Born Enos Edward Canutt in Colfax, WA. A ranch hand from boyhood, he joined a Wild West show at 17, later winning many prizes for his riding and roping stunts. The title of rodeo world champion led to his being cast for stunts and bit parts in Westerns in the early 20s, and he became a cowboy star in 1924. His films were typically fast-paced, action-filled adventures in which he performed all his own stunts, never using a double. They were released, however, for the most part by small independent companies and seldom reached wide markets, preventing Canutt from becoming a truly front-rank cowboy hero. Nor did his voice register well in talkies, and with the transition to sound he returned to stunt work and also started a new career as a screen villain. His exploits as a stuntman became legendary, and his amazing leaps from and onto horses and wagons are the most spectacular the screen has ever seen. He also doubled for cowboy stars John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry, among others. At the same time, and often in the same film, he played supporting parts, usually as a heavy. His many portrayals of Indians led to the assumption that he was himself an Indian or a half-breed, but his parentage was Irish-Scotch-Dutch. His exotic name Yakima was the result of a newsphoto caption identifying him as "The Cowboy From Yakima" during a rodeo contest early in his career. [Canutt was World All-Around Rodeo Champion for 1917, 1919, 1920 & 1923; he was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the Rodeo Historical Society (a support group of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum) in 1975.] In the late 1930s, Canutt began setting up stunt sequences for other directors and after being severely injured performing stunts in BOOM TOWN (1940) and again in IN OLD OKLAHOMA (1943), he retired from active stunting and became a second-unit director, one of the best in the business. In that capacity he directed breathtaking action sequences of some of Hollywood's most spectacular films, most notably the chariot race in William Wyler's BEN-HUR (1959). This screen sequence, from planning to final execution, took two years to complete. He also directed a number of low-budget Westerns in the 1940s. [Mr. Moody's note: Perhaps his most memorable on-screen moment is from GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). He plays the Yankee soldier whom Scarlett O'Hara shoots in the face as he threatens her on the stairs inside Tara.] Canutt was awarded a special Oscar® in 1967. He had two sons, Edward "Tap" (b. 1932) and Harry Joe (b. 1937), both of whom became stunt professionals.  Honorary Award 1966: "For creating the profession of stuntman as it exists today and for the development of many safety devices used by stuntmen everywhere." 1 Honorary Award