 (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Vernie Hillie, Artie Ortego, Noah Beery, Jr., John Wayne and an unidentified player in a scene from THE TRAIL BEYOND (Monogram/Lone Star, 1934). Ortego's film credits begin in silents around 1912-1915, and he appeared in many silents with Princess Mona Darkfeather (real name: Josephine M. Workman; 1883-1977). He was still working in the early 1950s. He often portrayed Native Americans. And he did scores of minor support/bit roles as henchmen, as well as some stunting/doubling and driving a stagecoach or wagon. You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral, and then to the California Death Records database. There you will find a record for: Arthur A. Ortego, born 2/9/1890 in California, Mother's maiden name of Gardnos, and he passed away on 7/24/1960. Diana Serra Cary wrote about her father and others in the book The Hollywood Posse: The Story of a Gallant Band of Horsemen Who Made Movie History (Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1975). Diana includes much emphasis and history on her parents, the western film, and a bunch of real cowpokes who did movies. In the early days of Disneyland circa 1955, there were plans for a stagecoach ride as well as a trail ride on pack mules. Diana's father, Jack Montgomery, was in charge of the pack mules. Driving one of the miniature stages was Artie Ortego, and the book outlines the incident when Ortego was severely injured when he purposely "heeled" the coach over to avoid trampling bystanders.  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Artie Ortego: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0650961/ | ||
 (Courtesy of Les Adams) Note the spelling of "Indian" as the State of "Indiana" in the blurb above which is from the pressbook for WHERE THE NORTH BEGINS (Screen Guild, 1947), one of the Mountie films starring Russell Hayden. Did anybody ever double check pressbook writeups? |  Artie Ortego (1890-1960)  | |
 (Courtesy of Ken Jones) Above from L-to-R are George Sky Eagle, Chief Many Treaties, Chief Yowlachie, Charles Brunner, J. W. 'Joe' Cody, Iron Eyes Cody and Chris Willow Bird during a break in the filming of KING OF THE STALLIONS (Monogram, 1942). | ||
 |  | There is a biography on the Internet Movie Database on Charles Brunner, and it mentions he was a "Dawes-enrolled, full-blood Creek Indian, born in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory". Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Charles/Charlie Brunner (AKA Chief Rolling Cloud): http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0116364/ |