Over his 50 year career, Wayne would work with leading stuntmen like Montie Montana, Dean Smith, and Chuck Robertson. The latter, a 6'4” cowboy nicknamed “Bad Chuck” by director John Ford, was Wayne's stunt double for 30 years, starting with 1949's The Fighting Kentuckian.
Morgan doubled Wayne, and Wilson doubled McLaglen as they crashed through the front door of an Irish pub. By 1953, Wilson would double Wayne, Ward Bond, and Leo Gordon in the 3-D Western Hondo, produced by Wayne's Batjac Productions, and directed by John Farrow, with Lyons as stunt coordinator.
Starting out as a rodeo cowboy and then becoming a stuntman in silent westerns, Yakima Canutt later doubled for such stars as Clark Gable and John Wayne, among others, in such dangerous activities as jumping off the top of a cliff on horseback, leaping from a stagecoach onto its runaway team, being "shot" off a horse ...
Wayne had one stuntman that he valued working with above all the rest – Chuck Roberson. He went from working as a police officer to serving in World War II to stuntwork.
The Quiet Man star John Wayne was known to do some of his own stuntwork over the course of his filmography. However, he allowed a stuntman to take over for some of the more physically intense sequences that would potentially leave the film without a star if things took a turn for the worse.
The Big Trail led to more roles for Wayne in a series of films, many of them B-movies, including Riders of Destiny in 1933, when he became an early singing cowboy. After being mentored by stuntmen and taught how to ride a horse, he did most of his own stunts.
None of John Wayne's show-business friendships were as enduring, or as entertaining, as the kinship he forged with two men he met around the same time—character actor Ward Bond and director John Ford.
True love: Maureen O'Hara met Wayne at the home of director John Ford in 1941. He was her favorite co-star--both on screen and off. Maureen would be one of the last to see him before he died in 1979 when his years of smoking four and five packs of cigarettes a day finally caught up with him.
Who was JOHN WAYNE'S lifelong BUDDY AND BEST MAN, Ward Bond? A look into the great character actor and best friend of JOHN WAYNE, WARD BOND. How the friendship they shared was on a special level!
A rodeo champion from Palouse, WA, became a Hollywood stuntman just as "action Westerns" took off at the box office. Yakima Canutt could leapfrog onto a horse, fall off it, stage a wagon wreck or a fight, and usually as the double for a star. John Wayne studied Canutt, and modeled his famous walk and talk after him.
Clint Eastwood's long-time stunt double has died aged 92. Buddy Van Horn first worked as the 91-year-old actor's stunt double on 1968 movie 'Coogan's Bluff', and he did the same for movies 'Dirty Harry', 'High Plains Drifter', and 1971's 'The Beguiled'.
Clint Eastwood has demonstrated a surprising amount of dedication to his roles, often risking his safety by performing his own stunts. Even at the age of 91, Eastwood showcased his physical capabilities and continued to do his own stunts in the film "Cry Macho".
John Wayne found Katharine Hepburn to be very feminine and called her “a man's woman”. They had a special on screen chemistry that was apparent to everyone. He called her Sister.
Though they are likely the two biggest names in the Western genre, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood didn't get along which killed any hopes of them starring together on the big screen.
Caan declared: “He knew what he was doing, he was having a good time at my expense!” From then on they became good pals who would go out of their way to try and screw each other's scenes up. The Mississippi actor remembered putting off Wayne by mouthing “You snake!” at Duke, which made him laugh.
Hollywood's greatest Western stuntman was a rodeo champion from Washington state. Yakima Canutt was born and raised in the Palouse region of Eastern Washington.
Did John Wayne really jump the fence in True Grit?
GRIT, with the legendary John Wayne performing his. own stunt, jumping his horse over that “four-rail. fence,” is unforgettable, and a fitting way to tip one's. hat in respect to the sun setting on an era.
One of the little-known nuggets of John Wayne's life is that in addition to the wide range of films he made as one of Hollywood's biggest and most bankable stars, he lived a life on the range, as well, as the proprietor of 26 Bar Ranch.
