THE FALL GUY: 30 Years as the Duke's Double

The lusty, rousing story of ""Bad Chuck"" Roberson's career as a Hollywood stunt man in about 250 films and his happy days doubling for John Wayne for the past 30 years--along with Clark Gable, Bob Mitchum, James Stewart, and others. Chuck and his great horse Cocaine devised a running horse fall that was safe but a spectacular improvement on the cantering lie-down horse fall used before. He was also an intimate member of the John Ford rolling stock company that toured the West and has lots of tales to tell about Ford, a crusty martinet who held down drinking (and whistling) to a bitter minimum among his crews--even if it took some overgrown summer-camp tricks to do it. And Chuck's own anecdotes are wonderful. He got his job doubling for Wayne one day when Wayne couldn't jump from a standstill onto a barebacked horse and Chuck just hopped up like a bird. Hard-drinking and whoring in Mexico are balanced by the satisfaction of teaching Gable how to be dragged by a horse for The Misfits and seeing Gable perform the stunt just as it was set up. Then comes the death of Cocaine after 27 years before the cameras and some heavy sighs. Wonderful camaraderie with plenty of Wayne humor, and good company for Yakima Canutt's Stunt Man (p. 718), which focuses on special effects.