Chuck Roberson

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 Waynes 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 secondunit 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 Disneys 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 Dukes 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