Kalai Strode

Kalai Strode was born in Hollywood, California in 1946, the first of the "baby boomers" generation. His father, Woody Strode, was playing for the Los Angeles Rams football team with Kenny Washington as the quarterback. His mother, Luukialuana Kealohapauole Kaluhiokalani, was a hula dancer for the Harry Owens band. They lived in a two story house called "Tortilla Flats" with Polynesian entertainers who worked in the movies as actors and extras, or played and danced at the various clubs in Hollywood such as the "Seven Seas." The family moved to a little farm in Montebello, an eastern suburb of Los Angeles, in 1948. His father was then playing for the Calgary Stampeders in Canada and won the Grey Cup that year. They had a chicken and rabbit farm. His father's football injury caused him to leave the game and begin wrestling. In 1950 the family moved to East Los Angeles, before the Long Beach and Pomona freeways were constructed, when it was still a nice Mexican suburb community. Kalai lived there from 1950 to 1972, attending Mariana Elementary School, David Wark Griffith Junior High School, and James A. Garfield High School. Kalai was 11th grade class president, student body vice-president, and student body president at Garfield, graduating in 1965 with a physics major. He attended East Los Angeles College for a semester until he entered UCLA in September 1965. Kalai spent his junior year in Mitaka, Japan at the International Christian University where he studied Japanese and Haiku. He graduated from UCLA in 1969 with a BA in Oriental Languages. Kalai won a grant from the East West Center, University of Hawaii and graduated with a Masters Degree in Asian Studies in 1971. He spent part of 1970 as a guide for the American Pavilion at EXPO 70 in Osaka, Japan and part of 1972 in Kyoto during post-graduate research. He moved to Glendora California in 1972. Kalai decided to take some time off from academia and worked at various jobs until 1976, when he was accepted into the Assistant Directors Training Program and started work on "Roots!" His trainee program ended in 1978, when he became a member of the Directors Guild of America. He has one son, Joshua Strode, who is the third generation to work in the movie industry, playing 18 TLY parts (18 "to look younger"). Kalai completed 170 episodes of "Diagnosis Murder," working with Dick Van Dyke and his son, Barry Van Dyke. He plans to retire from assistant directing in the and move to Hawaii.