Military to honor rodeo star

Cowboy-turned- Marine-turned-actor placed in hall of fame



William ‘Billy’ Brown

William ‘Billy’ Brown

Moorpark resident William “Billy” Brown spent years in the United States Marine Corps trying to stay on the backs of bucking horses and bulls. Once Brown left the military, Hollywood paid him to get bucked off.

The veteran horseman will be inducted into the Military Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame on Sept. 10 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

“We are proud to induct this outstanding class of military cowboys who have made such great contributions at the highest level in military rodeo,” said Steve Wood, president of the Military Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Brown was born in El Paso, Texas. He and his wife, Wendy, moved to Moorpark nearly 15 years ago because it was a suitable place to keep their three rescue horses—Silverado, Tank and Bliss—and because of its close proximity to a frequently used movie set in Simi Valley.

The beginning of Brown’s rodeo career started 1,000 miles away in Mexico—Navojoa, Sonora, to be exact.

HANGING ON—William “Billy” Brown performs a falling stunt with his horse on the set of “Geronimo: An American Legend” in 1993. Courtesy photo

HANGING ON—William “Billy” Brown performs a falling stunt with his horse on the set of “Geronimo: An American Legend” in 1993. Courtesy photo

“I was raised with horses all my life,” Brown said. “I grew up as a charro, which is a Mexican cowboy.”

Brown’s father, J.P.S. Brown, was a renowned Hollywood stuntman, actor, Western author and a Marine Corps officer. The cowboy died last year.

J.P.S. Brown moved his family from El Paso to Mexico when his son was just 3 years old, so Brown only spoke Spanish throughout most of his childhood and adolescence

He joked that his father referred to their horses as his son’s first babysitters.

In Mexico, Brown was active in baseball and eventually played professionally as a catcher for future Dodgers pitching legend Fernando Valenzuela.

The athlete, however, soon left the sport to pursue a more left-field hobby.

In high school, Brown saw a rodeo competition advertisement and decided to try it out. He’s been riding bulls, busting broncs, roping calves and wrestling steers ever since.

“In Mexico, you ride with two hands until the animal stops bucking. In the states, you ride with one hand for eight seconds,” Brown said.

The Moorpark man enlisted in the Marines in 1979 and started competing in military rodeo competitions. His free weekends were spent at rodeo school.

“I would get on as many bulls and bucking horses as I could in two days,” Brown said.

The rodeo star racked up numerous titles and awards for a rodeo team in 29 Palms, where he was stationed as a machine gunner and sniper.

Brown also played a crucial role in helping his 29 Palms rodeo squad win the team championship in 1983.

His passion for a challenge came despite Brown’s father and wife advising against life-threatening hobbies, he said.

“I love adventure, I guess,” Brown said. “I trained as much as I could and said my prayers when I went into (rodeos).”

Brown rode his last bull in 1997, but carried that respect over when he began doing stunt work on Western movie sets.

“In the old days, during a Western scene, they’d trip horses when they wanted them to fall,” Brown said. “And I learned to train them by taking the right lead, and we’d do a tuck and roll. I’d fall with my horse.”

He doesn’t just fall off horses, he said, he also trains them.

“I like to make the ground soft for where they’re going to land,” Brown said. “Some of them like it, some of them don’t. For the ones that don’t, we don’t force them.”

Brown’s post-military movie career has included stunt work in “The Lone Ranger,” “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Django Unchained” and “Cowboys and Aliens.”

Brown’s first Hollywood gig was serving as the stunt double for Steve McQueen in 1980’s “Tom Horn.” His father played a preacher in the movie.

Although the 68-year-old no longer takes on dangerous stunts, Brown isn’t quite done with Hollywood. He’s open to acting in small roles in upcoming Westerns.

“I practiced all these years to stay on, and they started paying me to fall off,” Brown said. “So I got insurance and everything.”