Second-generation actor, personal trailer speaks at weekly Composers Breakfast
By Barbara Burke
Special to The Malibu Times
Although his featured speaker needed no introduction to many Malibuites — he’s a product of the town’s schools, ball fields and beaches — Richard Gibbs, founder of the Composers Breakfast that meets weekly at Aviator Nation Dreamland, thoroughly enjoyed introducing Jerry Wolf, a long-time Malibuite who is the child of the renowned Larry Sellers, a Native American actor of the Osage Nation (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman: The Movie,” and “Crazy Horse”), and Malibu’s Susie Duff (“Remington Steele” and “Under the Gaydar”).
On Oct. 9, Indigenous Peoples Day, after spreading sage around the venue. Wolf began his comments with an Osage greeting and greetings in Cherokee as well.
“We defer to ancestral wisdom, so I first smoked out the room with sage as that is good housekeeping in our tradition,” Wolf shared, pausing reflectively. “The world around me is animated and we believe that all things are related.”
His prayer, he explained, constituted “a generational call of sharing and connecting with the ancestors before making his comments.”
Whether the ancient ones are from his mother’s or his dad’s side of the family, “Our relatives are watching us and looking out for us and they receive healing from us,” Wolf said. “You can feel it. We have a door to the other side and we came from an ancient place, yet we all forget, but we are coming back.”
He then sang a traditional Lakota thanksgiving song, commenting, “My Lakota brother shared a great insight with me and said that when one sings, they sing like they’re crying and that does not necessarily denote grieving, rather it can be humble.”
Eliciting appreciative laughs from those assembled, the affable Wolf said, “It’s so joyful to be talking to a bunch of white people on Indigenous People’s Day and not on Columbus Day!”
The Western world is visual, Wolf noted, “However we all expand infinitely in our character which is the timeless essence of who we are.”
Analogizing Wolf stated, “Basically, our connectedness is like Wifi and everything has the powerful ability to connect.”
We all, he opined, “are here to do what we’re supposed to do.”
Unfortunately, he said, “There is a great imbalance which needs to be fixed as our ancestors on the other side, our guardian angels, appreciate being acknowledged.”
It’s easy to connect with them and with all living things, Wolf said: “Do an offering, even if you take a little bit of a meal and set it aside. However you want to pray, ask for good health for all nations.”
His fervent prayer, appreciated and observed by his attentive audience, simply stated, “Thank you for the ancestors and for your sacrifice and we ask for good health and healing. Thank you for the surf and for whatever moves the humans here to be better people.”
His mother, Wolf noted, “Taught me how to develop cultural allies and develop relationships with others who have become important people in my life. For instance, I adopted Nick Brokaw as a brother and he came back to Oklahoma where my father lived with me.” Brokaw directed Wolf in his lead roles in “Four Winds” and “Last Patrol in Okinawa.”
The Malibu Times asked for some background about Sellers, Wolf’s famous father who graced the film and television screens for decades. Before his father died, Wolf was honored to work with him during the filming of “Killers of the Flower Moon.” His father, an Emmy award nominee and a traditional practitioner until he passed away in 2021, taught Wolf about his tribal heritage as well as how to act.
Locally, Wolf was coached in Improvisational comedy by his mother and by the late Teddie Sherman, who also taught him a lot about being on camera. The brawny Wolf is a certified personal trainer who enjoys — and excels — in many sports, from surfing, to rowing, to paintball. He is the proud father of two little girls, with whom he is sharing his Osage and Lakota traditions.
“We all have a lineage and our soul heart is eternal,” Wolf said. “Like my father, I sweat and practice traditional customs.”
Attendee Ronnie “Ray” Padilla, who is Apache on both sides, enjoyed Wolf’s presentation immensely. It’s not long ago, Padilla observed, when such joyous events were not common. “I had to pretend I was Portuguese as a kid.” He said. “We had to change our name to sound Portuguese to get along in society.”
Wolf and others of his generation not only share their lineage and traditional customs, buy they are helping to change the appreciation for the landscape of the numerous cultures that make up the tapestry of Malibu and beyond. Slowly, slowly, more residents are welcoming and are thankful for the traditions of the indigenous Indians everywhere, including the Chumash who first inhabited the lands that later became known as Malibu, as evidenced by the fact that at the Malibu Women’s Longboard Championship, which was held right across from Aviator Nation at First Point Malibu on the day Wolf spoke, Chumash member KC Rodrigues led the opening blessing for the championship.
“It was a sincere and great honor to be physically and emotionally present while Indigenous American Jerry Wolf spoke to our Composers Breakfast,” Composer Phil Giffin said. “If I were limited to only four words to sum up my experience with him, those words would be: empathy, respect, love & gratitude.”