Autry Music Director and Stand-in Dies
Gene Autry’s longtime music director and movie stand-in, Carl Cotner, has died after a long battle with cancer, it was disclosed Monday. He was 70.
Cotner arranged all the music performed by Autry as TV’s singing cowboy, including the Christmas classic, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” said Bob Stienbrinck, news director of radio station KMPC, which is owned by Autry.
Cotner died Friday at his home in Buena Park, Steinbrinck said.
Autry gave Cotner his start in show business as a fiddle player with his country music band, the Melody Ranch Boys, in the mid-1930s. That began a 50-year association that included stints as Autry’s stand-in in several movies.
Autry presented the Golden Boot Award from the Western Movie Actors organization to Cotner last August in recognition of his work in Westerns, Steinbrinck said.
The Indiana native is survived by his wife, Juanita, and children, Carl Jr., Lance and Linda. Funeral services will be private.
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