John Scott is a 2025 inductee into the Alberta Order of Excellence, showcasing the impact he has had on the province.
Not bad for a guy who started off as a $25 animal rider extra and evolved his passion for Hollywood into a prominent production studio in Longview, Alta., that has been involved in a long list of movies and TV productions.
“It’s a very humbling experience to be nominated by my peers. It’s quite a remarkable thing,” said Scott.
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“I’ve worked with great crews and actors who want to make things as authentic as possible and make sure they get things right. The key to success is surrounding yourself with good people, and they’ll help you get ahead.”
The third-generation rancher, whose grandfather, William Bews, emigrated from Scotland in 1904, grew up learning rodeo and ranching. He has resided on the same 5,000-acre parcel of land his entire life.
His love of animals and rodeo experience landed Scott a job as a stuntman in the 1970s in Hollywood.
He never suffered any serious injuries, such as broken backs or hips, but said safety for stuntmen has grown by leaps and bounds since his days on set. When Scott first started and asked the veterans the tricks of the trade, it was simply to fill a gunny sack with straw in it and wrap it around his legs with twine for protection.
“The technology has changed so much. You got high-tech stuff now with blow-up ankle supports, you got the most modern hockey equipment for your body. It’s out of this world now and sure makes a difference.”
Those early days turned into five decades of Hollywood experience as a stunt-co-ordinator/performer, head animal wrangler, location scout, transportation co-ordinator, consultant and provider of scenery with three separate western movie sets built on his ranch.
The third and final season of the Billy the Kid television series is partially being shot on Scott’s ranch. He worked with Clint Eastwood on the Academy-Award winning movie Unforgiven, who was quoted as saying the landscape beauty Alberta possesses could be made to look like five separate U.S. states in the U.S.
Movie and TV production has meant big bucks to the Alberta economy.
“At the end of Unforgiven, I got the fuel account at the Esso fuel station log, and he said it was like having another summer. The spinoff of the movie dollar is five/six to one,” said Scott.
“It goes to hotels, rental cars are always a million-dollar contract. Lumber yards are big building extra sets on ranches. It is kind of found money in a way, and it attracts a form of tourism. It’s something for Alberta to be proud of with movies seen around the world.”
Scott recalls back in the day sitting along the Bow River when a big Chinook melted all the snow. The American wranglers were in awe of the breathtaking beauty of the Prairies.
“They said this is going to be the next hot spot where they shoot westerns. There are no skyscrapers or telephone or power lines. You could shoot forever,” said Scott.
“I picked up on that, and I liked western pictures anyway.”
Scott continued to learn the craft in Hollywood and then returned home and started gathering together the western equipment ussed by his grandfather, who had farmed with horses until 1959.
From that early start with his grandfather’s harnesses, wagons and buggies, he has turned the ranch into John Scott Motion Picture Animal Productions.
“In the early days, you may get one picture here a year, two if you’re lucky. Now we are getting probably 12 a year roughly,” he said.
“It’s a working cattle ranch. We run cows and calves and buffalo, and keep a lot of horses for the movie business and ranch.”
Scott has been involved in seven Academy-Award winning films, including Legends of the Fall, The Revenant, Lord of the Rings and Days of Heaven. Name a prominent actor over the decades and Scott has likely worked with them on projects, including Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Jackie Chan, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Paul Newman.
“Brad Pitt had never really ridden horses much before he came here for Legends of the Fall and was sort of a nobody at the time, just starting his career. He was great and wanted everything perfect. Then he didn’t come back again until Assassination of Jesse James, and he had not been on a horse since then, so we had to start all over again,” said Scott.
“Jackie Chan worked so hard (on Shanghai Noon) at everything. He had never been on a horse, but after two or three weeks, looked like he had been on a horse forever. Such a gracious man. We had a crew of about 250, and every Saturday night, he’d take about 50 of them out for Chinese food until he circulated through the whole crew.”
Scott’s Alberta Order of Excellence award also recongized he work running one of the first rodeo steer-riding schools in the 1980s, where future Calgary Stampede bronc, bareback and bull riders learned their craft.
For more than 40 years , he’s provided the Calgary Stampede Parade with many of its horses.
Scott is the founder of the Alberta chapter of Stunts Canada, an association of professional stunt co-ordinators and performers that was formed in Vancouver in 1974.
The investiture ceremony for the Alberta Order of Excellence will be held in Edmonton in October.
![Conservative agriculture critic and Alberta Foothills MP John Barlow said some [people who raise horses for the overseas meat market] were harassed and bullied and wanted no part of the study, even though they could lose their livelihood if the bill is passed. | File photo](https://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/30150023/03-BJM121610horse-feedlot-235x165.jpg)
