Chuck Hayward(1920-1998)

American stuntman, long associated with John Wayne, who doubled for most of the great Western and action stars of the 1950s-1980s. His parents, Bert and Hazel Hayward, were cattle ranchers on a farm near Hyannis, Nebraska, about sixty miles east of Hayward's birthplace in Alliance. He spent his early youth working cattle, then, at 16, left home to join the rodeo circuit as a bronc rider and horse trainer. In 1947, he arrived in Los Angeles and sought work as a wrangler. He began doing stunts in 1949 on The Fighting Kentuckian (1949), doubling John Wayne. The two became pals and Hayward subsequently stunted and doubled Wayne on nearly two dozen of the latter's films. Excelling at all sorts of horseback stunts, Hayward doubled most stars of the period who found themselves in Westerns or otherwise astride a horse, including Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, and Gregory Peck. He graduated into stunt coordination, arranging the stunts on films such as The Deadly Companions (1961) and the TV series The Rat Patrol (1966). He played small roles in numerous films and TV shows, and his appearance often served as an accurate predictor of an upcoming fight scene. He retired from stuntwork in 1981, and from acting in 1989. Hayward was a member of the unofficial "John Ford Stock Company," a lifetime member of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures and an inductee into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame. He died from Hodgkin's Disease at his home in North Hollywood, California, in 1998.