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Cowboy to the stars
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| H&N photo by Lee Juillerat Floyd Baze remembers Hollywood nights from his Christmas Valley ranch in North Lake County. |
October 30, 2006
CHRISTMAS VALLEY - Floyd Baze is a man of many alter-egos.
Over the years, Baze has worn wigs and pasted on beards while successfully passing himself off as Lee Marvin, William Holden, Jack Lord, Robert Preston and Neville Brand, among others.
It's all been very legal. That's because for 25 years Baze was a Hollywood stuntman in Westerns.
“To me it was all business,” Baze says of his years in movies, mostly spent horseback doing stunts deemed too dangerous for the stars. “I don't think I'd call it glamour. I'd figure out the easiest, the best and the safest for me and the horse.”
Movies just a continuation
For the 72-year-old Baze, life on horseback in the movies was just a continuation of the life he's always lived.
“When I was working in the pictures a guy asked me the first time I ever rode a horse. I told him I couldn't remember,” Baze tells, softly chuckling.
Life on horseback began as a young boy. He was born and raised in Eastern Washington's Yakima Valley, where his father, Dock, raised race horses, always at least 800. Baze was horseback as a youngster, and riding in rodeos at age 13.
Started on cowboy circuit
He was still a teenager when he began riding the Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit, the predecessor to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, as a steer wrestler and saddle bronc rider.
“I made a living for 20 years, and for most of those 20 years I was in the top 20,” he tells with evident pride, noting trips took him around the U.S. and to Japan and Australia.
In 1962, Baze and other top saddle bronc riders were invited to film rodeo events for the “Stoney Burke” television series that starred Jack Lord, fittingly, was about rodeo cowboys.
Later, when producers were frustrated because their stunt riders couldn't perform a scene that required a horse to stumble and fall on its rider, Baze offered his services. He agreed to do the stunt for $1,500 and membership in the Screen Actor's Guild.
“I did it on the first try,” Baze says. “Then I went on from there. I just kept after it, and after that the phone was ringing off the hook.”
He was hooked. Some stunt jobs only took a day or two, while others involved two or three months on location. Among the stars he rode for were Lee Marvin in “Monte Walsh” and William Holden in “The Wild Rovers.”
“What I liked about it was I could do things nobody else could,” Baze says.
The money was good, too. On the “Monte Walsh” set a horse fell and broke Baze's leg, but he wrapped in it an Ace bandage and kept riding, earning a large paycheck over the several weeks.
He masked his injuries, and his appearance.
“I'd wear a wig or a beard. On one movie I'd grown a beard, but I can only go a week or so with one of those, so I told them, ‘No, you'll just have to glue it on there.' “
While working in movies, Baze continued to ride in rodeos, worked construction and kept involved in his trucking business.
“At that time I was a work-alcoholic. That's what my first wife said.”
Baze married at age 18. When that ended after 16 years, he raised his four children. More marriages followed. Some lasted only weeks or months.
“Like I say,” Baze says with a shrug and an embarrassed laugh, “I was in Hollywood.”
Some earlier marriages were stormy. One of those earlier wives destroyed his collection of photos and memorabilia, but he still has video tapes from most of the movies.
Life settled down. He and his wife, Sandy, his fifth, have been married 20 years.
When Westerns fell out of popularity in the 1970s, he found other jobs. For a time he was a bodyguard of Debby Reynolds - “She'd listen to my rodeo stories by the hours” - and other times was a security worker in a Las Vegas casino.
“Only thing I'd do was walk around in a Western suit,” he laughs.
From 1979 until the mid-1990s, Baze raised and trained thoroughbred race horses in the Portland area.
In 1992, he and Sandy bought 640 acres of land 30 miles east of Christmas Valley. They moved to the ranch, which lacks electricity and operates on solar power and propane, in 1999. He runs 80 to 100 mother cows and calves. Unusually, some of the holstein-cross calves are nursed by goats. He also continues to train his and others race horses.
For the past several years Baze, who's still a work-alcoholic, has worked for Sam Dinsdale, a Christmas Valley hay grower. His duties include working cattle, cutting and raking hay and other farming chores.
“I was born with no fear,” Baze says of riding, whether with his race horses, rodeoing or being a stunt man. “When I'd get on breaking colts I wasn't scared. I've been been skinned up and thrown off ... Never anything that laid me up where I couldn't go on.
“I stayed in good shape. I never did drink much. When I cowboyed I never drank.”
Horses, as always, are still part of life.
“Just like riding a bike,” Baze says of being horseback. “Once you learn how, you never forget.”
By LEE JUILLERAT
H&N Regional Editor
CHRISTMAS VALLEY - Floyd Baze is a man of many alter-egos.
Over the years, Baze has worn wigs and pasted on beards while successfully passing himself off as Lee Marvin, William Holden, Jack Lord, Robert Preston and Neville Brand, among others.
It's all been very legal. That's because for 25 years Baze was a Hollywood stuntman in Westerns.
“To me it was all business,” Baze says of his years in movies, mostly spent horseback doing stunts deemed too dangerous for the stars. “I don't think I'd call it glamour. I'd figure out the easiest, the best and the safest for me and the horse.”
Movies just a continuation
For the 72-year-old Baze, life on horseback in the movies was just a continuation of the life he's always lived.
“When I was working in the pictures a guy asked me the first time I ever rode a horse. I told him I couldn't remember,” Baze tells, softly chuckling.
Life on horseback began as a young boy. He was born and raised in Eastern Washington's Yakima Valley, where his father, Dock, raised race horses, always at least 800. Baze was horseback as a youngster, and riding in rodeos at age 13.
Started on cowboy circuit
He was still a teenager when he began riding the Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit, the predecessor to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, as a steer wrestler and saddle bronc rider.
“I made a living for 20 years, and for most of those 20 years I was in the top 20,” he tells with evident pride, noting trips took him around the U.S. and to Japan and Australia.
In 1962, Baze and other top saddle bronc riders were invited to film rodeo events for the “Stoney Burke” television series that starred Jack Lord, fittingly, was about rodeo cowboys.
Later, when producers were frustrated because their stunt riders couldn't perform a scene that required a horse to stumble and fall on its rider, Baze offered his services. He agreed to do the stunt for $1,500 and membership in the Screen Actor's Guild.
“I did it on the first try,” Baze says. “Then I went on from there. I just kept after it, and after that the phone was ringing off the hook.”
He was hooked. Some stunt jobs only took a day or two, while others involved two or three months on location. Among the stars he rode for were Lee Marvin in “Monte Walsh” and William Holden in “The Wild Rovers.”
“What I liked about it was I could do things nobody else could,” Baze says.
The money was good, too. On the “Monte Walsh” set a horse fell and broke Baze's leg, but he wrapped in it an Ace bandage and kept riding, earning a large paycheck over the several weeks.
He masked his injuries, and his appearance.
“I'd wear a wig or a beard. On one movie I'd grown a beard, but I can only go a week or so with one of those, so I told them, ‘No, you'll just have to glue it on there.' “
While working in movies, Baze continued to ride in rodeos, worked construction and kept involved in his trucking business.
“At that time I was a work-alcoholic. That's what my first wife said.”
Baze married at age 18. When that ended after 16 years, he raised his four children. More marriages followed. Some lasted only weeks or months.
“Like I say,” Baze says with a shrug and an embarrassed laugh, “I was in Hollywood.”
Some earlier marriages were stormy. One of those earlier wives destroyed his collection of photos and memorabilia, but he still has video tapes from most of the movies.
Life settled down. He and his wife, Sandy, his fifth, have been married 20 years.
When Westerns fell out of popularity in the 1970s, he found other jobs. For a time he was a bodyguard of Debby Reynolds - “She'd listen to my rodeo stories by the hours” - and other times was a security worker in a Las Vegas casino.
“Only thing I'd do was walk around in a Western suit,” he laughs.
From 1979 until the mid-1990s, Baze raised and trained thoroughbred race horses in the Portland area.
In 1992, he and Sandy bought 640 acres of land 30 miles east of Christmas Valley. They moved to the ranch, which lacks electricity and operates on solar power and propane, in 1999. He runs 80 to 100 mother cows and calves. Unusually, some of the holstein-cross calves are nursed by goats. He also continues to train his and others race horses.
For the past several years Baze, who's still a work-alcoholic, has worked for Sam Dinsdale, a Christmas Valley hay grower. His duties include working cattle, cutting and raking hay and other farming chores.
“I was born with no fear,” Baze says of riding, whether with his race horses, rodeoing or being a stunt man. “When I'd get on breaking colts I wasn't scared. I've been been skinned up and thrown off ... Never anything that laid me up where I couldn't go on.
“I stayed in good shape. I never did drink much. When I cowboyed I never drank.”
Horses, as always, are still part of life.
“Just like riding a bike,” Baze says of being horseback. “Once you learn how, you never forget.”
By LEE JUILLERAT
H&N Regional Editor
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| Youths make a difference |
Reader Comments
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skii v. wrote on Jun 26, 2009 12:51 AM:
" Steven Vannarath is my cousin and he is a really good guy.ive been talking to him for the last couple months.After that night happend,i could not sleep for days thinging about him.He has a beautyful daughter that he miss.he will be a free man im acouple of months.GOD LET YOU BE WITH EVERYONE AMEN "
phillip wrote on Feb 1, 2009 1:43 AM:
" I'm looking for 100+ acreas of land with anual running water, stream, etc, with tree's, as forested as posible, am going to build a cabin for me to retire, thank you. "
Stephanie Patterson Southwell wrote on Oct 4, 2008 6:19 PM:
" I came across this article and find it very interesting. My grandad was the "Southwell" in Southwell & Stilwell :) My dad and uncles were raised in Klamath Falls until they moved to the Portland area. "
Margaret wrote on Apr 29, 2008 11:19 AM:
" It appears the two negative reader comments are associated with the wrong article, as they do not seem to relate. It's unfortunate they are appearing after reading such a nice article about this concert. "
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Rebecca T wrote on Jul 10, 2009 9:16 PM: