David Sharpe was a good looking and talented fellow who could have enjoyed a long career as a leading man.  No question about it.  But he was a man of action.  He loved stunt work.  Just for openers, he handled the action for Captain Marvel, Commando Cody, The Copperhead, Buck Rogers, and even doubled for John Wayne and Clayton Moore on occasion.

What he wouldn't do was talk about his work.

"I believe in letting the stars take all the credit," he said. "You take credit away from stars, or explain every little trick or illusion, and people will stop going to see their movies." 

His unwillingness to say more to this reporter seemed almost funny.  Only an hour before, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. praised him to the skies.  In the 40s, Fairbanks refused to star in four action pictures until Sharpe signed on as stunt coordinator.

"David's first concern was always people's safety," Fairbanks said.

At the request of Roy Rogers, Sharpe signed on as stunt coordinator and lead villain for Republic Pictures' "Bells of San Angelo."  The picture opened with Sharpe swinging from a galloping horse onto a speeding buckboard, stopping the wagon on its mark, and then delivering dialogue important to setting up the story.  There were not a lot of guys in the business who could do all that in one take.  According to to director William Witney, there were not a lot of guys in the business who could ride a horse!  Later in the picture, Sharpe threw a punch at Roy AND took the fall for him.  You had to watch carefully to catch the switch.

At the end of the picture, Roy went after Sharpe and actor-stuntman Dale Van Sickel(Captain America) up on a mountain top.  An accident waited to happen to someone up there, but Sharpe, Van Sickel, and director Witney had everything under control.  Roy called them the heroes of that Saturday matinee favorite.