Chuck Roberson(1919-1988)
- Actor
- Stunts
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
American stuntman who also played minor roles in scores of movies. Son
of Allie W. and Jannie Hamm Roberson. Raised on cattle ranches in
Shannon, Texas, and Roswell, New Mexico, he left school at 13 to become
a cowhand and oilfield roughneck. He married and took his wife and
daughter to California, where he joined the Culver City Police
Department and guarded the gate at MGM studios. Following army service
in World War II, he returned to the police force. During duty at Warner
Bros. studios during a labor strike, he met stuntman
Fred Kennedy, who alerted him to a stunt
job at Republic Pictures. Roberson got the job, due both to his expert
horsemanship and his resemblance to
John Carroll, whom Roberson doubled
in his first picture, Wyoming (1947). His
close physical resemblance to
John Wayne led to nearly 30 years as
Wayne's stunt double. He often played small roles and stunted in other
roles in the same film, which frequently resulted in his "shooting"
himself once the picture was cut together. He graduated to larger
supporting roles in westerns for Wayne and
John Ford, and to a parallel career as
a second-unit director. At the time of his death, he was one of the
most respected stunt men in Hollywood.
