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.
