Chuck Hayward

Known for ActingBorn 1920-01-20Died 1998-02-23Alliance, Nebraska, U.S.A.

Charles Bert Hayward (January 20, 1920 – February 23, 1998) was an American motion picture stuntman and actor. He was associated particularly with the films of John Wayne. He 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 on motion pictures. He began doing stunts in 1949 on The Fighting Kentuckian, doubling for John Wayne. The two became pals and Hayward subsequently stunted and doubled for 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 was prominent in The Big Country, co-produced by Peck. He was known as "Good Chuck" in contrast to "Bad Chuck", in reference to Chuck Roberson, another of Wayne's stunt doubles. He graduated into stunt coordination, arranging the stunts in films such as The Deadly Companions and the TV series The Rat Patrol. 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 stunt work 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. He was married three times, to Ellen Powell, by whom he had a daughter, and to Carol Lynn Shepherd. He had two children with Carol Lynn Shepherd. They were divorced in 1982. He then married Sally Pape Callaghan on October 30, 1982. Before his Hollywood stuntman career, Hayward also worked as a medic in the United States Merchant Marine and he stated that he served on liberty ships. His two boys, along with his wife Carol's best friend who was trying to save them, perished in a forest fire in the early 1980s.Read more

Movies & web series

The Fargo Phantom

John Wayne's 'The Alamo'

Little House on the Prairie

The Blues Brothers

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

The Searchers

High Noon

The Big Country

Spartacus

Airplane!

El Dorado

High Plains Drifter

True Grit

Blazing Saddles

Have Gun, Will Travel

Crystal Gazing

The Sons of Katie Elder

The Great Race

The Alamo

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

CHiPs

How the West Was Won

Wanted: Dead or Alive

Sergeant Rutledge

The Rookies

The Horse Soldiers

The Road to Denver

The Longest Yard

Maverick

Westworld

The War Wagon

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Viva Zapata!

The Lord of the Rings

Nevada Smith

Cheyenne Autumn

Major Dundee

Rio Grande

Pork Chop Hill

Who'll Stop the Rain

San Antone

Gunsmoke

McLintock!

Rooster Cogburn

Rio Lobo

Wagon Master

Tom Horn

Wagon Train