As a second-unit director for action sequences, Yakima Canutt (1896-1986) made scores of films during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, but his best-known work is the chariot race in Ben-Hur (1959), starring Charlton Heston and Stephen Boyd.

Yakima Canutt, was one of five children of John Lemuel Canutt, a rancher, and Nettie Ellen Canutt. He grew up in eastern Washington on a ranch founded by his grandfather and operated by his father, who also served a term in the state legislature. During Canutt's professional career, many thought him descended from various Native American tribes, but his ancestry was Scotch-Irish and German.

Gained Skills on Family Ranch

Canutt's formal education was limited to an elementary school in Green Lake, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. He gained the education for his life's work on the family ranch, where he learned to ride horses. By the age of thirteen, he rode...