AllMovie

Part Irish, part Blackfoot Indian, American stuntman Jack Padjan (or Padjeon, as it was sometimes spelled) remains one of the more elusive cowboy actors of the 1920s and '30s. His background is lost to history, but Padjan turns up as a stunt rider in the epic The Covered Wagon (1923). The following year, Padjan played Wild Bill Hickock in John Ford's The Iron Horse and worked with Ford again in Three Badmen (1926). There were other "Class A" films to come but Padjan finally joined the rank of Western stars with The Land of the Lawless (1927) and Crashing Through (1928), though both are among the most obscure Westerns of the period and Padjan failed to make much of an impression. He continued doing riding stunts and playing the odd supporting role -- sometimes billed as Jack Duane -- through the mid-1930s, when he retired to run a stable in Northridge, CA.