Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Moon Sign: Aquarius
Rising Sign: Cancer
In 1999, I received a kind letter from a gentleman named John who asked if I could help him find his Rising Sign. I replied and then received a letter from his wife, Martha, thanking me for the gesture and briefly shared her love of horses (definitely a Sag thing!). Over the years, Martha has continued her communications with me, always radiant and kind, but NEVER did she mention that she was a Giant in the fifties movie industry. She never mentioned being the stunt double in movies starring Clark Gable or Glenn Ford. She never mentioned that she was inducted into the Hollywood's Stuntman's Hall of Fame and, in true Martha style, Never told me that anything that brought attention to her; she simply would write kind and encouraging notes that meant everything to me in my early beginnings. It wasn't until I invited her to be our Member of the Month that Martha 'coughed' up her background and I was stunned!
Please welcome with me, this wonderful woman to the Member of the Month forum. Sit back and dive into her colorful life that only scratches the surface of her 76 years. While you're at it, this August is a HUGE award cermony called the Golden Boot, which will honor one stunt person. Send Martha your positive vibes that she be proposed as a Nominee!!
PS. Sorry about the weird spacing below, I wanted to fill it with as many pics as I could!!
Martha Crawford (Cantarini)
For a child raised around the who’s who of the movie colony with a professional polo player for a father, it was destiny of a sort that my adult life would revolve around horses and films. My youth had been spent riding and showing hunters and jumpers.
A mediocre screen test resulted in my being offered the job to double Anne Baxter in 20th’s Yellow Sky with Gregory Peck and Richard Widmark. 
Most of my jobs came to me as I could not only do the job, but because I did not look like the pre-conceived idea of a stunt girl. After all, I was to double the glamorous actresses of the silver screen.
I took time off to marry Bill Lear, Jr. of the Learjet fame. After a three year marriage to Bill, I boarded a train to Texas and studied with one of the most legendary horse trainers of our time.
On my return to Hollywood, my career became one of stunt doubling and riding for many of Hollywood’s more famous leading ladies.
I was contacted to double Eleanor Parker in MGM’s Interrupted Melody with the proviso I could do a 2 second mount from a standing horse. 
This academy award nominee required this mount to a bareback horse for a fire scene in an opera. In an ironic twist of fate, most of the stunt girls of that era were rodeo trick riders and their expertise was from a running horse. I, was the only one able to do the mount in the required time from a standing horse. I got the job. The studio ‘still’ picture of this scene was featured in Life Magazine.
I then doubled Eleanor many times and MGM became my "home" studio. I went to Hong Kong for her and did all the background work in the Seventh Sin. Eleanor stayed home and did the close-ups. In the King and Four Queens Eleanor, playing opposite Clark Gable, had them send a United Air Lines Charter plane to bring me to St. George, Utah, for a buckboard chase.
In addition to MGM, I worked for other major studios including 20th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros, Allied Artists, Republic and Disney.
I worked steadily until it was obvious that the low budget, made-for-TV films would cause the end of the grand western movies we all knew and loved.
I have enclosed a list of some of my films and copies of my personal photos. As you know, many times we were called to a studio and did not know the name of the film or the release date or any of the stars!
When the major studios and their memorable western films were being phased out, I returned to showing horses and had a live TV program in Las Vegas for a year with my own horse, Frosty, who I raised and trained from a baby. We appeared at many personal appearances and did numerous live TV commercials.
I met and married John Cantarini, a jockey whose name is synonymous with the California speedster Crazy Kid. The race track became my life too as his career took us to 27 different race tracks. It allowed me another view of horses and another chapter in my life long love affair with horses began. John was a jockey for 18 years until severely injured in an automobile accident.
My interest in horse racing history, re my web site Second Running, warranted me a valuable association with Laura Hillenbrand during the writing of her incomparable book: Seabiscuit, An American Legend.
http://www.secondrunning.com
Thru this connection I am now writing a book re my exploits with a collaborator, Dale Leatherman, Fall Girl: Life Of a 50’s Stunt Girl.
Martha was recently featured in Lake Country News...Read that article by clicking here!
