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STUNTS, STARS & LEGENDS September 2011

Roydon Clark
by John Hagner (Artist of the Stars)


Roydon Clark

Roydon Clark is from Dayton, Pennsylvania, and was born 1928. He is one of eight children . He spent his summer months around the Hudkins stables in Burbank not far from Warner Bros. Studios. The Hudkins family took him in and he earned money pitching hay and taking care of the livestock.

Roy began cowboying in front of the camera at Republic Studios and worked with such stunt legends as Ben Johnson and Chuck Roberson. It was long before Republic placed Roy under contract under the directorship of Joe Kane. He played roles in westerns and was in several films there including “Ride the Man Down”. “Wild Bill” Elliott was a popular cowboy star at Republic and Roy was in several of his films.

In the movie “Montana”, Roy doubled for Errol Flynn and worked on seven John Wayne films including “Fighting Kentuckian”, “Undefeated”, “The Conqueror”, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “The Shootist”. He also doubled for Clark Gable two times.

Roy went on to double for James Garner in the Warner Bros. television series, “Maverick” and doubled for Garner for 40 years. Some of the films were “Duel at Diablo”, “Hour of the Gun”, “Support Your Local Sheriff’, “Sunset” and Garner’s other TV series, “Nichols” and “Bret Maverick”.

He was kept busy at Warner Bros. Studios as well as other major studios, such as, “Colt .45”, “Badlands of Montana”, “A Distant Trumpet”, “Bandolero”, “Little Big Man” and TV episodes of “Cheyenne”, “Sugarfoot”, “Bronco”. He worked at Warners for 17 years. He was also in “Bat Masterson”, “Lone Ranger” and “Bonanza”.

In other feature films that were not westerns, he worked in the 20th Century-Fox epic thriller, “Towering Inferno”, “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (many scenes were filmed here in Moab. He performed motorcycle action for Sean Connery in the “Naked Gun” movies.

He and Reg Parton and another stuntman were stunt safety investigators (volunteer work) for the Directors Guild of America on trying to prevent future accidents.

Roy, after a time, broke into the stunt-coordinating end of the business, in charge of all the action on James Garner’s “Rockford Files” and many other series including Whiz Kids” and “Amazing Stories” for famous director Steven Spielberg.
Roydon Clark is an honored inductee in the Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame and was footprinted for posterity, adding his prints to over 400 to date. He has been a supporter of the Hall of Fame since its beginning back in 1973 and holds a special place in the hearts of all those who are involved with getting the Hall of Fame open again so that the public can visit and enjoy all of the memorabilia and artifacts that its Founder, John Hagner has gathered and preserved for more than 55 years.

The Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to preserving the history of the stunt profession and to honoring stunt people the world over. Anyone interested in becoming involved in its efforts as a supporter may make a tax-deductible donation to: Hollywood Stuntmen’s Hall of Fame, 81 W. Kane Creek Blvd., - #12, Moab, Utah 84532. Email address is: johnhagner@ hotmail.com. Website: www.stuntmen.org. On Facebook: Search Falling For Stars. Then Artist of the Stars. Then Stunt Stars and Legends. Phone number is 435 260-2160.

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