Happy 91st Birthday to T&F’s Dean Smith (not basketball’s Dean Smith) – Olympian And Stunt Man

Thank you Walt Murphy for bringing this story to my attention. Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.

Dean has a unique resume that includes playing football for the Texas Longhorns, missing an individual Olympic medal by a hair, and appearing in ten John Wayne movies as a stuntman.

Dean had wheels! The 1952 Helsinki Olympic 100 meter final had one of the closest finishes ever. It took a long time after the final for the officials to sort out the finishing places (no photo-finish technology in those days). A tenth of a second separated 1st from 6th…..and Dean was heartbroken to learn that he was placed fourth. He rebounded though and ran a key leg on USA’s Gold Medal winning 4X100 relay.

After the Olympics Dean served in the Army and then gave the NFL a try. He signed with the Los Angeles Rams and later the Pittsburgh Steelers but never played in a regular season game. NFL’s loss turned into Hollywood’s gain.

Dean grew up on a ranch in Texas and developed the cowboy skills, along with his overall speed and athleticism, that landed him a very successful career as a Hollywood stuntman. A mutual friend introduced him to James Garner and he got his first stunt work gig for the TV series “Cheyenne”. This led to work on ten John Wayne western movies including “The Alamo”, “Rio Bravo” and “True Grit”. He even did a stunt for Maureen O’Hara wearing a red wig.

Dean got steady work and reportedly handled stunts and got occasional speaking parts in at least 100 films and TV shows.

This 7 minute video includes great footage and commentary of his Helsinki Olympic race, as well as his Hollywood experiences.

Dean later wrote a memoir titled “Cowboy Stuntman: From Olympic Gold To The Silver Screen”.

Happy 91st birthday Dean!