Yakima Canutt

He has been inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Sir Thomas Courtenay was knighted in 2001. His autobiography "Stuntman" was published in 1979. In 2003 he appeared on the West End stage again in the one-man show Pretending To Be Me, as Philip Larkin. His sons Joe Canutt and Tap Canutt also worked as stuntmen. His best known film role after the 1960s is probably in The Dresser, (from Ronald Harwood's play of the same name, in which he also appeared), with Albert Finney. He staged some of the most memorable action scenes ever committed to film, including the heart-stopping chariot race segment in the 1959 film Ben-Hur. He appeared in "I Heard the Owl Call My Name" on US television in 1973.

He had some success as an actor, primarily playing "heavies," but his real talent was as a stuntman and stunt coordinator. His television appearances have been relatively few, but have included She Stoops to Conquer on BBC and several Ayckbourn plays. He met actor Tom Mix at a rodeo in Los Angeles, and was persuaded to work as a cowboy in films. He showed his comic talent again by creating the role of Norman in Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy, The Norman Conquests. He was briefly married to the actress, Cheryl Kennedy. There he gained fame as a very successful rodeo rider. His Hamlet at the Edinburgh Festival of 1968 marked him out as one of Britain's leading stage actors as well as a film actor. Born Enos Edward Canutt in the rough ranchlands near Colfax, Washington, "Yak" Canutt moved as a young man to Yakima, Washington (the town from which he borrowed his nickname). He was born Thomas Courtenay in Hull, England, and made his stage début in 1960 with the Old Vic company.

Yakima Canutt (November 29, 1896 - May 24, 1986) was an actor and stunt man in Hollywood movies of the 1920s through the 1950s. (In the latter two, he appeared alongside Julie Christie). Zhivago (1965). Tom Courtenay (pronounced "Courtney") (born February 25, 1937) is a British actor who came to prominence in the early 1960s with a succession of critically-acclaimed films including The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner (1962), Billy Liar (1963) and Dr.