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Charles Hugh Roberson (May 10, 1919 – June 8, 1988) was an American actor and stuntman.
1959
Charles Hugh Roberson (May 10, 1919 – June 8, 1988) was an American actor and stuntman.
Roberson was born near Shannon, Texas, the son of farmer Ollie W. Roberson and Jannie Hamm Roberson. Raised on cattle ranches in Shannon, Texas, and Roswell, New Mexico, he left school at 13 to become a cowhand and oilfield roughneck. He married and took his wife and daughter to California, where he joined the Culver City Police Department and guarded the gate at MGM Studios. Following army service in World War II, he returned to the police force. During duty at Warner Bros. studios during a labor strike, he met stuntman Guy Teague, who alerted him to a stunt job at Republic Pictures. Teague had been John Wayne's stunt double for many years and was able to show him the ropes. Chuck also resembled John Carrol whom Roberson doubled in his first picture, Wyoming (1947). He played small roles and stunted in other roles in the same film. He graduated to larger supporting roles in Westerns for Wayne and John Ford, and to a parallel career as a second-unit director.
His television appearances include The Lone Ranger, The Adventures of Kit Carson, Lawman, Death Valley Days, Have Gun – Will Travel, Laramie, Gunsmoke, The Virginian, Laredo, Bonanza, Daniel Boone, and The Big Valley. Roberson also appeared in Disney's television Westerns The Swamp Fox and Texas John Slaughter. They were part of The Wonderful World of Color. Before that, he portrayed a Confederate Prison Captain in The Great Locomotive Chase.
In 1980 he published an autobiography, The Fall Guy: 30 Years as the Duke's Double.
Roberson died of cancer on June 8, 1988, in Bakersfield, California, and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Hollywood Hills, California, next to his brother, actor Lou Roberson. Bob Dylan drew him as Long Tom in his Beaten Path series, the drawing is entitled "Untitled 1" and is based on a frame from the film Winchester '73 (1950). Roberson and Wayne Burson, another stuntman, were partners in breeding and training racehorses, with Roberson furnishing the horses from his Bakersfield, California, ranch and Burson training them.
Gender
Male
Birthday
May 10, 1919
Died
June 8, 1988
Birthplace
Shannon, Texas, USA
Also Known As
The Searchers
1956
Spartacus
1960
The Sons of Katie Elder
1965
Merrill's Marauders
1962
Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory
1952
Two Rode Together
1961
Two Rode Together
1961
Donovan's Reef
1963
Raiders of the Seven Seas
1953
Rio Bravo
1959
The War Wagon
1967
Outcasts of Black Mesa
1950
The Stone Killer
1973
Stampede
1949
Cheyenne Autumn
1964
The Arizona Ranger
1948
McQ
1974
The Fighting Kentuckian
1949
The Blazing Forest
1952
How the West Was Won
1962
+ 90 more movies
Wagon Train
1957
The Virginian
1962
Rawhide
1959
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
Have Gun, Will Travel
1957
The Big Valley
1965
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956
Daniel Boone
1964
Daniel Boone
1964
Daniel Boone
1964
Daniel Boone
1964
Lost in Space
1965
Gunsmoke
1955
Gunsmoke
1955
Gunsmoke
1955
The Lone Ranger
1949
The Lucy Show
1962
Bat Masterson
1958
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