Movie Hall of Fame welcomes eight members

May 10—Wynona Price says she is always proud to be an Okie from Muskogee.

Price was one of the class of 2022 inducted into the Oklahoma Movie Hall of Fame Saturday.

Price, along with Academy Award winner Ben Johnson, Rachel Cannon, the brothers Jesse and Alan Vint, Amzie Strickland, Chris Dawson and Mark Stansberry, were welcomed into the hall in a ceremony at the Roxy Theater.

Price, who attended and graduated from Manual Training High School, got her first professional job in the entertainment industry working for legendary television producer Norman Lear on "All in the Family."

Lear was so impressed with her work ethic that that he passed the word along and Price was on her way to a four-decade career.

"It's great to be home, and this is home for me," Price told the audience. "I moved to Los Angeles and wanted to be a model, and I would always tell people I was from Oklahoma. One day one of the models pulled me aside and said, 'Why do you always say your from Oklahoma? Why don't you say you're from New York?' And I was offended, why would I deny my roots that I'm so proud of?"

She also told a story of happenstance when she met other Muskogee natives.

"We were in New York, and Lena Horne was performing and we were invited back stage," she said. "In her dressing room was Linda Twine, Lena's musical director, and Shirley Snead, her road manager, and all three of us were from Muskogee."

Jesse Vint, who was born in Tulsa, got his breakout role in the 1974 classic "Macon County Line," starring Max Baer Jr., who played Jethro Bodine in the 1960s television show "The Beverly Hillbillies." The movie is about two brothers doing some joy riding before joining the Army.

Vint also accepted for his late brother Alan, who appeared as Jesse's brother in "Macon County Line," and recalled his audition for attending the famous Actors Studio at Pace University.

"When I first got to L.A. I had to audition for the Actors Studio, and I didn't know anybody or have a phone number, so I asked Alan, 'would you be my audition partner,'" he said. "He said he didn't know anything about acting and I told him it didn't matter, they would be looking at me. So they called me and told me I passed and they also said, 'That guy Alan, he passed too.'"

Johnson, who died in 1996, was born in Foraker and began his career under legendary director John Ford in the movie "The Outlaw." He went on to appear in 90 motion pictures and 74 television appearances.

His haunting portrayal of a former cowboy theater owner in "The Last Picture Show" earned him the 1971 Academy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. He is buried in Pawhuska, site of the Ben Johnson Cowboy Museum.

Strickland was born in Oklahoma City and died in Spokane, Washington, in 2006. She attended the University of Oklahoma with her interest in stage and theater and made over 650 television appearances and more than two dozen movie parts

Stansberry, born in Elk City, made his money in Oklahoma's oil and gas industry before teaming up with Academy Award winning producer Gray Fredrickson to form Gray-Mark Productions, an Oklahoma-based motion picture production company.

Cannon was born in Tulsa, graduated from Yukon High School and studied film and television at the University of Oklahoma. Her biggest roles were in Two and a Half Men, Mad Men and Fresh Off the Boat.

An avid yoga practitioner, Cannon joined Prairie Surf Media in Oklahoma City as the chief executive officer.

Dawson is a freelance visual effects artist who was born in California but spent his summers with his paternal grandmother in Muskogee.

He began his career in 1984 and has worked 122 major motion pictures. Some of his biggest projects include "The Fugitive," "Apollo 13," "Titanic," "Wonder Woman," and "Jungle Cruise."