Montgomery was an actual cowboy, born in Nebraska but raised in
Montana, and was an expert at riding, roping and shooting. He began a
small ranch in Montana, but economic conditions in the area doomed it
to failure. A few of his ranch hands told him that they were leaving to
take jobs in Hollywood as stuntmen in westerns. Montgomery decided to
try it, found that stuntwork paid more and was less stressful than
ranching, and made a career out of it.
