News release
The city of Santa Clarita invites community members to attend the unveiling of the newest inductees to the Walk of Western Stars on Friday, April 21, at 5 p.m. Local stuntmen Billy Burton and Walter Scott will be formally honored with a bronze saddle on terrazzo tile at the unveiling.
This special event will take place on the sidewalk half a block south of Reyes Winery on Main, which is located on the west side of Main Street in Old Town Newhall, between 8th Street and Market Street.
Since 1981, the Walk of Western Stars has honored Western television, radio and film stars, and these new inductees will join them with their own bronze stars.
Burton was profiled in a January feature article in The Signal, and the story can be found at bit.ly/3oaDJnM. Scott was featured in an August 2022 article in The Signal along with fellow cowboy stunt legend Jack Lilley, who was inducted into the Walk of Western Stars in 2008. That article can be found at bit.ly/3KrEpga.
Burton is a longtime Castaic resident, a stuntman and second unit director with an impressive career starting in the mid-1960s. He has made more than 100 movies and television shows, with 30 of them in the Western genre.
He began his career on movies such as “The Shakiest Gun in the West,” “The Great Train Robbery,” and “Little Big Man” with Dustin Hoffman.
Raised in Southern California, his horse-riding skills and cowboy lifestyle made him a natural fit as a stuntman during the heyday of Westerns. Some of Burton’s other credits include “Blazing Saddles,” “Bite the Bullet” and “Heaven’s Gate.” He has also done stunts for non-Westerns, including “Predator,” “Bad Boys” and many more.
Scott, who is a Canyon Country resident, has been in the movie business since the mid-1960s as well. He has more than 200 credits as a stuntman, actor and second unit director, 54 of which are for Westerns.
One of Scott’s first jobs was as Clint Eastwood’s stunt double for the film “Hang ‘Em High.” He also worked on classic Western such as “The Cowboys,” “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and “Comes a Horseman.” Recent credits include the television show “Westworld” and two films made by Quentin Tarantino: “The Hateful Eight” and “Django Unchained.”
Outside of the Western genre, Scott did stunts for the 1975 version of “Rollerball,” “They Live” and “Back to the Future.”
Free parking for the Walk of Western Stars unveiling will be available in the parking structure on 9th Street between Railroad Avenue and Main Street. Community members are invited to further celebrate the newest inductees at a special reception inside Reyes Winery on Main beginning at 6 p.m.
The reception will include light appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks, wine for purchase and video clips of the inductees’ work playing on screens.
For more information about the Walk of Western Stars unveiling or reception, contact Arts and Events Manager Phil Lantis via email at [email protected]. A list of past inductees can be found at oldtownnewhall.com/walk_of_the_western_stars.
