A drifting cowboy: Reel Cowboys of the Santa Susanas -- Johnny Carpenter

Johnny Carpenter (above right) (1914-2003) was an American film actor, screenwriter and producer. Between 1953 and 1956 he produced and starred in a handful of Westerns, three of which -- The Lawless Rider (1954), Outlaw Treasure (1955) and I Killed Wild Bill Hickok (1956) -- were lensed on the Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth.

Besides being B-Western actor, Carpenter had a great love of horses and tried to share his enthusiasm with all who cared. In the 1940s he created "Heaven on Earth" ranch, which eventually settled in Lake View Terrace, CA. The ranch was available for handicapped children -- mostly from Los Angeles -- to come and spend a day enjoying horses and the mock western town that served as the ranch's backdrop. The ranch operated until the mid 1990s -- approximately fifty years.

Johnny Carpenter's Santa Susana locations filmography includes:

Santa Fe Saddlemates (1945)[supporting role] starring Sunset Carson, Linda Stirling, Olin Howland (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Trail of Kit Carson (1945)[supporting role] starring Allan Lane, Helen Talbot, Tom London (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Song of Old Wyoming (1945)[supporting role] starring Eddie Dean, Sarah Padden, Ian Keith (Corriganville) PRC

Romance of the West (1946)[supporting role] starring Eddie Dean, Emmett Lynn, Joan Barton (Iverson Ranch)(Corriganville) PRC

El Paso Kid, The (1946)[supporting role] starring Sunset Carson, Marie Harmon, Hank Patterson (Iverson Ranch) Republic

Colorado Serenade (1946)[supporting role] starring Eddie Dean, Roscoe Ates, David Sharpe (Corriganville) PRC

Stranger from Ponca City, The (1947)[supporting role] starring Charles Starrett, Virginia Hunter, The Lone Star Cowboys (Iverson Ranch) Columbia

Badman's Gold (1951) starring Johnny Carpenter, Alyn Lockwood, Clarke Stevens (Iverson Ranch) Eagle-Lion

Cattle Queen (1951) starring Maria Hart, Drake Smith, William Fawcett, Johnny Carpenter (Iverson Ranch) Jack Schwarz

Cave of Outlaws (1951)[supporting role] starring Macdonald Carey, Alexis Smith, Edgar Buchanan (Iverson Ranch) Universal

"Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok" (1951) TV series

Duel at Silver Creek, The (1952)[supporting role] starring Audie Murphy, Faith Domergue, Stephen McNally (Iverson Ranch) Universal

Adventures of the Texas Kid: Border Ambush (1954)[supporting role] starring Hugh Hooker, John Laurenz, Pamela Blake (Corriganville) John Jay Franklin Prod

Lawless Rider, The (1954) starring Johnny Carpenter, Rose Bascom, Frankie Darro (Iverson Ranch) Royal West

"The Cisco Kid" (1955) TV series