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| In Praise of the Unsung Movie Hero Their names are not widely known. Their faces rarely shown. Their work largely unacknowledged. Yet since the first days of filmmaking, stunt men and stunt women have thrilled and delighted audiences with daring and imaginative performances. The history of stunt performers is largely an oral one. The greatest stories are shared privately on sets, inside the stunt associations and handed down within the great stunt family dynasties. This site will expand this tradition by recording their experiences and their unique, insider's view of the film industry. To begin, we offer a brief overview of stunts throughout the ages of cinema history. Time To Honor It is impossible to name all those who have for so long gone unacknowledged. But it is possible to begin a new tradition. The Taurus World Stunt Awards is a powerful new program created to recognize and honor the tremendous contributions of stunt performers to the modern film experience. This celebration of the finest stunt men and women in the world will also serve as a unique and long overdue tribute to the brave, daring and innovative men and women who came before. Slapstick The rowdy comedy genre known as slapstick actually starred some of filmdom's original "stuntmen" - although they didn't call them that at the time. Leading the way were Mack Sennett's crazy Keystone Kops. This ragtag gang began as prize fighters, race car drivers, circus acrobats, strongmen, clowns, roustabouts and vaudevillians. They were a wild bunch, up for nearly any stunt the Sennett writers could concoct, and left behind a hilarious legacy of diverse performances. They were doused in oil, tossed off rooftops, launched into the ocean, butted by wild animals and plastered with pie. Their wacky "Kopwagon" was rigged to handle outrageous chases, near misses, collisions and explosions. Through improvisation and experimentation they developed many stunts and stunt techniques that remain popular today. History remembers the stars of slapstick including Charlie Chaplin, "Fatty" Arbuckle, Mabel Normand, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Stunt history remembers the names of those amazing Keystoners, including Georgie Jesky, Mack Riley, Charlie Avery, Edgar Kennedy, Bobby Dunn, Slim Summerville and Del Lord as well as slapstick stunt doubles such as Harvey Parry. Parry, a medal winner in the Pan Am Games for boxing and diving, doubled Harold Lloyd. In fact, it is stuntman Parry who hangs from the clock in the long shot of that most famous scene from Safety Last. But don't expect to find his name on the credits: Parry had an agreement with the studios never to divulge this fact and he kept his word throughout Lloyd's lifetime. Cliffhangers Serials were another popular film genre that was hugely action-oriented. Modeled after chapter stories found in ladies magazines, these shows featured damsels in great distress who more often than not saved themselves with their own feats of daring. These early actresses crossed rivers, scaled cliffs, hung from rooftops, dove onto moving trains, and leapt from speeding automobiles...or did they? In reality, men were widely used as stunt doubles in these action sequences. Rarely credited but tremendously valued stunt men of the day include Joe Bonomo, famous for his motorcycle work. Charles "Hutch" Hutchinson, a brave and athletic actor dubbed "The Thrill-A-Minute Stunt King" by his studio, Pathé. Gene Perkins doubled serial star Helen Holmes and was lauded by Photoplay magazine for "his amazing ability to figure out a stunt ahead of time and distance" and for his "icy clear-headedness" in carrying it out. Other notable serial stunt performers include Joe Cuny, Frank Hagney, Bob Rose and American Indian stuntman Silvertip. Stunt women were also featured in these early serials - and occasionally were treated better in the credits. One example is stunt woman Rose Helen Wenger. Wenger was an adventuresome young woman who trained as a rodeo rider and found her way to Hollywood through her friendship with western star Tom Mix. She was in great demand as a stunt woman and it wasn't long before she was tapped as a full-time double for serial star Helen Holmes. When Holmes left the series, not only did Wenger continue to do the action sequences, the studio renamed her "Helen Gibson" and made her the star. The Barnstormers The abrupt end of World War 1 left many young pilots with nowhere to fly. These adventuresome young men turned to exhibition flying and thrilled live audiences around the country with acrobatic flying and stunts such as wing walking. Hollywood directors quickly seized this new talent, hiring the best of the barnstormers to create and execute flying stunts in their films. Barnstormers were a fearless group and their history is more violent than most. Many lives were lost to that irreversible downward spiral. Handsome Army Air Corps instructor Lt. Ormer Lester Locklear was signed to develop the air stunts for The Skywayman which included almost every aerial stunt imaginable at the time, plus a few extras he developed during production. Locklear's ending could have been scripted: he didn't survive the final and most dangerous sequence in the movie in which the aerial bandit spirals to earth in a plume of smoke. Other notable stunt flyers from the barnstorming days include pioneer stunt parachutist Earl Burgess revolutionary camera plane pilots Frank Tomick and Harry Perry and Ben Lyon and Dick Grace, stunt flyers in William A. Wellman ' s legendary WW 1 flying adventure film, Wings. Hollywood's Golden Age The 1930's marked the beginning of Hollywood's glory days. It was during this action-filled period that the modern profession of stunts truly began. Westerns were the favored genre of the day. Moviegoers fell in love with the romantic vision of cowboy heroes and their adventuresome heritage. In turn, moviemakers fell in love with actual cowboys! They quickly hired up all the rough range riders and rodeo stars they could find, and set them to work, creating and executing stunts. The best of them all was rodeo rider Yakima Canutt, the first true legend of the stunt community. Yak put in 15 to 20 years, throwing punches, taking beatings and jumping off, over and under wagons. He also doubled for and acted with a movie-legend who became his lifelong buddy: John Wayne. While he worked, Canutt watched. And he quickly decided two things: that films were definitely lacking in the excitement department, and that he was the right guy with the right know-how to spice things up. And spice them up, he did, building himself a reputation as one of the most inventive and valued stunt coordinators in Hollywood. Canutt wrote action into the scripts, hired the stunt men, choreographed their action scenes, and then jumped in front of the camera to perform major stunts right alongside them. Canutt's major focus was safety. He was continually coming up with new, better and safer methods to create action in film. He developed a variety of harnesses and cable rigs that allowed him to add new and exciting horse falls and more dramatic wagon wrecks to the action typically seen in Westerns. He is also widely credited with the development of the choreographed screen brawl. In earlier films, the hero and bad guy wrestled around and threw unrealistic punches. The Canutt fight scene strategically positioned the camera at angles to the participants rather than straight on, and faced just one of the brawlers. These camera angles together with Canutt's detailed fight choreography resulted in the perception of bone-crushing punches. In 1966, Yak Canutt was presented with a special Academy Award ® , the first ever given to a stunt person, for lifetime achievement as a premier stunt performer and particularly for his development of a wide range of stunt safety devices. Canutt was part of an elite group of superior stunt performers who became some of the first "ramrods" which today are called Stunt Coordinators. Others include Breezy Eason, Dave Hardin Sharpe, Tom Steele and Dale Van Sickel. Breezy was noted for ramrodding the first production of Ben Hur. Sharpe, a superb acrobat, is remembered for astounding stunt work in such serials as Captain Marvel, King of the Royal Mounted Police and became the ramrod at Republic until he left to serve in World War II. Scotland-born Tom Steele took over as stunt boss at Republic after Sharpe left for the army. He was the only stuntman to have a contract with this prolific studio. Dale Van Sickel was an All-American football player and a College Football Hall of Famer. Van Sickel was one of Republic's most frequently used stuntmen and is remembered as a founding member and the first president of the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures. Succeeding Generations Today's stunt industry is peopled with second, third, even fourth generations of these founding performers. Joe and Tap Canutt joined the stunt community early on and dedicated their careers to continuing their father's legacy of safety and excellence. Each started as a stunt performer, worked up to a coordinator position, and each focused on building and maintaining a safe work environment. Paul Stader, John Epper and Carey Loftin also came up through the ranks to emerge as leaders of this generation. Stader was an incredible water man and diver and he helped train and guide up-and-coming stunt performers. Epper, the head of a stunt family dynasty, was a tremendously respected all-around stunt man. Loftin's specialty was car work, most notably the car chase in Bullit. Next came the likes of Hal Needham, Ronnie Rondell, Mickey Gilbert, Loren Janes, Bobby Hoy, Buddy van Horn and Glen Wilder. All were joined by women of equal talent and importance including Lila Finn, Connie Tilton, Frances Miles and Polly Burson. Each generation of performers has helped the stunt industry evolve, learning from those who came before, and adding their own talents, insights and creativity. This progression continues today, evidenced by additional Academy Awards presented to stunt professionals. In 1992, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Ken Bates with a Scientific and Engineering Award for the Bates Decelerator System, a device that significantly increases the safety of very high stunt falls. And this year, the Academy is presenting Vic Armstrong with a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for development of the Fan Descender and use of it throughout the years. Certainly all stunt performers are not related by birth to these founding members. Still, all are bound by blood: the shared blood that pounds in their veins and compels them to embrace the extraordinary life of a stunt performer. |