Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera or "Oscar" DeCorti, the son of two first-generation immigrants from Italy. In 1924 he moved to California, changed his name from "DeCorti" to "Corti" to Cody, and started working as an actor, presenting himself as a Native American. He married an Indian woman, Bertha Parker, and together they adopted two Indian sons, Robert and Arthur. Iron Eyes Cody lived and worked as an Indian for all his adult life; he labored for decades to promote Native American causes, and was honored by Hollywood's Native American community in 1995 as a "non-Native" for his contribution to film.