In an episode called The Reprieve, a double for Cheyenne is obviously mixing it up with the villain, who didn't use a stunt double. Later, a tied-up Cheyenne is dangling from a rope over a campfire--only it's not Clint Walker, but a much shorter stunt double.
shareWho was Clint Walker's Stunt Double?
James Garner?
Seriously,who cares,if Clint Walker had a stunt double or not.
After all,it's make believe.
I care, that's why I posted. Stunt doubles are fine, but in this case, it was handled very clumsily. Rather laughable.
shareThen you must have really liked Wild, Wild West. They had the same stuntmen in every episode only in different costumes. Also, you should watch Batman and see Robin with a stocky body and receding hairline.
Fred
I did notice the stunt double over the fire. Must have been hard to find a perfect match stunt double for Clint. He is the "big fella". :)
Right, but it's not as if Walker was just guest starring in one episode. He was the series star for years, so you'd think Warners would assign a stuntman who faintly resembled him, at the very least.
shareIf you watch the program on a regular basis, you will see that a stunt double stood in for Clint Walker in almost every episode. Apparently Walker did npot ride or was not permitted to ride a horse. So with the exception of close ups a stunt double was used even for routine riding. In one episode aired theother day, Walker was assisting a young couple evade a posse. If you look closely when the posse was stopped one of the actors horses had a thin wire attached to the bridle and being pulled off camera., assisting the rider in getting his hourse to move was
shareMaybe not at a full gallop, but Walker is on horseback about every episode. Just watched the beginning of an episode where Cheyenne is aboard a mount trotting into town.
shareLater episodes of Cheyenne seem to have many more mistakes than earlier episodes. We saw the wire on the horse's bit in the recent episode as you did. They're just shooting too fast, and cutting corners on production. The series originally aired before VCRs, TiVo, DVRs, etc. and mistakes like the wire were on and off the screen before anyone could really check it out. We reversed and played back the wire booboo three or four times and got a big laugh out of it. A few episodes before this one aired, there was a small herd of cattle being pushed around the "Warner jungle" and the camera actually caught a real "cow poke," a studio wrangler most likely with a large staff like Moses, walking behind the scene in the bushes. Again, it was probably cheaper to leave this second or two of footage in, rather than re-shoot it. If you can get past the telephone poles in the background with barrel-like transformers hanging off of them (no they're not telegraph poles), I guess you can get past just about anything. I almost get as much enjoyment out of catching the production faux pas, as I do watching the program itself.
shareAccording to Mr. Walker in the extras on the Cheyenne First Season Disk, they had him and the crew working from 7:00am to late at night (sometimes till 2:00am). He said by that time, everyone was pretty tired. Easy to overlook a wire or other bloopers.
I forget which episode of Cheyenne... this flub appeared in, but Cheyenne is talking. And there is smoke on camera. No one in the scene is smoking. Someone behind the camera was smoking and it made it on to the film cut.
<Series originally aired before VCRs, TiVo, DVRs, etc. and mistakes like the wire were on and off the screen before anyone could really check it out.>
I spot mistakes in real time but considering the short shooting schedules, there aren't many gaffes at all. A memorable one is the Cheyenne-Indian warrior mud rasslin' match where the Indian rides away afterward as clean as a whistle.
Would appear that Clint does his own stunt work in Season Seven as far as I can tell (haven't seen all the episodes yet...though, so I could be wrong)
This morning Encore aired "Vengeance Is Mine". Clint and Leo Gordon had one heck of a knock/down/drag out fight. Extremely well choreographed. And it was ALL Clint.
The Western Channel is now showing the 1960 season. Geez, they even use a stunt double to walk across the street. And it seems each episode opens in the same clearing with the same fake rocks. I'm still having a great time watching it.
shareBelieve the episode was "Trouble Street" with James Coburn and Lee Van Cleef. Clint's body double (which is different then a stunt double) is in the master shot . The next shot is of Clint as he enters the interior of the building.
What a great cast this episode had, the absolutely lovely Mala Powers and the soon to be major stars mentioned above. And one of my mothers favorite actors: Tom Drake.
It the beginning of 'War Party' Cheyenne must abandon his horse in an attempt to throw the pursuing Indians off his trail. This leaves him afoot out in the wilderness. The camera is in front of Cheyenne as he walks along. There are several head on shots at a fairly close range. It is easy to see that the man in the shot is NOT Clint Walker.
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Since I've been looking closer for stunt doubles I see them more and more. Plus, Encore Western Channel is getting into the later episodes where they are using doubles more often. Even for small things like running a few steps. It's getting pretty obvious. But I can understand why they do it.
shareI too can understand why there might have been more stunt and body doubles. From some of the articles I have read, prior to the new contract, Mr. Walker was worked from dawn to dusk (and beyond) with very little turaround (8 hours or less to recoup from the days shoot and to learn lines). Perhaps this lessening of on screen time gave him more personal time. Like you, can't blame him.
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During the first two season ... Cheyenne didn't have a stunt double .... not where you would notice it ... but during the 3rd season you could easily see the double. It's like Walker didn't do a lot of things ... not even ride a horse ... I wonder what was up with that?
shareThere is a Clint Walker website that is maintained by his fans. Someone there might know.
shareTom Hennesy was Clint Walker's stunt double during the Cheyenne TV series.
Tom passed away at the age of 87 on May 23, 2011.
He was primarily a stuntman but also worked on studio lots as a schoolteacher for child actors. His students included Sal Mineo, Tommy Rettig, Annette Funicello, and Natalie Wood.
He also had a few acting roles, mainly in John Wayne films. Tom's best role was in "Big Jake," as "Mr Sweet." You may remember him as the gentle giant who throws John Wayne around the pool room during a comic fistfight in the film.
He also appears in "The Comancheros" as Gordo, the servant of Neihmiah Persoff, and most of Tom's scenes are of him pushing Persoff in a wheelchair. Later, John Wayne cracks Tom over the head with a pistol and knocks him out.
Tom also was the legenday Black Lagoon Gill Man in the 1955 movie "Revenge of the Creature."
Tom Hennesy was truly one of Hollywood's unsung heroes.
So I've been watching the legendary Tom Hennesy on Cheyenne. Thank YOU so much for the information.
RIP Tom.
There were several stuntmen to double Clint Walker. Hennesy did some but Fred Carson did a decent amount and so did Russ McCubbin. You can consistently see Carson throughout the series in small non speaking parts as Indians, townsman, ect. ect. ect.
Clyde Howdy was Clint Walker's stand-in for most of the show and had to wear 2-inch lifts to get Clint's height right. Carson was probably 6'4 and McCubbin much the same way.
Here is an article on Carson
http://www.westernclippings.com/stuntmen/fredcarson_stuntmen.shtml
Here is McCubbin's website
http://www.russmccubbin.com/familyhistory.php
The trouble with stuntmen is they are hardly ever credited and their is little information about them as that is the ways studios wanted it. Who would think that on Bonanza that some of the horseback riding in long shots for Pernell Roberts was done by a girl?
In shows like Cheyenne, there is not just one stuntman for an actor but several with different jobs. Carson was really good with a horse and seems do have done a fair amount of riding and at the same time due to his dark complection he was a good indian.
Cheyenne is like a reverse incredible Hulk. He starts off huge and shrinks whenever he gets into a fight.
shareit seems like some shows had a hard time of finding a stunt double who looked like the actor in question. i always thought it was obvious on Star Trek when the stunt double took over for Shatner.
http://fanholespodcast.blogspot.com/
The legendary Hal Needham got his start moving from extra to stuntman on TV's Have Gun Will Travel because he somewhat resembled star Richard Boone. But more importantly, he was the only candidate who could climb a tree as called for in the script.
shareI did notice one scene where Cheyenne chases a guy on horseback and then jumps from his horse onto the other rider, taking him down in the way a lot of the old western stars like Gene Autry or Sunset Carson did. It was a stunt double, but it was likely a necessity in this scene. I would imagine a big guy like Mr. Walker would've come down *very* hard from a fall of that height, and injury was a very real possibility.
it seems like some shows had a hard time of finding a stunt double who looked like the actor in question. i always thought it was obvious on Star Trek when the stunt double took over for Shatner.The one I find the most amusing in Star Trek was in the Jack the Ripper episode, Wolf in the Fold.
In this era of DVDs, tapes,etc. those instances are more noticeable. One was the obvious stunt double for Alan Ladd in the barroom brawl scene in Shane.
I met stuntman par excellence Hal Needham at a book signing about 5 years ago. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Hal got his start on Have Gun,Will Travel. In any episode, whenever a curly haired, pug-nosed dude appeared in the background of a scene, you knew a fistfight was in the offing. Needham, who was pals with Burt Reynolds, directed Smokey and the Bandit, among others.
After the book signing and before a showing of Smokey, a local reporter walked up to me and asked if I was Hal Needham! I guess he thought my mug had been in a few fights!
Hal was honored for his achievements during an Oscar show. He passed not long after.
That's a great story.
I see Mr. Needham's name regularly in stunt credits. My personal favorite of his films is The Cannonball Run...certainly not Oscar caliber, but I can't get enough of all the characters and their antics in that one. Roger Moore (our should I say Seymour) cracks me up, but Jack Elam gets the prize.
I met Claude Akins once back in '87... 😀
TCM recently aired McQ, a routine cop drama with the Duke playing a geriatric Dirty Harry of sorts. Not one of director John Sturges' best efforts, except for a cool car chase at the end along a California beach. Wayne dispatched one Chevy that fipped over again and again in the surf. In the epilogue, host Ben
Mankiewicz noted Hal Needham was behind the wheel of the Chevy,something went wrong, and he suffered a broken back and assorted other injuries. He and his crew were paid $30,000 for that stunt. No wonder Hal turned to directing!
Enjoyed Akins in Rio Bravo.
Worst stunt doubles I remember were on The Big Valley. On the Equalizer some guy that didn't look anything like Edward Woodward would drive a car up to the camera and The Equalizer would get out. Ever see Mrs. Drysdale run up the stairs on The Beverly Hillbillies?
shareThe stunt double for Alan Ladd in the barroom brawl in Shane had blonde hair like Ladd but was built more like Forrest Tucker.
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