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National Rodeo Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1976
Yakima Canutt

Yakima Canutt

1895-1986

Washington

EVENTS
All-Around Champion Cowboy, 1917, 1919-1920, 1923

Well-known movie stunt man Enos Edward “Yakima” Canutt was the top hand in professional rodeo from 1912 to 1924. He was born in 1895 on the family ranch near Colfax, Washington.

At Pendleton, Yakima Canutt won the saddle-bronc riding title in 1917, 1919, and 1923, the bulldogging title in 1920 and 1921, and the all-around championship in 1917, 1919, 1920, and 1923. In 1923 he captured the titles at both Pendleton and Cheyenne, becoming the first winner of the coveted Roosevelt Trophy.

In 1923 Yakima Canutt signed with a Hollywood studio. He acted in 48 silent films and then became a full-time stuntman. His credits included “Zorro” (the original version), “Mogambo”, “Stagecoach”, “El Cid”, “Cat Ballou”, and “A Man Called Horse”. Doubling Clark Gable, he drove a buggy through burning Atlanta in “Gone With the Wind”. He doubled John Wayne in nearly all of the actor’s movies in the 1930s. He staged the famous chariot race between Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd in the 1959 remake of “Ben Hur”. For his contributions, Canutt received an Academy Award in 1969.

Yakima Canutt retired in the 1970s and died in 1986.

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