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Mickey Gilbert, the fearless stunt performer who jumped off a cliff for Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and doubled for Gene Wilder in films including Blazing Saddles, Silver Streak and The Frisco Kid, has died. He was 87.

Gilbert died Monday of natural causes at his home in Camarillo, California, his oldest son, Tim Gilbert, also a stunt performer, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Early in his career, Gilbert was a horse wrangler in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) and a bank robber in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). Years later, he took the lumps for Lee Majors’ Colt Seavers on the 1981-86 ABC action show The Fall Guy.

Though they weren’t friends at the time, Gilbert and Redford were in the same class at Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1954. They got together on George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when Redford...

Gordon T. Dawson, known for his work on television series “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Bret Maverick,” and his long association with Sam Peckinpah, has died. He was 84.

Dawson died in hospice in West Hills on March 6 due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

His work in the industry spanned many facets, from child actor and wardrobe supervisor to script writer and producer. In his last television series, “Walker, Texas Ranger” starring Chuck Norris, Dawson worked as a writer, supervising producer and co-executive producer, writing 32 of the series episodes.

Dawson joined the Army at age 17, serving as a marksman and sharpshooter. Post-service, he became a fireman before landing a job at Columbia Pictures where he spent three months in the studio basement aging soldier uniforms for the film “Major Dundee.” When director Sam Peckinpah noticed that some of the extras did not have properly-aged uniforms, he shut down production and called Dawson...

Gordon T. Dawson, who parlayed a stint as a costumer for Sam Peckinpah into a career as a writer and producer with credits including The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Rockford Files, Bret Maverick and Walker, Texas Ranger, has died. He was 84.

Dawson died March 6 in West Hills Hospital of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, his family announced.

A former firefighter, Dawson spent three months in a Columbia Pictures basement using a blowtorch, paraffin and glue to age the principal soldier uniforms for the Peckinpah-directed Major Dundee (1965). When the extras’ costumes did not match the ones Dawson had prepared, Peckinpah shut down production on the first day of shooting.

Dawson was summoned to the set in Mexico to age the other costumes, noting in the 1993 documentary Sam Peckinpah: Man of Iron that he was “terrified” to meet the intimidating director. He needn’t have worried, though; Dawson fixed the other costumes,...