Charles Hugh Roberson (May 10, 1919 – June 8, 1988) was an American actor and stuntman.
Biography
Roberson grew up on a ranch near 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. Prior to 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 (ISBN 088839036X).
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.
Filmography (Actor)
Television
The Lone Ranger – episode – Return of the Convict – Tod Gunder (uncredited) (1949)
The Lone Ranger – episode – Six Guns Legacy – Henchman Joe (Credit only) (1949)
The Lone Ranger – episode – The Renegades – Henchman at Cave (uncredited) (1949)
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin – episode – The Lonesome Road – Manley Stevens (1955)
Panic! – episode – The Vigilantes – Sam Glenn (1957)
Death Valley Days – episode – The Trial of Red Haskell (1957)
Wide Wide World – episode – The Western – Himself (1958)
Wagon Train – episode – The Bije Wilcox Story – Captain Thorpe (1958)
Cimarron City – episode – A Respectable Girl (1958)
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – episodes – Texas John Slaughter, Texas John Slaughter: Ambush in Laredo, and Texas John Slaughter: Showdown at Sandoval – Ranger Sam (1958–1959)
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – episode – The Swamp Fox: The Birth of the Swamp Fox – Jenkins, and Stunt Man (1959)
Cimarron City – episode – Blind is the Killer – Foreman (1959)
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – episode – The Swamp Fox: Brother Against Brother – Jenkins (1959)
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – episode – The Swamp Fox: A Woman's Courage – Milo (uncredited) (1959)