Cowboy who turned stuntman

Press, 12 July 1984, Page 22

Cowboy who turned stuntman

NZPA-AP Bandera Leaping off five-storey scaffolds, dodging explosions, and falling off horses are just part of the daily routine for Dean Dawson. The cowboy, aged 35, has been a stuntman for 18

years and now has his own stunt school in Bandera, a haven in the Texas Hill Country for dude ranch enthusiasts.

Mr Dawson has just graduated a class of six students who paid $3140 each for six weeks of instruction. He taught the class how to fall off horses, how to be dragged by a pick-up truck, how to have a knock-down, drag-out fight and how to jump off platforms — all without getting injured. “A stuntman has to be smart,” Mr Dawson said. “You can’t work if you are hurt. That is the big difference between a stuntman and a daredevil.” Daredevils, he said, will perform death-defying stunts, but often get severely injured. Mr Dawson, who has been in at least six movies and

more television shows, has had his share of injuries. He has lost teeth, had his scalp split, and was grazed when a blank shot misfired. He did not have the luxury of a stunt schooll to teach him the ropes. Most of what he knows he picked up from his uncle, Rudy Robbins, a long-time double for John Wayne and James Arness of “Gunsmoke” fame. In all the years he has taught stuntwork, Mr Dawson said he has had no serious injuries. “I train my boys not to be afraid of stunts but to be wary of them,” he said. “Your life is on the line all the time.” He is very selective about the students admitted to his school. For his last class, he had 200 applicants, but only six were accepted. “I like for the boys to be about 6ft tall and weigh from 1601 b to 1701 b (72kg to

77kg). They have to be good athletes.”

With the film industry growing in Texas, Mr Dawson says he is convinced his graduates will find plenty of work.

Being a stuntman can be lucrative for someone who can get enough work. Falling off a horse can bring in $550, while being dragged by a pick-up truck can earn a stuntman $15.70 per 30cm. At least one graduate, Max Konz, aged 21, of San Antonio, already has had a paying job. Mr Konz said he wanted to do stunt work because of the excitement. “It’s not your everyday nine-to-five job,” he said. Mr Dawson said he liked to keep classes small so that he could give students the personal attention they needed to learn stunt work. Once he has them trained, the students do shows with Mr Dawson in which they

combine dialogue with stunts of all kinds. “The summer blockbuster movie, ‘lndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’, was one of the best stunt shows I have ever seen,” Mr Dawson said. He defends the violence implicit in stunt work, saying that that kind of fast action is what the American public wants. “They want heroes. They are begging for heroes,” he said. “The only way to be one is to fight it out with the bad guys.”