Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Melton migrated with his family to Los Angeles during the Great Depression.
[2] After three years of service in the Army Air Corps during World War II,[2][3] Melton began picking up acting and stunt work in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Melton is one of the founding members of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures, and his career spanned over 40 years.
Notable actors for whom Melton doubled include Roy Rogers, James Colburn, Richard Webb, Gregory Walcott, Duncan Renaldo in The Cisco Kid, Kent Taylor in Boston Blackie and The Rough Riders, and Martin Landau in Mission: Impossible.
Melton died in November 1995 of cancer at a hospital in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 74.