L.A. Kid Turns Cowboy Fever
Into Movie Wrangler Career

By David Bowser

SANTA FE, N.M. — For a city kid from Los Angeles, Rudy Ugland has had a pretty good career cowboying, particularly on the silver screen.

"I was born right in L.A., California," Ugland says. "Right in the middle of the city. My dad traded horses; that's how I became involved with the movie business."

Ugland was so enamored with being a cowboy, particularly a movie cowboy, that he ran away from home once and ended up on the set of a John Wayne western. Eventually, he became a wrangler on Western movie sets.

"Being cowboy crazy, I couldn't get enough of it," he says. "I couldn't get enough of dreaming about being a cowboy. I was just a city kid who had dreams of the West. I loved it."

Fat Jones, Ben Johnson's father-in-law, owned a big movie rental stable in North Hollywood when Ugland was growing up. Ugland's father sold him horses for use in the movies in the 1930s and 1940s.

"He just took a liking to me and offered me a job," Ugland says. "He was one of the first horse suppliers to the motion picture business. It was through him I got my start. I learned my trade."

There's more to being in the film business than learning how to saddle a horse.

"You've got to have the knowledge of teams and wagons and trick horses and jumping horses and cattle," Ugland says. "I basically spent the younger part of my life learning what it took to be a cowboy. There's only one way you can learn it correctly, and that's by doing it."

Once he learned his craft and honed his skills to where he could sell his knowledge, then he pursued his movie career.

"I couldn't go tell a director or producer I could hook up six horses and drive a stagecoach if I couldn't do it," he says. "I had to learn that. I could always ride a horse. I was always around saddle horses, but I had no knowledge of teams and wagons and cattle and that aspect of it."

He learned about teams and cattle and how to handle them. He also learned to train horses to do tricks for the movies.

Ugland was 24 years old when he left the army in 1962 and got his first break. It was on the movie The Rounders, based on a Max Evans novel.

They were shooting the movie in Arizona, and a wrangler had gotten hurt. Ugland was hired as a replacement.

"I got a call to go replace him, and I went from L.A. to Flagstaff on a train," Ugland says. "It was one of the highlights of my life to be on that show with Glen Ford and Henry Fonda. Casey Tibbs was one of the stunt men riding the broncs on that show. Of course, that was a story that Max had written. I didn't know who Max Evans was, but I figured if a guy wrote something like that, he had to be a cowboy."

They were filming a scene where horses were being broken when Ugland arrived on the set.

"For the next two weeks, all we did was buck horses," he says. "I mean, they had some bucking horses. I'll never forget it. Casey Tibbs and Buzz Henry were the two stunt men they had on that job. These guys rode horse after horse after horse."

Tibbs was hurt after Ugland arrived when a horse bucked through a fence and fell with him.

"They sent him into Flagstaff to get his ribs X-rayed because the medic felt that he had some rib damage," Ugland recalls, and they sent him along with Tibbs.

Tibbs had a different idea, and had the doctors X-ray Ugland instead.

"On the way back, we stopped at a drugstore and he got a bunch of bandages and just taped himself up," Ugland says of Tibbs. "That was the toughest man I ever met in my life. He was a great, great, great cowboy."

Today, 35 years later, Ugland is in New Mexico shooting another movie based on a Max Evans book, The Hi Lo Country. This time, Ugland's the boss wrangler.

"When I read that they were finally going to make it, I pulled every string and called every connection I knew so I could get on this thing," Ugland says. "I hope it will be a classic just like The Rounders is."

Although he had worked on The Rounders, Ugland didn't get to meet Max Evans until this past year when they started working on The Hi Lo Country.

"I think he was as anxious to meet me and I was to meet him," Ugland says. "He wanted this thing to be done right. I've had a lot of meetings with big producers and directors in my life, but I think I was more nervous when I met Max Evans than I would have been if I was walking into Fox Studio."

Ugland, who also runs a livestock and equipment rental business out of his home north of Los Angeles, is providing the horses for The Hi Lo Country. The cattle they are using on the picture are from a local ranch, the Cook Ranch.

As boss wrangler, Ugland is responsible for all the animals in the film and all the technical parts of dealing with the animals, roping them, tying them down, teaching the actors to ride, and advising the director on locations where animals can be used in a safe manner.

"I started on this show five weeks prior to filming," he says.

The movie is set in northeastern New Mexico in the 1940s. Ugland has been working with Evans to make sure that as much as possible is authentic.

"The rodeo we put on is a 1945 rodeo," Ugland says. "We tried to use the type of livestock that they used back then, the big-foot Brahmans rather than the crossbred cattle they're using now for rodeo stock."

Wardrobe plays a big part in the movie, too.

"Even though I'm not involved with the wardrobe, I still like to put my two cents in with the type of hats they wore," Ugland says.

For the last 15 or 20 years, he says, there has been a move toward authenticity.

"If a picture takes place in New Mexico or Montana, they might have done things in a little different way, but I'll always seek myself out somebody I respect who has the knowledge of that part of the country and learn what I can from them about different type saddles they rode back then, the different type bridles they used," Ugland says. "What kind of chaps they wore.

"It's all different in different parts of the country. From the north to the south, they're all cowboys. It's all the West. It's all cattle people, but it's all done in a little bit different way."

Between The Rounders and The Hi Lo Country, Ugland worked on a number of movies around the world that required horses, ranging from Westerns to medieval knights.

"I went to Spain, and I did those movies over there," he says, "and I went to Italy, and I did those over there, the Spaghetti Westerns. At this stage of my career, I really like to work on good films. Whether they're big budget or low budget, it really doesn't make any difference if they're good quality films. I think one of the pictures I'm most proud of is Far and Away, about the Oklahoma land rush."

He was also involved in The Outlaw Josey Wales, Bite the Bullet, Lonesome Dove, Geronimo, Missouri Breaks and Maverick. Ugland was also the wrangler for The Good Old Boys, based on a book by Elmer Kelton, and he broke the stagecoach teams for the remake of the John Ford and John Wayne classic Stagecoach.

Burt Lancaster gave Ugland his first big break as a boss wrangler.

"I'd wrangled his horse on a couple of shows," Ugland says. "We got along real well. He's the first one who offered me my position as boss wrangler. We went to Europe with a bunch of Spaniards and did a picture called Valdez is Coming."

The list of credits goes on and on. Ugland's father, who followed his son and daughter into the movie business, was wrangler for Paul Newman's and Robert Redford's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Rudy followed him as wrangler for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Early Years.

"After I got in the film business, my dad saw how much money I was making, so he got in it," Ugland laughs.

Working with teams is a lot harder than riding, Ugland says.

"That's kind of my specialty, really," he says. "I don't keep a lot of big horses because back then they didn't use big draft type horses. Most of my horses are 1000 or 1100 pound horses."

All his horses are trained to pull wagons or stagecoaches.

"Even my roping horses are broke to work," he says. "I break everything to drive."

Ugland has a roping arena at home in California.

"We keep 35 or 40 steers," he says. "When I'm home, we team rope and practice all the time."

Ugland and his friends also rope on their day off on the movie set.

"There are quite a few actors that are so much into the West that just to be around horses, they have learned to rope and be pretty good horsemen," Ugland says. "Sam Elliott, who's in this show, is a good horseman. Billy Crudup, who's also in the show, is into it so much he's been going out with us on the weekend to rope. He's got to where he can catch."

Sean Howell, the stunt co-ordinator on the show, is a national finalist team roper.

"He's as tough as there is in the world," Ugland says. "Sean Howell and Clay O'Brien Cooper grew up together. Clay used to be a child actor. His dad is one of my best friends, Gene O'Brien. This is my first job without him. He just retired. He's a practical cowboy. He learned his craft on a ranch. I've learned so much from him about wild cattle in Arizona."

When they staged their rodeo for the film, they relied on rodeo talent.

"Over here when we did the rodeo," Ugland says, "we had Ty Murray who's four or five time champion of the world. He rode some broncs and bulls. Jimmy Anderson and Rob Smets, I don't know how many time champion bull fighters. We had Bud Tallman here doing the announcing."

Ugland admits he is still cowboy crazy after all these years and he hopes that his work shows it.

"I'm proud of the West and like to see the West portrayed like the West should be portrayed," he says. "I'm proud to be a cowboy."

As the cattle industry modernizes to meet today's world, Ugland says he hopes movies and books will help keep the Old West alive.

"I don't take anything away from these modern ranchers," Ugland says. "No matter what, it's still a hard job."