Joe Garcio

Like many actors of his day, Joe Garcio didn't start out in California but was actually the son of a shoemaker in Delaware. After drifting around for a while Garcio made his way to Hollywood where he was able to establish himself as a prolific cowboy extra that was well liked by his peers. Garcio's ability to handle and shoe horses lead him to appearing in westerns starting in the 1930s. He regularly worked in films doing posse scenes and appearing in Mexican settings. Like many cowboy extras, he couldn't make a living just doing only western movies. So Garcio found another revenue stream by appearing in many big budget films where they would need ethnic appearing extras when a movie's setting was an exotic location. By the 1940s, Garcio's bulky weight and short height lead him to found himself regularly working in westerns as bartenders and henchmen. He also started appearing as police officers. It wasn't uncommon for Garcio to be an actor's stand-in in films. When he was a stand-in