CRAIG CARTER
Doing What It Takes
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Craig Carter at Spring Creek Ranch.
Photo by Luc Novovitch
by Barbara Novovitch
W
rangler/stuntman/actor for more than
20 Hollywood films and TV produc-
tions, impresario for European TV real-
ity shows, European and U.S. commercials –
Craig Carter says “that’s what it takes to make a
living in the Big Bend.” Then the blue-eyed
singer-songwriter grins and rephrases his state-
ment: “No, that’s what it takes to keep living out
here.”
Although he’s traveled throughout Europe and
the United States, Carter can’t imagine living
anywhere other than the Big Bend. His home
now is a trailer, porches added, on Spring Creek
Ranch midway between Marathon and Big Bend
National Park. He spent his teenage years in the
park and was largely home-schooled after attend-
ing grades one through five in Marathon. “I never
liked school,” he admits. “I’d rather get a book
and find it out for myself.”
Teaching himself to play guitar at age 17, he
started writing songs. Those musical talents led
eventually to film connections, where he put his
horsemanship and knowledge of livestock to
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2011
work in all the work of a film wrangler. He had
the best teacher close at hand during his early
years – his dad Lynn owned the Chisos Remuda
horse concession in the national park for 22 years
and offered horseback tours at Spring Creek
Ranch when the family moved there in 1993.
Lynn Carter died suddenly in 1998. Craig
had migrated to Nashville, Tenn. a few years
before, seeking singer-songwriter connections. He
bought a faltering tape supply delivery company
and turned it into a $3-4 million-per-year busi-
ness. “I’m the first recording artist you’ve met to
go platinum on blank tape,” he jokes.
Craig’s first film work was in 1997 as stunt-
man/actor in director Steven Frears’ The Hi-Lo
Country, and Craig and his father both appeared
in Dancer, Texas Pop. 81, shot in Fort Davis and
directed by Tim McCanlies. Shortly after Lynn’s
death, Craig sold the Nashville tape supply. Then
he got a call from fellow Texan McCanlies to
work for him again – as stuntman/horse wrangler
for his Secondhand Lions, which starred Robert
Duvall and Michael Caine.