In "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," the two Wild West outlaws are trapped on the edge of a canyon and decide to jump into the river.
L. Jay Findlay was one of the two stuntmen who made the leap. At the time, he was a real cowboy who worked on the family's cattle ranch near Kanab, Utah, a town where the actors and actresses would stay while filming western movies and TV shows.
Often, the productions required extras, particularly skilled locals such as Mr. Findlay who could handle horses and herds. He, along with his brother, Lynn Farnsworth Findlay II of Salt Lake City, was hired as a stuntman for various movies and shows. He appeared in the original "Planet of the Apes" and served as a stunt double for James Arness, the actor who portrayed Marshal Matt Dillon in the TV series "Gunsmoke."
"Depending on what they were shooting, we'd be a cowboy, part of the cavalry or just a town person," his brother said. "Many times they'd spray-paint you and make you an Indian. They'd pay a little extra if you fell off of a horse or something. It was interesting."
L. Jay Findlay of Snellville died July 21 at his home. Heart failure was the suspected cause. He was 68. A memorial will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lilburn. Tom M. Wages Funeral Service, Snellville chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
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.
Mr. Findlay was in his 30s when he earned degrees in landscape architecture and environmental planning from Utah State University. His work caught the eye of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is based in Salt Lake City, and he was hired for various projects. It was the start of a decades-long career with the Mormon church.
For more than 20 years, this cowboy was the church's area director of facilities for the Southeast and the Caribbean. He oversaw construction of numerous churches and related facilities across the country and locally, said a son, Joshua Jensen Findlay of Athens.
"He built the church that the funeral will be held in, and he also did the original landscaping for the Atlanta temple," his son said. "I know he was really proud of that."
Even though he left southern Utah and the movie-making town of Kanab, Mr. Findlay remained a cowboy at heart.
"You should see our house; it is full of cowboy and western stuff," his son said. "He was a full-fledged cowboy who did cattle drives and the stuff you see in movies. He left the ranch but never stopped being a cowboy."
Additional survivors include his wife of 39 years, Karen Jensen Findlay; a daughter, Elizabeth Findlay of Boston; a sister, Elizabeth Findlay Tanner of Salt Lake City; and one grandson.
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