The Wily Filipino

Wily.

I figure this is just about the earliest reference I could possibly find, way earlier than either Marlon Brando or Steve Martin -- here's William Stewart, a Republican Senator from Nevada, in a speech in June 1900 attacking the anti-imperialists as the Filipino American War raged on (quoted in Kristin Hoganson's Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars):

We would suggest to the enthusiastic objectors who compare the guerrilla warrior of Luzon to the immortal Washington, that their language would be more accurate if they would compare [General Emilio] Aguinaldo to Tecumseh, Sitting Bull, Old Cochise, or some other celebrated Indian warrior whose exploits in the recent past surpass in gallantry the wily little Filipino.