Harry Carey Jr. | Character actor, 91

Harry Carey Jr., 91, a familiar face in such John Ford classics as She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Searchers, as well as scores of other movies and television shows, from Perry Mason to B.L. Stryker, has died.

Daughter Melinda Carey said he died last Thursday of natural causes surrounded by family at a hospice in Santa Barbara, Calif.

"He went out as gracefully as he came in," she said.

His career spanned more than 50 years. Later in life, he appeared in the movies Gremlins and Back to the Future Part III.

While he lacked the leading-man stature of longtime friend John Wayne, his boyish looks and horse-riding skills earned him roles in many Ford films.

He and Ben Johnson famously learned to stand simultaneously on two galloping horses - a trick known as roman riding - for the 1950 film Rio Grande, starring Wayne.

During World War II, he served in the Navy and worked with Ford on films for the service.

His memoir, Company of Heroes: My Life as an Actor in the John Ford Stock Company, was published in 1994.

"I've worked with the great and the not-so-great," he wrote. "But mostly I've worked with men and women who loved their profession, and who, like me, had kids to raise and houses to pay for." - AP