Stuntman

Have you ever wondered how the people in the movies do all of their stunts?  You know, getting shot, falling off of a building, toppling over a cliff, riding a bucking bronco, all of those things?  Of course, they'd never have the actor do all of those things, because they could get killed or suffer serious injury before the filming was over.  So they use stuntmen - a daring group of people who can do things I would break my neck attempting.  But who are these people?  Where do they come from?  What happens to them once they get too old to do stunts anymore?

Stuntman by Yakima Canutt answers all of these questions and more.  Studded with thrilling descriptions of daring feats, and explanations as to how they were done, this is what I consider to be the ultimate book on pre-computer-generated-stunts.  And yes, it has lots of pictures!

Yakima Canutt started out as a cowboy.  Let me rephrase that.  Yakima Canutt started out as a boy who wanted to ride broncos at the local rodeos.  After becoming a really successful bronco buster, he worked his way up, eventually getting into some westerns, usually as a villain.  Once westerns started being done in sound however, Yakima switched to stunting.  From there, the rest is history.  When he got too old to do stunts, he successfully made the transition into a stunt director.  Yakima Canutt worked closely with many movies that you will have likely heard of, both as a stuntman, and as a stunt director.

You've probably seen Yakima Canutt in action, if you've seen Gone With the Wind, Disney's Old Yeller, the classic western Stagecoach, and many others.  Remember the part in Stagecoach where John Wayne falls off the wagon, and goes between the wheels?  Guess who doubled for him?  Incidentally, the shot was later copied in the first Indiana Jones movie!  Also, in Gone With the Wind, Yakima played two different parts.  One was as the renegade who pulled Scarlett O'Hara out of her buggy.  This is actually a really nice moment to get a clear look at his face, since in most of his movies, he is doubling for the main actor, and as such, his face is concealed.  The other part Yakima Canutt played was as a double for Clark Gable, during the sequence where they are riding through the burning city.  During one of the takes of that scene, the wagon flipped over, and Yakima was knocked out.  He was so groggy after he came back out of it, that even though he went right back to work, he couldn't figure out what movie he was working on for a long time.

You've also probably seen films which Yakima Canutt was the stunt director for, including Ivanhoe, Spartacus, and Ben Hur.  As an added piece of trivia, Yakima Canutt's son doubled for Charlton Heston during the epic chariot race, and Yakima describes his sensations in Stuntman as he watched his own son take an unplanned front-flip off of the front of the chariot, while negotiating a ramp Yakima himself had designed..  While this sequence was unexpected, and a result of a bad hand position of the front rail of the chariot, the little slip-up was expanded into one of the more knuckle-whitening sequences of the movie.

It's also fun to read about Yakima Canutt and his relations with other actors offset.  He tells funny stories about actors goofing off when not on camera, like the time when he and another actor staged a shoot-out while at dinner, among their unsuspecting fellow diners.  He also gives you a close-up picture of classic Western star, John Wayne, and others.  By the way, John Wayne was born in Iowa.  So where did he get his cowboy walk and talk?  I'll leave it to you to guess whom he modeled his persona after!  (Hint: his initials start with Y.C.)

These are only a few of my favorite parts of the book.  Read the whole thing!  I hesitate to call it non-fiction or an autobiography, because these words turn many people off even faster than I could blink.  Rather, I'd call it an exciting, adventurous tale, that touches on many movies you will have heard of, and tells interesting, behind-the-scenes stories.  If you're anything like me, you'll be boring people with fascinating movie trivia for days, weeks, or even months after reading it!  It's delightful to find out what it is like, to live the life of a stuntman.