Jack Lilley, the stunt performer and actor who made a home for himself on Little House on the Prairie by working on every one of the beloved NBC drama’s nine seasons, has died. He was 91.
Lilley had Alzheimer’s disease and died Wednesday at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his granddaughter Savanah Lilley told The Signal, a news outlet in Santa Clarita.
In Blazing Saddles (1974), Lilley played one of the outlaws who loots the town of Rock Ridge, and in one scene, he and his horse slide into a pool of mud and are submerged. It was an accident, but director Mel Brooks liked it so much, he kept it in the movie.
The mustachioed Lilley had worked with Michael Landon on Bonanza for years starting in 1961, and that led to Landon hiring him for Little House in 1974. (Landon, of course, starred in, directed and executive producer the latter show.)
Lilley often doubled for Victor French, rode stagecoaches and wagons and served as the series’ stunt coordinator.
On Instagram, Little House star Melissa Gilbert called Lilley “one of my favorite people on the planet” and noted that he taught her how to ride a horse “when I was just a wee little thing. He was so patient with me. He never said no when I would bound up to him squealing, ‘Can we go ride? Please, please, please?’”
From 1981-83, Lilley also acted and was the stunt coordinator on NBC’s Father Murphy, the Merlin Olsen starrer and Little House spinoff that was created by Landon.
John Elwin Lilley was born on Aug. 15, 1933, in Hughes Springs, Texas, in the same room where his grandfather and father — both also named John — were born. When he was 2, he and his family moved to the San Fernando Valley, and his dad would rent horses to the movie studios.
Lilley’s first job came as a horseback extra on one of the Durango Kid films when he was 14, and he helped wrangle the four-legged actors that co-starred with Donald O’Connor in the Francis the Talking Mule movies.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, Lilley joined SAG in 1955 and handled stunts and played a palace guard in Omar Khayyam (1957), starring Cornel Wilde. He then got regular work on ABC’s Zorro, starring Guy Williams.
He made the first of several appearances on the Clint Eastwood-starring CBS Western Rawhide in 1959 and reteamed with the actor-turned director on his films Sudden Impact (1983) and Pink Cadillac (1989).
Lilley’s big-screen credits included The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Cat Ballou (1965), The Rounders (1965), Beau Geste (1966), Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969), Used Cars (1980), Three Amigos! (1986), Young Guns (1988), Army of Darkness (1992), Bad Girls (1994), A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Planet of the Apes (2001) and The Legend of Zorro (2005).
Also an animal trainer, Lilley worked on CBS’ Gunsmoke at various times from 1961-74 and on such other TV Westerns as Wagon Train, Lawman, Branded, Bat Masterson, Death Valley Days, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Maverick, Cheyenne, The Virginian, The Big Valley, The Wild Wild West and The High Chaparral.
In addition to Gilbert, Lilley taught Billy Crystal how to ride a horse for City Slickers (1991); his company, Movin’ On Livestock, furnished animals for that film.
In 50 years as a stuntman, he said the most serious injury he suffered was a broken nose.
Survivors include his sons, Clay, Clint (both in the stunt business, too) and Ben; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His wife, Irene, whom he married in 1957, died in May at age 95.