L. Jay Findlay

L. Jay Findlay was a movie stuntman, landscape architect, and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Church. Findlay was one of the two cowboys who made the famous leap from a cliff into raging water in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Findlay was a true cowboy, who worked on the family ranch near Kanab, Utah, where many famous U.S. western movies were filmed. Findlay was a stand-in for James Arness in Gunsmoke episodes, and others. He alternately played a cowboy (herding cattle), an Indian (paid extra for falling off a horse) or a Calvary soldier. He also appeared in the original Planet of the Apes.

Mr. Findlay's family owned the Deer Spring Ranch, located near the Utah-Arizona border. The ranch was sold and eventually became part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. [1]

Findlay earned degrees in landscape architecture and environmental planning from Utah State University. For more than 20 years, he was the Church's area director of facilities for the Southeast United States and the Caribbean. He oversaw construction of numerous churches and related facilities across the country. Findlay relocated from Kanab to Atlanta.

Findlay died of apparent heart failure at age 68 in July, 2011, in Atlanta.