Yakima Canutt
actor, assistant_director, stunts
- Birth name:
- Enos Edward Canutt
- Born:
- 1895-11-29, Colfax, Washington, USA
- Died:
- 1986-05-24, North Hollywood, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor, assistant_director, stunts
Biography
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 at full gallop and other such potentially life-threatening activities. He became expert at staging massive events involving livestock, such as cattle stampedes and covered-wagon races, as well as Indians-vs.-cavalry battles on a grand scale. Canutt's most noteworthy achievement as a second-unit director came in his staging and direction of the chariot-race sequence in William Wyler 's Ben-Hur (1959)--which, from initial planning to final execution, took two years.
Filmography
In the vault (19)
