[1] Roberson grew up on a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico,[2] he left school at 13 to become a cowhand and oilfield roughneck.

He married and took his wife and daughter to California, where he joined the Culver City Police Department and guarded the gate at MGM studios.

During duty at Warner Bros. studios during a labor strike, he met stuntman Guy Teague, who alerted him to a stunt job at Republic Pictures.

He graduated to larger supporting roles in westerns for Wayne and John Ford, and to a parallel career as a second-unit director.

[citation needed] Bob Dylan drew him as Long Tom in his Beaten Path series, the drawing is entitled "Untitled 1" and is based on a frame from the film Winchester '73 (1950).