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Biography of Yakima Canutt
Name: Yakima Canutt
Birth Date: November 29, 1896
Death Date: May 24, 1986
Place of Birth: Colfax, Washington, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: rodeo performer, actor, stunt performer, director
Yakima Canutt
As a second-unit director for action sequences, Yakima Canutt (1896-1986) made scores of films during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, but his best-known work is the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959), starring Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd.Yakima Canutt, was one of five children of John Lemuel Canutt, a rancher, and Nettie Ellen Canutt. He grew up in eastern Washington on a ranch founded by his grandfather and operated by his father, who also served a term in the state legislature. During Canutt's professional career, many thought him descended from various Native American tribes, but his ancestry was Scotch-Irish and German.Gained Skills on Family RanchCanutt's formal education was limited to an elementary school in Green Lake, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. He gained the education for his life's work on the family ranch, where he learned to ride horses. By the age of thirteen, he rode unbroken horses, and within …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…work is the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959), starring Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd. Canutt improved upon the previous version of the film, made in the 1920s by Reeves Eason, and took greater safety precautions. In 1966 Canutt won an Academy Award for his stunt work, and the citation included his inventions that had increased the safety of stuntmen. In 1976 he was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.The many injuries, some of them life threatening, that Canutt suffered while doing stunt work made him conscious of the safety of the stuntmen and stuntwomen he directed. In his autobiography, Stunt Man: The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt (1979), he claimed more pride in his safety record than in all of his other accomplishments. He died of natural causes in Los Angeles on May 24, 1986. Further Reading Canutt, Yakima, Stunt Man, 1979.Wise, Arthur and Derek Ware, Stunting in the Cinema, 1973.New York Times, May 27, 1986.
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