WILTON – He’s the most influential cowboy you’ve never heard of.

He’s Yakima Canutt, a silent era Western star who later went on to a behind-the-scenes career working on some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.

Canutt, famous for his equine skills and stunting ability, will be featured in a pair of action-packed early features in the next installment Town Hall Theatre’s series on the origins of the Hollywood Western.

“Branded a Bandit” (1924) and “The Iron Rider” (1927), both starring Canutt, will be shown on Sunday, July 25 at 2 p.m.

The screening is free and open to the public; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to support the Town Hall Theatre’s silent film programming.

The program will feature live music by silent film accompanist Jeff Rapsis.

“In this series of early Westerns, many of these films are nearly 100 years old, and so they’re not far removed from the ‘Old West’ depicted in them,” Rapsis said.

In “Branded a Bandit,” Canutt (pronounced “kah-NOOT”) is accused of murdering a miner whose family he was trying to aid; in “The Iron Rider,” Canutt cheated in a poker game, and later learns the card sharks are wanted men, prompting a pursuit for justice.

In “Branded a Bandit,” Canutt broke his nose in a 12-foot fall from a cliff. The picture was delayed several weeks, and when it resumed, all of Canutt’s close-ups were shot from the side. A plastic surgeon reset the nose, which prompted Canutt to remark that the fall actually improved his looks.

But Canutt’s starring pictures were only a small part of a long and influential Hollywood career.

Born in 1895 in rural Washington state, Canutt started out as a rodeo cowboy and then became a stuntman in silent westerns. Canutt later doubled for such stars as Clark Gable and John Wayne.

Canutt, whose given first name was Enos, later adopted the nickname “Yakima” after the Yakima River Valley in Washington.

Canutt was known for his proficiency in dangerous activities such as jumping off the top of a cliff on horseback, leaping from a stagecoach onto its runaway team, being “shot” off a horse at full gallop and other such potentially life-threatening activities.

During the golden age of the Hollywood studio system, Canutt became expert at staging massive events involving livestock, such as cattle stampedes and covered-wagon races, as well as Indians-vs.-cavalry battles on a grand scale.

Canutt’s most noteworthy achievement as a second-unit director came in his staging and direction of the chariot-race sequence in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) which, from initial planning to final execution, took two years.

Films on which Canutt served as second unit director include “Stagecoach” (1939), “Ivanhoe” (1952), “Old Yeller” (1957), “The Swiss Family Robinson” (1960), “El Cid” (1961), “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964), and “Rio Lobo” (1970).

Canutt was awarded a special Oscar in 1966 for his contributions to film. He died in 1986 at age 90, widely regarded as the most respected stuntman of all time.

Upcoming titles in the Town Hall’s summer series of silent Westerns include:

• Sunday, Aug. 8 at 2 p.m.: The first Westerns directed by a young John Ford, these two films feature popular cowboy star Harry Carey as “Cheyenne Harry,” the outlaw with a heart of gold. In “Straight Shooting” (1917), Carey plays a hired gun of cattle rustlers; in ‘Hell Bent’ (1918), Carey rescues a virtuous woman from banditos. A rare chance to see early Ford learning his craft.

• Sunday, Aug. 22 at 2 p.m.: Set in western Canada, “Mantrap” (1926) tells the story of a New York divorce lawyer on a camping vacation to get away from it all, but gets more than he bargained for with Clara Bow, then fast on her way to becoming Hollywood’s “It” girl. Directed by Victor Fleming, who would go on to helm “Gone With the Wind” (1939) and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).

• Sunday, Aug. 29 at 2 p.m.: Our look at silent-era Westerns concludes with the genre’s lighter side. In “Womanhandled” (1925), Richard Dix tries to win his girlfriend by taking up the rugged cowboy life, only to find it not so rugged. In “Go West” (1925), Buster Keaton sends up the legends of the West with his timeless brand of visual comedy; includes perhaps the most unlikely love story in any mainstream 1920s Hollywood film.

Accompanist Jeff Rapsis will create musical scores for each film live during its screening, in the manner of theater organists during the height of silent cinema.

“For most silent films, there was never any sheet music and no official score,” Rapsis said. “So creating original music on the spot to help the film’s impact is all part of the experience.”

“That’s one of the special qualities of silent cinema,” Rapsis said. “Although the films themselves are often over a century old, each screening is a unique experience — a combination of the movie, the music, and the audience reaction.”

‘Branded a Bandit’ (1924) and ‘The Iron Rider’ (1926), two early westerns starring Yakima Canutt, will be screened on Sunday, July 25 at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall Theatre, 40 Main St., Wilton, N.H. Free admission; a donation of $10 per person is suggested to support the Town Hall Theatre’s silent film series.

For more information, visit www.wiltontownhalltheatre.com or call (603) 654-3456. For more about the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.