybody, and then he went back home and he had a heart attack, and the doctors called, wanting permission from my sister and me to turn off the machines that were keeping him alive. As hard as that call was, our father had made that decision easier because he had always said, don’t ever keep me alive by artificial means. We made the call to turn off the machines, and I drove right to the airport and got on the plane. Flew all night long, and then I was flying from Atlanta to Lynchburg when the pilot came on and announced that all air traffic in the country had been ordered to land immediately. It was nine to eleven, and I ran right to the car rental counter, got a car, and I was on the road when he died, so I didn’t make it to his bedside. We had his funeral and I got back to work as exactly as he would want me to. And that first day back, we were doing post production background voices, so we had the Vietnamese guys there doing enemy calls and radio transmissions things like that, And on a break, one of the Vietnamese guys, who played an enemy soldier, came up and said, mister Randall, I’m so sorry about your father. And I said thanks, let’s get back to work because I didn’t want to get emotional. I was trying not to be raw. He said, I really am so sorry, and I said thanks, let’s get back to work, and he said, no, please listen to me. I stopped and said what and he said, last day on the set, I met your father and your father said to me, where’s your father? And I said, my father died in Vietnam and your father said to me, then I’ll be your father. The fact that that was this fatherless boy who grew up to be a man who would say that in absolute sincerity to a total stranger, reminded me that my father would always be with me, and I am certain I’m going to meet him in heaven.

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Speaker 1: And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Randall Wallace, who, by the way, has a terrific and inspiring one man’s show called the braveheart of Creativity. You can go to Wallace Entertainment dot com to learn more the story of Randall Wallace’s father, the story of so many good fathers across this great country doing the most heroic work there is raising kids. Here on our American Stories pleahabid fars we approach our nation’s two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. I’d like to remind you that all the history stories you hear on this show are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn’t just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale dot du to find out about their terrific free online courses. Their series on Communism is one of the finest I’ve ever seen. Again, go to Hillsdale dot edu and sign up for their free and terrific online courses.