Rene Veluzat, an actor and stuntman who used his Hollywood connections to start two movie ranches in the Santa Clarita Valley, died on March 21 from cancer. He was 80 years old.According to a story in the Santa Clarita Signal newspaper, Veluzat was a Santa Clarita native born in 1940, who started out as a child actor and then transitioned into doing film work as a stuntman and supporting crew. In later years he created two movie ranches: Blue Cloud Movie Ranch and later Diamond V Movie Ranch.He sold Blue Cloud in 2015 to Dylan Lewis, who told the Signal that he loved every interaction he had with Veluzat.“I know he was excited when he was retiring to know his baby was going to somebody that was going to keep it as a movie ranch and sort of take the baton and run with it, and I was excited to do that,” Lewis was quoted in the paper.Veluzat’s family has made a business of movie ranches. Family members own Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall and the Melody Ranch Studio Backlot, formerly known as the Veluzat Motion Picture Ranch in Saugus.
Rene Veluzat’s nephew Daniel Veluzat said that his uncle always wanted to make movie companies happy and to feel good about filming on his ranches in Santa Clarita.“His generosity to film productions and his years of knowledge in the industry I think really helped film companies believe and trust in filming a lot in Santa Clarita,” Daniel Veluzat told the Signal.