Anthony earl Numkena
The first Native American child actor who had a leading role in a major motion picture.
Quick Details
Anthony was not the first Native American child actor, but he was the first to land a major role in a major motion picture. The movie was Pony Soldier featuring Tyrone Power filmed in Sedona, Arizona. Anthony played “Duncan ‘Comes Running’ McDonald”.
Regarding the conflation between Anthony Earl Numkena and Earl Holliman, both actors are not the same person. However, they did appear in the 1953 20th Century Fox production Destination Gobi.
The nickname “Keena” used in the 1955-1956 television series Brave Eagle was derived from the surname Numkena. The name Keena was the idea of Michael North, the executive producer of the Brave Eagle television series produced by Roy Rogers’ Frontier Productions.
Ethnicity: Hopi and Karuk tribes.
His siblings, including his brother Ronald, also worked in movies.
Biography
Origins
Anthony Earl Numkena is the first son of Anthony and Margaret Rae Numkena born on August 20, 1942, in Culver City Rural, California. His father was a Hopi from Moenkopi, Arizona and his mother was a Karuk from Fort Jones, California. He is the first of five siblings.
How It Started
In 1949, The Numkena family living in Redondo Beach answered a posting at the American Indian Center in Los Angeles, California. Tim McCoy from the Tim McCoy Show on KTLA was looking for American Indians to appear on his weekly television show. Many American Indians answered the posting as well.
Both Anthony and Ronald landed roles in the Tim McCoy Show. Since the brothers were children, the parents had to acquire work permits for their children from the City of Los Angeles. Ronald played a significant role as “Little Sitting Bull”. Anthony played a small role in the background.
At the time, movie studios used work permits to find American Indian extras. It was through the permits that movie studios contacted the Numkena family. Twentieth Century Fox was the first to call the Numkena family looking for extras. Twentieth Century Fox became the first movie studio that Anthony worked at as an extra.
Anthony and Ronald worked sometimes together and sometimes separately for various movie studios. Anthony worked as an extra for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia and RKO.
At the age of 9, the Numkena family got a call from 20th Century Fox. It asked for the brothers to attend an audition. It is believed that about 400 child actors showed up at the audition. The group of actors was whittled down to four including Anthony and Ronald. All four went on to a screen test. And Anthony landed the role “Duncan ‘Comes Running’ McDonald” in the movie Pony Soldier.
Life as an Actor
After Pony Soldier, he never had another audition or screen test. Anthony transitioned from being an extra to an actor. He worked at movie studios including Paramount, Warner Brothers, RKO, Disney, and 20th Century Fox. He also appeared on television. He acted in all 26 episodes of the television series Brave Eagle.
He worked in the motion picture/television industry for approximately six years. He worked in eight motion pictures and approximately 30 television productions as an actor and about five times as an extra.
In addition to playing American Indian roles, he portrayed a Mongolian, a Mexican, an Eskimo, and a Burmese.
Anthony never did know how to sing and yet he ‘sang’ in the 1955 Warner Brothers movie Strange Lady in Town. To “sing” he had a half-day one-on-one session with Dimitri Tiomkin.
He attended public school in Redondo Beach when not working. When working he had to have schooling by a teacher assigned to the work site by the city of Los Angeles. The teacher was also responsible for the pupils’ welfare with regard to child labor law. All child actors had to have at least four hours of school every school day. The entire workday including school could not exceed eight hours. Work was not permitted on weekends.
Like many child actors physically maturing to adulthood, Anthony’s agent eventually was unable to find roles for him. At the age of 15, his last acting role was in an episode of Wagon Train – A Man Called Horse.
Conflation with Earl Holliman
If you do a search of ‘Earl Holliman’ and ‘Anthony Earl Numkena’, you’ll find some web sites saying that both names refer to the same person, Earl Holliman.
To set the record straight, Anthony Earl Numkena and Earl Holliman are not the same person. They are not related. They are not the same age. However, both did work in the 1953 20th Century Fox production Destination Gobi.
It is believed that a book published around the 1980’s listed both names as the same person.
Appearances
On occasion, he is invited to make appearances.
- Gathering of Guns 3
- Sedona Film Festival 2022 (Re: Pony Soldier) – See KudosAZ.com