Jerry came from the rodeo business before becoming involved with stunt work. He worked on a couple of films at Tucson in his early days of stunting. He was one of the local extras and a stand-in on “The Lone Ranger and The Lost City of Gold”, the last film made starring Clayton Moore”. On the movie, “Gunman’s Walk” starring Van Heflin and Tab Hunter, Jerry worked as an extra.

He became friends with legendary stuntmen, Henry Wills and Chuck Hayward. He spent a lot of valuable time learning how to do a movie fight with the best of them. Bill Hickman (stunt-coodinator) on the classic car stunt movie, “Bullitt” starring Steve McQueen was instrumental in teaching Jerry car stunts and maneuvers. His first giant movie was “The Magnificent Seven”. He doubled Horst Buchholtz, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson and Robert Vaughn.

Shortly after “The Magnificent Seven”, he was one of the John Wayne stunt crew to work on “The Comancheros”, which was filmed in Moab. He, and the other stuntmen were under the guidance of ace stunter, Cliff Lyons.

Jerry worked in “Donovan’s Reef” and “McLintock”. “Donovan’s Reef” was the first huge fight scene he worked on with John Wayne and John Ford. It was a barroom brawl. Cliff was the main gun to hire the stuntmen.

Movies Made in Moab

SPACEHUNTER (1982).
Cast includes Peter Strauss and Molly Ringwald.
Locations: Bull Canyon, Kane Creek, Colorado River and Lower Shafer trail, Potash Settling Ponds and Grey Hills, off U.S. Highway 191. south of Canyonlands Airport (based in Moab).
Story: It is a story of a wily mercenary named Wolff, who responds to a galactic distress signal that promises a fortune to the pilot who rescues three maidens marooned on a plague-ravaged planet. As the distress signal comes through. Wolff learns that the first exploration party went to the planet Terra II in the year 2013.
Creatures from the sky have carried the maidens from space to the forbidden area. Wolff gets in a battle for his life.
Stuntmen Vince Deadrick Jr and Dock Walker are also featured as actors.

CHOKE CANYON (1984).
Starring Stephen Collins, Bo Svenson and Lance Henricksen.

Locations: Fourth East (Moab City), Byrd’s Ranch near the portal of the Colorado River, Onion Creek, Professor Valley, Sand Flats, Dead Horse Point and Squaw Park.

Story: David Lowell, a physicist, hoping to solve the world’s energy problems, believes that when Halley’s Comet passes over Choke Canyon in 1986, a maximum distortion of sound waves will be created in the canyon and he will be able to harness energy from the effect. He has a 99-year lease on the property where he has located his lab, but the land is owned by Pilgrim Corporation, who wants to use the land as a secret dump for nuclear waste from some of the operations. Lowell refuses to budge, so Mr. Pilgrim sends his hitman, “Captain.” Captain is outwitted by Lowell who finally kidnaps the daughter of Pilgrim. The young woman is won over to the cause. Before the comet comes, a series of spectacular aerial chases between a biplane and a helicopter takes place and Pilgrim’s nuclear waste dangles on a cable below. An experiment is completed and the nuclear waste is delivered to the Utah State Capitol, right in the governor’s lap.