AboutMel Priddle Expertise Movies have always been my great love and John Wayne films in particular gave me more pleasure than most. I have studied his body of work for years and would be more than happy to answer any questions relating anything he appeared in, directed or produced.
Expert: Mel Priddle Date: 1/3/2008 Subject: Stunt men
Question I have the collection of John Wayne movie done in the 30's. There are some amazing things, like jumping on run away stages from off his horse and many others. Did he actual do all his stunts. There is one scene when he was chasing a wagon and jumped from his horse and miss the wagon. He catches his horse and jumps back on it and runs up to the wagon again and jumps on...the tumble looked pretty hurtful, but he did it...is it him???
Answer Hello Candy,
John Wayne did do some of his own stunt work, but the most hazardous stunts were usually performed by Yakima Canutt, one of the most famous of all the stuntmen.
Born in Colfax, Washington in 1895, he was a ranch hand from boyhood and worked in rodeos and Wild West shows that toured the country. He became World All-Round Rodeo Champion in 1917, and again in 1919, 1920 and 1923. Soon after, in his early 20's, Hollywood called upon him to fill in for the many handsome male cowboy stars, who with the increasing popularity of the Western movie, needed somebody to perform the dangerous stunts that their films called for, and he quickly became known as Hollywood's premier stuntman during the 1930s.
He and good friend John Wayne created a new technique for filming screen fights more believably, and Canutt created or refined most of the stunt techniques used in westerns and action films for years to come. He was the first to do the "horse transfer" stunt, transferring from a galloping horse to another moving object.
As well as Wayne, Canutt performed stunt double work for Gary Cooper, Gene Autry, Clark Gable, Errol Flynn and a host of 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 at full gallop and other such potentially life-threatening activities. He became expert at staging massive events such as cattle stampedes and covered-wagon races, as well as Cavalry and Indians battles on a grand scale.
Canutt's real name was Enos Edward Canutt, but it was in the small rodeo town of of Yakima, Washington that he'd made his name and that was the name that stayed with him. It was acknowledged by most in the Industry that Canutt performed the most dangerous and the most spectacular stunts ever seen on the screen. He retired from active stunt work in 1943 and became a much sought after Stunt Coordinator and 2nd Unit Director. He created some of the most memorable action sequences in film history, with perhaps the most famous being the spectacular chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959). He was awarded a special Oscar in 1966 for his contributions to film. He died at the age of 91 in 1986.
