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The Stunt Men and Women


Ted Wells
Real name: John Oscar Wells
1899 - 1948



(From Old Corral image collection)

Above is Wells as the star of THE PHANTOM COWBOY (Horner/Aywon, 1935).
Ted Wells was a second echelon western hero at Universal during 1920s silents and he also made several low budget oaters for producer William Pizor and Robert J. Horner. During those silents, Wells used his own name as well as "Pawnee Bill, Jr."

When sound arrived, he found himself relegated to bits/support roles and doubling work. He and Robert J. Horner worked together again in the mid 1930s, and the collaboration resulted in Wells having a very brief fling at stardom in a pair of bottom-of-the-barrel sagebrush yarns, THE PHANTOM COWBOY (Aywon, 1935) and the lost/missing DEFYING THE LAW (Aywon, 1935).

Ted Wells returned to bits and supporting roles in westerns and serials ... and he wound up as the frequent double for William Boyd in the Hopalong Cassidy films (stuntman Cliff Lyons doubled Boyd in the early Hoppy films). Wells was born July 11, 1899 at Midlands, Texas, and passed away on June 7, 1948, in Arizona.

Since Wells did play the lead in (a few) sound B westerns, there is a profile on him in the Heroes section on the Old Corral.


  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Ted Wells: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920438/



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