Posted on 05/01/2016 3:41:25 PM PDT by NKP_Vet
John Wayne learned his famous walk, his swagger, and how to choreograph fight scenes from the greatest stuntman who ever lived and real life cowboy from Eastern Washington Yakima Canutt. Yak was a very good actor in his own right and was in plenty of silent westerns and doubled for Wayne many times,the most famous stunt being the scene in Stagecoach where Wayne (Canutt), is dragged under the horses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakima_Canutt
Oh, I know about Yak. I have his book. And all his available silent films, like “Hellhounds of the Plains,” “Branded a Bandit,” “Desert Greed,” “The Iron Rider,” etc. He even lived long enough to go to several film festivals.
Although when it comes to Wayne’s “walk,” I always heard that it was character actor Paul Fix (later, Micah on “The Rifleman”) who in the early-1930s, taught Wayne that particular ‘cowboy’ gait, back when those Lone Star productions were being filmed.
Far as I know there’s never been a feature length Hollywood movie made about the great Yakima Canutt. His life story was one for the ages.
http://www.wired.com/2012/05/pl_prototype_canutt/
Good for Texas.
I’d put James Stewart second, myself.
Oh, Stewart’s westerns he did for Anthony Mann are terrific. I just never tend to think of him as a primarily ‘western’ actor. When I first saw “The Naked Spur,” I was particularly impressed with Stewart’s performance, and I wrote him a letter to tell him so. And I got a nice little hand-written card back. A few years later, I met and had a long talk with the film’s scriptwriter, Sam Rolfe.
Although come to think of it, Randolph Scott himself wasn’t a primarily ‘western’ actor until after WW2. He was in a whole host of varied oddities, like the hero of the fantasy-adventure “She” (1935), and the semi-horror “Supernatural” (1933) with Carole Lombard, and even starred opposite Kate Smith in “Hello, Everybody” (1933). Not to mention some comedy-musicals, like “High, Wide and Handsome” with Irene Dunne.
They all had kind of varied genres in their careers. Even Audie Murphy appeared in other types of movies. I just think Stewart was superb in westerns. Well, he wasn’t bad in anything.
Happy Birthday, Duke! In your honor, we’ll be watching True Grit tonight and the faithful Turner Movie Classics has been showing you all day long.
A faithful American, a great actor, and an American icon. Rest in Peace.
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