Entertainer, cowboy, rodeo performer and actor. Growing up on ranches outside Marble Falls and Austin, Texas, he always dreamed of becoming a rodeo cowboy. At the age of 6, he used the street near the local grocery store and rode his own bucking pony for pennies from those passing by. He moved to his uncle's ranch outside of Austin after his father died in 1928. He learned his horsekeeping skills and helped his uncle with taming wild horses. In 1933, he moved to Huntington Park, California, just outside of Los Angeles, with his mother, where he attended James Garfield High School and lettered in football and track. He began competing in local rodeos after high school while working a full-time job. In the early 1940s, he met his idol, the all-time great cowboy Fritz Truran, and realized he was good enough to make a career out of rodeoing full time. He joined the rodeo circuit and began winning or placing in bronc and bull riding. The other cowboys looked up to him since he regularly paid admission fees for people in need, and the media adored him for his rodeo style and sharply dressed appearance. In the 1941 "World Bull Riding Championships" held in Phoenix, he came in fourth place. Following that victory, he finished first, second, or third in the bull riding category at each rodeo he competed in. He broke his ankle in 1944 at the 12th annual Boston "Championship Rodeo" after being thrown by a bull. It was his second injury that week. He still managed to hold the lead during the saddle bronc riding and won second place. He won the "Reno Rodeo Championships" in bull riding in 1945, 1946, and 1948. In 1947, he won the "World Championship" for bull riding. That year, he was the second-highest paid competitor in all-around cowboy competition. He earned $8,156, which, in today's money, is almost $103,000. In 1949, at the Boston Garden, he won the 18th "World Championship" in bull riding. In 1953, he began his acting career in between his rodeo appearances. His first performance was as a henchman in the motion picture "Rebel City." The main character, played by Bill Elliott, was a gambler who, upon learning that his father had died in the Civil War, quickly returned to Junction City in order to track down the killer. He appeared in 20 movies and 40 episodes of 23 television series, which were mostly westerns, from 1953 to 1975. He played character roles of henchmen, townsmen, cowboys, cattlemen, and stage coach drivers. He will be remembered for his performances in well-known western movies and television shows like "Drums Across the River" (1954), "Tarantula" (1955), "Escape to Burma" (1955), "The Wild and the Innocent" (1959), "The Carpetbaggers" (1964), "Ride Beyond Vengeance" (1965), and "The Rounders" (1967), "Gunsmoke" (6 episodes, 1965-1974), "Bonanza" (4 episodes, 1965-1971), "The Big Valley" (2 episodes, 1965-1969), "The Wild Wild West" (2 episodes, 1965-1969), "Hondo" (4 episodes, 1967) and "Cimarron Strip" (3 episodes, 1967). His last rodeo was 1978 and competed in a bareback riding at Sylmar, California. He was a member of the Screen Actors Guild and held a PRCA gold card and was a permanent member.