Evelyn Finley (March 11, 1916 – April 7, 1989) was an
American B-movie
A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...
actress
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
and
stuntwoman of the 1940s through the 1980s, mostly in
western films. Sometimes she is credited as ''Eve Anderson''.
Biography
Born in
Douglas, Arizona
Douglas is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, that lies in the north-west to south-east running Sulphur Springs Valley. Douglas has a Douglas, Arizona Port of Entry, border crossing with Mexico at Agua Prieta and a history of min ...
, Finley, an accomplished
equestrian, started off as a stuntwoman in the 1936 film ''
The Texas Rangers'', playing the stunt double to actress
Jean Parker, then later in the 1939 film ''
The Light That Failed''. She began acting in the early 1940s, on contract with
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
, often starring opposite
Tom Keene and
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a singer, and an actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. He was the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John Ritter, grandso ...
. Her first acting film role was alongside Ritter, in ''
Arizona Frontier'', released in 1940. In 1942 she starred opposite
Max Terhune and
Dave Sharpe in ''
Trail Riders'', and in 1943 she again starred alongside Max Terhune, with
Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Ray "Crash" Corrigan (born Raymond Benitz; February 14, 1902 – August 10, 1976) was an American actor most famous for appearing in many B-Western movies (among these the '' Three Mesquiteers'' and ''The Range Busters'' film series). He ...
, in ''
Cowboy Commandos''.
Through the remainder of the 1940s and well into the 1950s, she starred and performed stunts in numerous films, most notably ''
Ghost Guns'' in 1944 and ''Sundown Riders'' in 1948. In ''Ghost Guns'', she starred in the lead role, and also performed her own stunts, a regular event throughout her early career, and she received high praise for her riding stunts in that
movie
A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
.
She has often been called one of the greatest horseback riders in film history, joining the company of
Nell O'Day and
Betty Miles. Despite her age, she continued to work in the stunt business, either as an advisor or as an actual stunt performer, into the mid-1980s. Her last film in which she worked as a stunt technical advisor was the 1985 film ''
Silverado'', starring
Kevin Costner
Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Kevin Costner, various accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Primeti ...
and
Scott Glenn
Theodore Scott Glenn (born January 26 between 1938 and 1942) is an American actor. His roles have included Bill Lester in '' She Came to the Valley'' (1979), Pfc Glenn Kelly in ''Nashville'' (1975), Wes Hightower in '' Urban Cowboy'' (1980), as ...
. She died of
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood.
Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF ...
on April 7, 1989, in
Big Bear City, California, at the age of 73.
Filmography
* ''
Arizona Frontier'' (1940)
* ''
Dynamite Canyon'' (1941)
* ''
Trail Riders'' (1942)
* ''
Black Market Rustlers'' (1943)
* ''
Cowboy Commandos'' (1943)
* ''
Ghost Guns'' (1944)
* ''
Valley of Vengeance'' (1944)
* ''
Prairie Rustlers'' (1945)
* ''
The Sheriff of Medicine Bow'' (1948)
* ''
Gunning for Justice'' (1948)
* ''
Perils of the Wilderness'' (1956)
References
*
Western heroines, Evelyn Finley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finley, Evelyn
People from Douglas, Arizona
American stunt performers
Actresses from Arizona
American film actresses
1916 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American actresses
Actors from Cochise County, Arizona