RUDY ROBBINS
Information from IMDb
Date of Birth
November 17, 1933
Evergreen, Louisiana, USA
Date Of Death
February 21, 2011 (age 77)
Bandera, Texas, USA
Mini-Biography-1
Rudy Robbins was the youngest of four children born in Evergreen
in Avoyelles Parish in south central Louisiana to Charles Robbins,
a native of Mississippi, and the former Mary Alice Grimble.
When he was two years old, the family moved to Port Arthur on the Texas Gulf Coast,
where he was reared. He graduated in 1952 from Thomas Jefferson High School,
now known as Memorial High School, and then, for one academic year, attended
Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, known at the time as Lamar Technical Institute.
Himself a Baptist, Robbins graduated in 1956 from East Texas Baptist University
in Marshall in east Texas with credentials in business administration and sociology.
From 1957-1959, Robbins served in the United States Army and was on the Fourth Army track team.
He set a record for the javelin throw, the same event in which he had lettered at ETBU.
In the Army, he met the son of a film producer who told him about job opportunities in
Hollywood as a stuntman.
Moving to Bandera, Texas
After military service, Robbins moved to Bandera, a small community west of San Antonio
which calls itself "The Cowboy Capital of the World". He worked there for a time
as a wrangler at the Dixie Dude Ranch until he was offered a speaking but unnamed role
as one of the Tennessee Volunteers in John Wayne's epic The Alamo,
which was filmed not in San Antonio but near Brackettville in Kinney County
in south central Texas. In The Alamo,
Robbins was involved in a short dialogue repeated several times during the film:
a fellow-Tennessean would review a developing situation and ask Robbins,
"Do this mean what I think it do?" Robbins would reply, "It do."
Thereafter, John Wayne called Robbins by the nickname "It Do";
one of Robbins' treasured possessions is a souvenir Alamo mug
addressed to "It Do" from "Duke", Wayne's nickname.
After The Alamo, Robbins went to Hollywood but returned semi-permanently to Bandera
in 1971 though he was on tour for many of the following years.
Acting and stunts
Wayne introduced Robbins to legendary director John Ford, who hired him as an actor
in Two Rode Together with James Stewart and Richard Widmark (also filmed near Brackettville)
and later for stunts in Cheyenne Autumn, also with Widmark, and in three other Wayne films,
McLintock! with Maureen O'Hara), The Green Berets and Rio Lobo (1970).
Robbins' other parts were for uncredited stunts in The Rounders (1965)
and Sugarland Express (1974). He also appeared as a mechanic in Sugarland Express
. He did stunts for CBS's Gunsmoke in 1964, acting as a double for series star James Arness.
In 1966, Robbins played Josh Cutler in NBC's Daniel Boone with Fess Parker.
Robbins holds Parker, later a large Los Angeles developer, in high esteem because Parker paid him in advance:
"He knew I was hard up. When I showed up on Monday morning, he handed me an envelope
with my first episode’s pay in advance," recalls Robbins.
Along with Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Charlton Heston,
Robbins was awarded honorary membership in the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures.
Robbins also trained horses for other stuntmen and became a production manager
for various shows.
In 1967, he was selected by the United States Department of Commerce to go to Europe
as a "Cowboy Goodwill Ambassador" to introduce and promote the sale of denim jeans.
Later, he joined Montie Montana, Jr., to re-create Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
With a cast of 125 cowboys, cowgirls, and Indians and 135 bison, longhorns,
and horses, the show toured worldwide from London to Brazil to Singapore.
The group was particularly well received in Japan, where it performed four to five shows
daily for four months.
The last wild west show performance was near Glacier National Park in northern Montana.
Back in Texas, Robbins produced the Rudy Robbins Western Show
and the All American Cowboy Get-Together, a two-day event of music,
poetry, cooking, arts, crafts and demonstrations.
He was also active in the "Keep Bandera Western" campaign.
Robbins formed The Spirit of Texas, a western harmony group, which in 1991 was named by the Texas State Senate as the "Official Cowboy Band for Texas". Modeled on the old Sons of the Pioneers, the band performed for such celebrities as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Rogers, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and Tom Selleck, as well as General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and Texas Governors Ann W. Richards and George W. Bush. Robbins and the Canadian yodeler Shirley Field co-authored How to Yodel the Cowboy Way. After the death of two members, the Spirit of Texas disbanded.
Robbins also wrote short stories for Cowboy Magazine.
He is featured in the Museum of the Gulf Coast,
which is administered by the Port Arthur Historical Society.
He lived in Bandera in the Texas Hill Country.
Among his awards, Robbins was made honorary town marshal of Tombstone, Arizona, honorary deputy sheriff of Pima County (Tucson), Arizona, and "Outstanding Cowboy of the 20th Century" for Bandera County, Texas. He was commissioned an admiral in the Texas Navy by former Governor Bill Clements. He was awarded a plaque for excellence by the Texas Stuntmen's Association.
Robbins died of cancer at the age of 77. His graver marker reads,
"A Western Showman Who Loved The Lord".
He was survived by a son, Jody, who was born in 1956.
Much of Robbin's memorabilia is now in the Frontier Times Museum in Bandera
and the Bandera Library.
Mini-Biography-2
It is my distinct pleasure to write about my long time friend, Rudy Robbins. Born with a defective heart, doctors told Rudy’s parents he wouldn’t live past 16. Not allowed to play sports in school for fear the exertion would kill him, Rudy lived a sheltered life. At 18 doctors found his heart had healed and he could now do anything physically he wanted to.
Born November 17, 1933, in Evergreen, LA, where his father was a cattle and horse trader, when Rudy was two the family moved to Port Arthur, TX, where he grew up with his father working a variety of jobs from cook on ocean going ships to cafe owner and used car sales. His mother worked in their small cafe.
Graduating from East Texas Baptist College he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and Sociology. Rudy went into the Army where he continued competition in track team javelin throwing, setting a new record for the javelin throw in 4th Army track meets.
Rudy tells WC, “While in the Army I met a guy whose father produced western movies. He told me how interesting it was watching the cowboy stuntmen work, and about how much money they earned. Since I’d always wanted to work with horses, I decided then and there, when I got out of the Army I would try to become a cowboy movie stuntman. I heard western movies were being made in Bandera, TX, so upon my discharge from the Army I moved to Bandera, securing a job on a dude ranch as head wrangler, waiting for another movie to be made there. It just so happened that a few months later, John Wayne came to nearby Brackettville to film his epic ‘The Alamo’. I went there and applied as a local so I could observe, and find out how to become a stuntman. Duke
Duke and Rudy on the set of "The Alamo". himself came to look over some of us who were seeking work as extras. He came over to me and asked me my name. He said he wanted me to play a part in his movie as one of Davy Crockett’s men. I could hardly believe it; Duke had picked me out of that crowd to play a role, instead of being an extra. He paired me up with stuntman Chuck Roberson in several scenes all through the movie where Roberson would ask me, ‘Do that mean what I think it do?’ I would just reply with, ‘It do.’ When Duke and Cliff Lyons saw I was an excellent horseman and pretty handy, I got in on a few very minor stunt things. I was able to observe and learn just how stunts were done. Duke introduced me to director John Ford who filmed a few scenes of me doing all sorts of things, most of which were never used in the picture. Ford put me in his picture ‘Two Rode Together’, then I moved to Calabasas, CA, and trained with stuntman Lenny Geer and entered my movie career there as both actor and stuntman.”
Help from other established stuntmen such as Chuck Roberson, Dean Smith and Red Morgan soon got Rudy rolling. John Wayne liked Rudy so much he would go on to appear in “Green Berets”, “Rio Lobo” and “McLintock!”, which is where I first met up with Rudy.
“One of my biggest thrills as a stuntman,” Rudy smiled, “was when I got to double James Arness on ‘Gunsmoke’ for a few episodes. I felt like I had finally arrived as a legitimate cowboy stuntman because now I had doubled the star of a very popular western show.”
Rudy also worked on “Bullwhip Griffin”, “The Rounders”, “Cheyenne Autumn”, “Sugarland Express”, several short subjects and episodes of TV’s “Daniel Boone”. He also portrayed Buffalo Bill for a BBC special.
Between pictures Rudy worked as production manager on some of the largest exposition type shows in the country. He teamed up with Montie Montana Jr. to recreate the Buffalo Bill Wild West show with a cast of 125. As Buffalo Bill with this show, he toured the world. Rudy also served as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, touring Europe to promote the sale of western trade goods.
Rudy Robbins.With the decline in the production of westerns, Rudy moved back to his native Texas and began to produce and perform in his own Rudy Robbins Western Variety Show, and the All American Cowboy Get-Together, bringing performers and spectators from across the U.S. He then formed a four piece western harmony group, The Spirit of Texas, which was so well received the Texas Legislature passed a special resolution naming them the “Official Cowboy Band for Texas”.
They were nominated as Best Western Group of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists. Although we hadn’t seen each other in years, we finally met up at Dean Smith’s celebrity rodeo in Abilene. What a joy it was for me to visit with Rudy. His picture is proudly displayed in my film room along with many of our old friends from our movie days. Rudy Robbins is another unsung hero of our film industry, a fine gentleman and a compadre I’m so proud I knew.
At 77, Rudy died February 21, 2011, of cancer in Bandera, TX.
Written by Neil Summers
Filmography
Stunts
1974 The Sugarland Express (stunts - uncredited)
1970 Rio Lobo (stunts - uncredited)
1965 The Rounders (stunts - uncredited)
1964 Gun Law (TV series) (stunt double - 1 episode)– Hung High (1964) (stunt double)
1964 Cheyenne Autumn (stunts - uncredited)
1963 McLintock! (stunts - uncredited)
1961 Two Rode Together (stunts - uncredited)
1960 The Alamo (stunts - uncredited)
Actor
1974 The Sugarland Express...Mechanic
1968 The Green Berets...Sgt. Parks
1966 Daniel Boone (TV series)– The Deserter (1966) … Josh Cutler
1960 The Alamo...Tennessean (uncredited)
Self
1992 John Wayne's 'The Alamo' (video documentary short)...Himself
