D ANN y G ORDON J R ’ S ACTING D EBUT guns!

Explosions! a ction! a ll in a day’s work for d anny g ordon Jr. from a klavik. It’s a wrap. t he last scenes of a rctic e xhumation, a documentary that hopes to solve the mysterious origin of the m ad trapper through forensic science, has just been shot in the r ichardson m ountains. d anny g ordon Jr. is celebrating with his common-law partner m ichelle g ruben and her sister tanya g ruben.

“I’m very happy,” he said, his first taste of acting for the camera has been intense. For over two weeks, he has been acting as John m oses, the aboriginal special constable who helped end the pursuit of criminal m ad trapper a lbert Johnson in the 1930s. He was also the body double of a lbert Johnson in various scenes.

reenacting the 240 km foot chase where Johnson was fatally wounded required similar physical exertion. “ t here were no lines, just action,” said d anny. He ran around on snowshoes in -30 degree weather, and even scaled part of the r ichardson m ountain. t he historical costumes and mukluks he wore (which had previously been used in a Charles b ronson film) ripped apart during the shoot.

“ t he best part was playing the m ad trapper when his house exploded,” laughed d anny, imitating the enraged criminal. “I came out with two guns in my hands.” d anny said he would act again, if given the chance. He enjoyed working with fellow actors Herbert b lake and m elvin s ittichinli, who played the roles of l azarus s ittichinli and Joe b ernard respectively.

m ichael Jorgenson, e mmy award-winning filmmaker and director of a rctic e xhumation found his actors to be “real gentlemen.”

“ t hey showed up on time and took direction well,” he said, “ t here were a couple of days when we shot for over 20 hours, and they would still ask, was that ok, do you want me to do it again? t hey were real pros.” m ichael Jorgenson said d anny was a lot of fun to work with, and the fastest shot. “We used perhaps the same amount of ammunition as they did in the original shootout of the m ad trapper, and d anny would always be the first to say, can I get more bullets?”

In real life, d anny runs g ordon Contracting, a construction business in a klavik. His girlfriend was instrumental to his being ‘discovered.’

They were at Shingle Point when auditions were being held in Aklavik, but when Michelle sent his photo to Myth Merchant Films, Danny was chosen for his athletic build. “Lazarus Sittichinli was his mum’s brother, and I put that in the application, maybe that’s why he got picked,” she said. “The people of Aklavik are really happy to have someone from Aklavik be part of the film. We hope this film will make Aklavik more popular with visitors.” m ichelle g ruben is looking forward to seeing this documentary on the d iscovery Channel. “It’s interesting, we live in a klavik but we didn’t really know much about the mad trapper until we read the script. I can’t wait to see how it turns out on tv,” she said.

In gratitude for the assistance the community of a klavik has given to this project, myth m erchant Films will be giving back to the community by setting up an online community archive about the history of a klavik and the story of the mad trapper. a full dna profile of the m ad trapper has been created. a bout six families who believe they are related to a lbert Johnson will undergo testing to see if their dna matches. t he results will be out in a few months.