The woman who was VIVIEN LEIGH‘s stunt double in 1939 epic GONE WITH THE WIND has died. Hazel Warp stood in for Leigh in all the horseback-riding scenes in the classic and helped to train the horses used in the film. She also tumbled down the stairs of Scarlett O’Hara’s home in a pivotal role in the film. The 93 year old also featured in beloved movies like Wuthering Heights and Ben-Hur. It’s the second Gone With The Wind-related death in as many weeks – actor Fred Crane, who played one of Scarlett O’Hara’s suitors in the movie, passed away on 21 August (08).
Hazel Warp
Petite and daring Hazel Warp earned her place in cinematic history nearly 70 years ago, when she served as actress Vivien Leigh’s stunt double as Scarlet O’Hara in the epic film, “Gone With the Wind.”
Warp died Tuesday at Evergreen Healthcare nursing home in Livingston. She was 93.
A Sweet Grass County native who became a rodeo trick rider in her teens, Warp stood in for Leigh in all the horseback-riding scenes in the 1939 Civil War movie. She even took a fall for Leigh, tumbling down the stairs of Tara in the famous scene toward the end of the film when Scarlett reaches out to slap Rhett Butler, loses her balance and falls.
“I never will forget it,” Warp said of her Hollywood work in a 2005 interview with the Chronicle. “I liked it, everything about it. I just liked my work.”
Born in Harlowton in 1914, Hazel Hash grew up on a small farm near Melville, attended a one-room schoolhouse and rode horses whenever she could, always bareback. She quit school after ninth grade, started training horses and wound up on the rodeo circuit.
“There was nothing she wouldn’t do and nothing she couldn’t ride,” her brother Bob Hash said in 2005.
In her 20s, she followed her older sister to California, “on a whim,” she said. She took the Greyhound bus all the way.
Her sister and brother-in-law ran Rancho Rio Stables in Culver City, where they bred and trained champion horses and gave riding lessons to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper, Bob Hash said.
Cowboy-actor Montie Montana helped Hazel get into the film business, where her equine expertise and thrill-seeking determination were sought after by directors. She appeared in “Gone With the Wind,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Ben Hur” and “National Velvet,” among others.
“We thought it was tops,” her brother said of her film work.
Her work was recognized in 2001 with a star in front of the Rialto Theatre in Bozeman.
She remained in California until 1965, when she moved to Virginia to be with another sister. She returned to Bozeman four years later, in 1969, to marry Lars Warp, a family friend from Big Timber.
A spokesman for Evergreen said Thursday that, due to federal privacy laws, he could not reveal how Warp had died. Her brother could not be reached for comment.
Funeral services will be held Saturday morning at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Bozeman.
Karin Ronnow can be reached at kronnow@dailychronicle.com or 582.2659.
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