Happy Heavenly Birthday to Yakima Canutt! Much of the inspiration for John Wayne’s fearsome cinematic presence was derived from an undisputed tough guy, his stunt double Yakima Canutt. The two men first met on the set of the crime serial The Shadow of the Eagle in 1932, and John Wayne, at the time still a young student of the acting game, was eager to absorb anything he could from Canutt. Duke’s account of observing Canutt dealing with rowdy wranglers and stuntmen on set reveals the source for some of the most admired aspects of the persona: “I saw a couple of them chivvy and challenge him and watched his reactions,” Duke recalled. “When in trouble, he had a half-humorous glint in his eye and talked very straight and very direct to his opponent. You had a feeling that there was a steel spring waiting to be released.” As Duke continued to work with Yakima on under-the-radar Westerns such as The Telegraph Trail (1933) and Paradise Canyon (1935), he not only adapted elements of the stunt...