(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above - another day at the office ... Cliff 'Tex' Lyons (left) and Jim Corey (right) take a fall in Buck Jones' OUTLAWED GUNS (1935). (From Old Corral collection) Yakima Canutt takes a tumble on top of a cayuse that is doubling for 'Silver Chief' in THE LONE RANGER (Republic, 1938) serial. (Courtesy of Gene Blottner) Heroine, great rider and stuntwoman Betty Miles makes a jump from the stagecoach in a scene from the Trail Blazers' SONORA STAGECOACH (Monogram, 1944). Below is a blowup of Betty making that jump - and she isn't wearing cowboy boots to do this kind of stunt. (Images courtesy of Jay Wilsey's granddaughter and daughter, Tamera Mankini and Frances Eldene Wolski) Above - hero Buffalo Bill, Jr. (Jay Wilsey) doing his own bulldogging. (Courtesy of Les Adams) Cliff Lyons drives a buckboard over a cliff into the water below in an unidentified movie. (Courtesy of Dixie Carson) Stuntman Fred Carson does a horse fall while doubling for Victor Mature in ESCORT WEST (1959). (Courtesy of Andy Southard) Above - at the third annual Golden Boot Awards program in 1985, Roy Rogers presented a Golden Boot to friend and stuntman Joe Yrigoyen (1910-1996). Yrigoyen began his Hollywood career doing stunts in early 1930s Mascot serials and worked for many years at Republic in westerns starring Roy, Bill Elliott, others. He continued doubling and stunting in TV series such as ZORRO, BONANZA, DAVY CROCKETT, more. And he also did a lot of movie stuntwork in A grade films such as the chariot race in BEN HUR. Joe's brother Bill Yrigoyen was also a great stuntman and did a lot of work at Republic Pictures.

I thought doing 'Trusty Steeds' was a chore, but this section is gonna be much more difficult.  Here, we'll try to chronicle some of the men and women who did all those wonderful stunts and doubling in the ol' B western.

• Before anyone e-mails me asking 'how come so-and-so isn't listed', please be aware that biographical info on most of these gents and ladies is minimal or non-existent ... and photos showing them plying their trade are also difficult to find or just plain unavailable.
  
  
• Also, please don't e-mail me asking something like "who doubled for so-and-so in the film GOWER GULCH GALOOTS" ... cuz I probably can't answer that kind of question.

Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt

Dave Sharpe

Fred Graham

Ted Mapes

Rex Rossi

Jock Mahoney

Cliff 'Tex' Lyons

Fred Carson

Bob Woodward

Eddie Parker

Jack Jones

Dale Van Sickel

Tom Steele

Martha Crawford Cantarini

Ted Wells

Henry Wills

Bob Terhune

Gag or Gags: term used to refer to a particular stunt or stunts.  Apparently a holdover from early silent film days when comedians did slapstick routines which were very physical and called 'gags'.

Running W: wire and cuffs were attached to horse's forelegs and run through slip rings on the saddle cinch underneath the animal. The wire was anchored to the ground via a stake, and when the wire went taut as the horse galloped along, the legs would be pulled up toward his belly, causing a tumble. The running W was banned circa late 1930s. The story goes that there were dozens of horses killed by the running W during the filming of the Errol Flynn THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (Warners, 1936). The replacement for the running W horse trip and fall was specially trained horses that could take a fall. Click HERE for an example of a running W with great stuntman Yak Canutt taking a tumble on a double for 'Silver Chief' in THE LONE RANGER (Republic, 1938) serial.

Ramrod: term used to reference the 'boss' of the stunt folks --- e.g., Dave Sharpe was Republic's 'ramrod' until he went into World War II service, and his replacement was Tom Steele.

There are also several stunt-related websites which you may want to visit:

John Hagner's Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall Of Fame website was at: http://www.stuntmen.org/. But when I checked in January, 2021, the website was no longer running and the domain name was for sale.

Pat Mefferd does horse research and has a website on various horses. There's also a section on her stepfather, stuntman Fred Kennedy (Frederick O. Kennedy) who was inducted into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame in 1982: http://members.tripod.com/~horsefame/fredkennedy.html

The High Chaparral TV show website has a bit more info on Henry Wills, Carl Pitti, Bobby Hoy and many other stunt people that worked on the program: http://www.thehighchaparral.com/stuntwork.htm

There's a profile and filmography on stuntman Robert James "Whitey" Hughes at the Wild Wild West website: http://www.wildwildwest.org/www/otherbio/wh/index.html

The official website for stuntman Bobby Hoy (1927-2010) is at: http://www.bobhoy.com/

Robert Callaghan's website on Jock Mahoney (stuntman, onetime Tarzan and star of TV's RANGE RIDER and YANCY DERRINGER) is at: http://www.dancebob.com/mahoney13/

The Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures website is at: http://www.stuntmen.com

The Stunt Players Directory website had a memorial page on scores of stuntmen and women, birth and death dates, very brief filmographies, etc. When I checked in August, 2018, it appears the website was no longer working: http://stuntplayers.ws/memorial/index.html

Steve Jensen has a Clayton Moore/Lone Ranger website. Included is a section on stuntman/actor Chuck Courtney, who portrayed the Lone Ranger's nephew Dan Reid in the TV series: http://claytonmoore.tripod.com/chuck.html

The Hollywood Stuntmen blog had info on many stunt men from the 1930s through current films, but was no longer working when checked in February, 2018: http://hollywoodstuntmen.blogspot.com/

YouTube has many clips of stuntmen doin' stunts - these clips are from John Wayne / John Ford's FORT APACHE and RIO GRANDE and shows horses falling and rolling on top of their riders: https://youtu.be/CfZuYPeeqtY