4. Carolyn Day, “Jeannie Epper a Real-Life Wonder Woman,” Inside Stunts, Winter 2007, 11–12. A gymnast, acrobat, and trick rider, Day performed stunts in Drive, Threshold, and Lost; she stunt-coordinated Dockweiler, Sanctuary, Death in Charge, Paying for It, Stacy’s Mom, Make It or Break It, Karl Mulberry, and Redemption.
5. Fellner, “Stuntwomen: Breaking Through,” 34.
6. Day, “Jeannie Epper Real-Life Wonder Woman,” 12–13.
7. Author interview with Jeannie Epper. In the 1970s she also worked on Emergency, The Rockford Files, Charlie’s Angels, Bionic Woman, Eaten Alive, The Poseidon Adventure, and The Don Is Dead.
8. “Person of the Week: Jeannie Epper,” ABC News Internet Venture, May 12, 2007.
9. Chase, “Women Daredevils.”
10. Roberts, “Fall Girls Getting the Drop.”
11. Jean Coulter worked on Cujo, Time Bomb, A View to Kill, The Quest, Remington Steele, The Paper Chase, Airport ’77, Kojak, Stunts, Beach Patrol, Hart to Hart, Charlie’s Angels, Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Rockford Files, Harry-O, Baretta, The Villain, and The Children of Times Square (as stunt coordinator). Jean’s son, Shawn Coulter, also did some stunt work and was a producer on Uninvited. Jean’s sister, Lori Martin, appeared in Cape Fear and The Chase.
12. Chase, “Women Daredevils.” Julie Johnson’s many stunt performances include work on Doctor Doolittle, The Strawberry Statement, Women in Chains, and Pete ’n’ Tillie.
13. Vince Cupone’s credits include Castle, All My Children, Meet Dave, Sex in the City, The David Letterman Show, Rescue Me, Law & Order, Dirty Sexy Money, and The Sopranos; he was assistant stunt coordinator for Cupid, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Rescue Me, and The Beautiful Life: TBL and stunt coordinator for How to Make It in America, Nexus, Pan Am, and Golden Boy.
14. Regina Parton doubled Stephanie Powers on Hart to Hart and Jaclyn Smith on Charlie’s Angels. Donna Garrett worked on Lost in Space, Star Trek, Police Woman, Cagney & Lacey, Twins, Ghostbusters, and Hero.
15. Willson, “Stuntwomen the Invisible Superheroes,” 53. Debbie Evans’s 1970s credits include Rock ’n’ Roll High School, The Concorde . . . Airport ’79, The Dukes of Hazzard, CHiPs, and Wonder Woman.
16. Christine Anne Baur worked on Maximum Overdrive, Over the Top, Mannequin on the Move, Eye of the Tiger, Hellhole, Sudden Impact, The Witches of Eastwick, The Singing Detective, and Thicker than Water. In 2005 she was among the group that won the World Stunt Award for best specialty stunt, for Taxi.
17. The Baxley Bunch stuntmen were Al Wyatt Sr., Bobby Orison, Jerry Summers, Henry Kingi Sr., Al Wyatt Jr., Henri Kingi Jr., and Paul Baxley’s son Craig and nephew Gary.
18. Fellner, “Stuntwomen: Breaking Through,” 34.
7. Disaster Movies and Disastrous Stunts
1. The Poseidon Adventure (1972) employed forty-one stuntmen and nine stuntwomen, including Lila Finn, Paula Dell, Jeannie Epper, Marylyn Bower, Carol Daniels, Donna Garrett, Marilyn Moe Stader, and June Ioma Wilson. The sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), employed sixteen stuntmen and six stuntwomen. King Kong (1976), with an estimated budget of $24 million, used twelve stuntmen and four women; in comparison, the 1933 version of King Kong was budgeted at $670,000 and used eighteen stuntmen and six stuntwomen. Logan’s Run (1976) employed eighteen stuntmen and fifteen stuntwomen. The Hindenburg (1975) had about forty stunt players, including Rosemary Johnston, Regina Parton, Dottie Catching, and Evelyn Smith. Apocalypse Now (1979) employed five stuntmen. More than fifty stunt people worked on 1941, including stuntwomen May Boss, Denise Cheshire, Eurlyne and Jeannie Epper, Leslie Hoffman, Mary Peters, and Regina Parton. The Black Hole (1979) had twelve stuntmen and three stuntwomen. Meteor (1979) had eighteen stuntmen and six stuntwomen.
2. Airport (1970) employed two stuntwomen, Airport 1975 had one stuntwoman, Airport ’77 had five stuntwomen, and The Concord . . . Airport ’79 had eight stuntwomen. These were small gains, but they were better than The Planet of the Apes franchise: 1968, twenty-nine stuntmen and no stuntwomen; 1970, thirty stuntmen and no stuntwomen; 1971, three stuntmen; 1972, forty-three men and two women, Paula Crist and Regina Parton; 1973, thirty-two men plus Crist and Parton.
3. Six stuntmen worked on Jaws (1975), and eighteen stuntmen and two stuntwomen worked on Star Wars (1977).
4. Blazing Saddles employed sixty-two stuntmen and eleven stuntwomen.
5. Of the seventy-three stunt people hired for The Towering Inferno, eleven were women, including May Boss, Paula Crist, Paula Dell, Jeannie and Stephanie Epper, Lila Finn, Regina Parton, Glynn Rubin, and Marilyn Moe Stader.
6. Glynn Rubin’s credits include The Chase, Independence Day, Private Benjamin, Cutter’s Way, RoboCop 2, The Sting II, Foul Play, and Hard Target.
7. Sandra Lee Gimpel’s early credits include Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants, Man from the 25th Century, and The Poseidon Adventure.
8. Hollywood Reporter, May 10, 1974, cited 141 stunt people working on Earthquake. The Internet Movie Database lists more than 100, including Richard Washington, Henry Kingi, Bob Minor, and three other African American stuntmen, along with twenty-four stuntwomen, among them May Boss, Polly Burson, Evelyn Cuffee, Carol Daniels, Paula Dell, Patty Elder, Jeannie and Stephanie Epper, Lila Finn, Donna Garrett, Louise Johnson, Peaches Jones, Stevie Myers, and Regina Parton. The quake effect was produced by the “Shaker Mount” camera system developed for the movie.
9. As a dancer, Paula Dell worked with Martha Graham, Jose Limon, and choreographers Jerome Robbins, Jack Regas, Busby Berkeley, and Nick Castle. As an acrobat, she toured with the Russ Saunders Trio in the 1950s and worked in Ted DeWayne Brothers Circus and DeWayne’s acrobatic shows, performing an adagio-teeterboard act and circus acrobatics that involved a trampoline, Arabian pyramids, and aerial work. This was great experience for her stunts on Logan’s Run, The Poseidon Adventure, Silent Movie, In Harm’s Way, The Towering Inferno, Death Race 2000, Swashbuckler, and Star! In 2003 she was inducted into the U.S. Sports Acrobatics Hall of Fame Gallery of Honor.
10. Willson, “Stuntwomen the Invisible Superheroes,” 53.
11. Finn interview in SAG, “Stuntwomen’s Oral History Project.”
12. De Witt, “Ride ’em Cowgirls.”
13. Finn, “Perils of Polly.”
14. Stunts employed stuntwomen Lee Polford, Deanna Dae Coleman, and Jean Coulter; its stuntmen included Dar Robinson, A. J. Bakunas, Gary David, and Paul Nuckles. Deanna Dae Coleman was the only stuntwoman in The Stunt Man.
15. One year earlier Needham had directed his first picture, the surprise hit Smokey and the Bandit (1977).
16. The stuntwomen on Hooper included Janet Brady, Jadie David, Patty Elder, Regina Parton, Mary Peters, Pamela Bebermeyer, Louise Johnson, and Bonnie McPherson. Bobby Bass was the stunt coordinator. High-fall expert A. J. Bakunas leaped a record 232 feet from a helicopter into an airbag.
17. Sammy Thurman’s credits include Diabolique, Misery, Peacemaker, American History X, and The War of the Roses. Janet Brady’s credits include Cannonball!, Silver Streak, Smokey and the Bandit, Blade Runner, Beverly Hills Cop, Fatal Attraction, The War of the Roses, Terminator 2, Basic Instinct, Rain, Gone in 60 Seconds, Evolution, Say It Isn’t So, Orange County, Showtime, and her favorite, The Kitty O’Neil Story.
18. Alan Gibbs (1940–1988) was a stuntman, stunt coordinator, and second-unit director. His credits include Chinatown, The Deerslayer, Scorpio, The Stone Killer, Jigsaw John, Cannonball Run II, and Legal Eagles.
19. In Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Buster Keaton & Joseph M. Schenck Productions, United Artists, 1928), Louise Keaton is credited as the stuntwoman doubling Marion Byron.
20. In 1980 sportswoman Kitty O’Neil held the land speed record for women at 512 miles per hour; she was also the fastest woman on water skis, at 105 miles per hour, and a champion drag boat racer. She doubled Lee Grant in The Omen II, was set on fire in Airport ’77, and did a six-story fall in a 1975 episode of Baretta; on Eschied she set a world record of 127 fe
et for a fall, then broke her own record with a 180-foot fall. Amazingly, Kitty was deaf, but her remarkable mother taught her how to talk and how to play the piano and the cello. She gave Kitty “a dime or a quarter to try to jump off the high dive or master a new athletic skill,” according to Janet Chase’s 1980 article in Cosmopolitan. Her husband, stuntman Duffy Hambleton, appeared in Midway, Bound for Glory, and Cleopatra Jones.
21. In contrast, the Stuntmen’s Association retained its all-male membership until March 2002, forty-one years after its founding, when Jeannie Epper was made an honorary member.
22. John D. Ross, “Jophery Brown: This Guy’s Something Else,” Inside Stunts, Summer 2007, 23–25. Brown’s credits include Bonfire of the Vanities, Kiss the Girls, The Flood, Along Came a Spider, Sum of All Fears, and Dreamcatcher.
23. King Kong’s four stuntwomen were Kelly Nichols, Beth Nufer, Diane Peterson, and Sunny Woods (Woods and Nichols doubled Jessica Lange). Sunny Woods’s other credits include Logan’s Run, Witchboard, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, and Bustin’ Loose.
24. Ronnie Lippin, “Women Who Fall for Their Jobs,” American Way, June 1977.
25. Day, “Jeannie Epper Real-Life Wonder Woman,” 11.
26. Susan Backlinie’s other credits include The Fall Guy, 1941, and Quark. The stuntmen in Jaws were Richard E. Butler, Howard Curtis, Frank James Sparks, Dick Warlock, Fred Zendar, and Dick Ziker; Ted Grossman was the stunt coordinator.
27. Chase, “Women Daredevils.”
28. Glory Fioramonti’s stunt credits include Carrie, Rocky, Escape from New York, Thelma and Louise, The Abyss, Alien Nation, and Groundhog Day; she was stunt coordinator for The Client, Till There Was You, Earthly Possessions, Kalamazoo? Hush, The Craft, Bam Bam and Celeste, and If These Walls Could Talk 2, among other films.
29. Chris Nashawaty, “Danger Is Their Middle Name,” Entertainment Weekly, October 19, 2007, 96.
30. Chase, “Women Daredevils.”
31. In addition to Jadie David, Rollercoaster’s stunt players were Diamond Farnsworth, James W. Gavin, Bob Herron, Larry Holt, Tanya Russell, and Jesse Wayne. John Daheim was the stunt coordinator.
32. “Stunters Are Injured,” Variety, November 1, 1976.
33. By 1979, Debbie Evans’s credits included General Hospital, Deathsport, Rock ’n’ Roll High School, CHiPs, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Smokey and the Bandit II. Other stuntwomen on The Jerk were Diane Peterson and Jeannie Epper.
34. Conrad E. Palmisano’s other credits include Police Story, Kung Fu, and Cat Ballou; he stunt-coordinated Grand Theft Auto, Thunder and Lightning, Spenser: For Hire, Stakeout, and War and Remembrance and was second-unit director for Red Dragon, X-Men, The Peacemaker, and many other films.
35. Willson, “Stuntwomen the Invisible Superheroes,” 53. In 1979 Debbie Evans was also the highest-placed woman in the National Motorcycle Trials Championship.
8. Stunt Safety and Gender Discrimination
1. Stuntwoman Donna Garrett worked on Logan’s Run, Laverne and Shirley, Melvin and Howard, Cagney & Lacey, Airport, Ghostbusters, Hero, Tron, and Footloose, among many others. In addition to stunt-coordinating, Sandy Gimpel doubled the lead in Mrs. Columbo (Kate Mulgrew). She was also stunt coordinator for A Vacation in Hell, Otherworld, Population: 1, Timescape, Seinfeld, Any Day Now, State of Grace, Seven Hours to Judgment, Montana Amazon, Tourist Trap, Hellhole, These Old Broads, Diamond Confidential, Luis, Immortal Combat, Double Cross, and Adventures of the Dunderheads and was second-unit director on Harts of the West.
2. Interview with Beth Kennedy in Gregory, Women Who Run the Show, 65–66. As a senior vice president of business development and administration at Universal Studios/MCA, she developed systems and hired and trained administration, information systems, and telecommunications personnel.
3. Interview with Gale Anne Hurd in Gregory, Women Who Run the Show, 217–18. Hurd’s other credits include Very Good Girls, Choctaw Code Talkers, The Wronged Man, The Walking Dead, Gaiking, and The Nameless.
4. Freedland, “Danger Biz,” 21. For Ron Rondell’s stunt, see also Kevin Conley, The Full Burn: On the Set, at the Bar, behind the Wheel, and over the Edge with Hollywood Stuntmen (New York: Bloomsbury, 2008).
5. Julie Johnson coordinated seventeen episodes of the fourth season of Charlie’s Angels; she also doubled the stars in nine of those episodes. Darlene Tompkins doubled Cheryl Ladd, and Hilary Thompson doubled Kate Jackson.
6. Jean Coulter married in 1961, had two children ten months apart, and divorced soon after. A few years later she remarried, divorced, and became a single mom again. In 1981 she married and is still married to Ray Marek, a high-wire walker, human cannonball, and professional water-skier (his stunt credits include Witchboard and Fletch). Jean and one of her former husbands developed, financed, and ran Camera Cars Unlimited.
7. Bobby Bass (1936–2001) stunt-coordinated Hooper, The Cannonball Run, Rocky V, Corvette Summer, Lethal Weapon, Excessive Force, and Warning Signs; he was second-unit director for Thelma and Louise and Black Rain. Howard Curtis’s credits include The Deer Hunter.
8. Testimony of Jean Coulter-Marek, August 14, 1987, summary of reporter’s transcript, Johnson v. Spelling-Goldberg Productions, vol. 5, 929–30.
9. Transcript of attorney Richard Grey’s pretrial interview with Julie Johnson, March 1987.
10. Coulter-Marek testimony, 936–39.
11. Grey-Johnson interview, 1–2.
12. Author interview with Julie Johnson.
13. Coulter-Marek testimony, 939–42.
14. Grey-Johnson interview, 3.
15. Coulter-Marek testimony, 941.
16. Grey-Johnson interview, 3.
17. Coulter-Marek testimony, 949.
18. Author interview with Jean Coulter.
19. Coulter-Marek testimony, 952.
20. Author interview with Johnson. At the trial in 1987, Blair Gilbert testified that she didn’t see the dailies.
21. Grey-Johnson interview, 4.
22. Coulter-Marek testimony, 939.
23. Grey-Johnson interview, 6–8.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Coulter-Marek testimony, 971, 976.
27. Grey-Johnson interview, 9–10.
28. Author interview with Johnson.
29. Grey-Johnson interview, 11–15.
30. Ibid.
31. Author interview with Johnson.
32. Dave Robb, “Stunt Community Intensifying Efforts for Ratings System,” Hollywood Reporter, September 14, 1981, 4.
33. SAG Stuntwomen’s Facts, August 8, 1984.
34. Minutes of Stunt and Safety Committee, February 27, 1982.
35. Jeffrey Hansen, “Business Is No Joke to Movie Fall Guys,” Los Angeles Times, September 20, 1981, 10.
36. In 1983 the SAG board turned down the ratings system because it was based only on the number of days a stunt performer worked. In the 1983 contract negotiations, versions of “getting the wigs off men” and eliminating the practice of “painting down” were accepted, but as one stuntwoman said, “The guild has some pretty sketchy language that has to do with who you hire as a double. It’s not really clearly defined.” In 2001 the definitions were improved.
37. Henry Wills, “Ego Has No Place in the Matter of Safety,” Film News International, September 1984. Wills’s forty-seven-year career began in 1935; he was president of the Stuntmen’s Association in 1974–1975. His secret for safety on the set: careful preparation.
38. Robb, “Stunt Community Intensifying Efforts,” 4.
9. Danger, Drugs, and Death
1. Stuntwoman Paula Moody (1951–2007) also worked on Action Jackson, Lisa, RoboCop 2, The Wizard, and The Blob. Other stunt players on Airplane! were Janet Brady, Paula Dell, Mary Peters, Diane Peterson, and Dar Robinson.
2. Dean Jeffries stunt-coordinated.
3. Michael London, “The Stunt Man: Issue of Safety vs. Spectacle,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 1983, 1.
4. Stuntwomen in The Blues B
rothers included Pam Bebermeyer, May Boss, Janet Brady, Jean Coulter, Carol Daniels, Jadie David, Jeannie and Stephanie Epper, Karen McLarty, Stevie Myers, Kitty O’Neil, Lee Pulford, Tanya Russell, and Sharon Schaffer.
5. In addition to The Blues Brothers, Janet Brady worked on Hunter, both shot in Chicago. She said: “On Hunter, we were doing fights on the train and shooting guns. It was much more fun because Steve McQueen was awesome. That was the last show he did. McQueen was doubled by Loren Janes; talk about a gymnast, that man is the ultimate.”
6. Frank Swertlow, “It’s Snowing in Hollywood Every Day,” TV Guide, March 7, 1981, 38–40.
7. Frank Swertlow, “Hollywood’s Cocaine Connection,” TV Guide, February 28, 1981, 9–12.
8. Swertlow, “Snowing in Hollywood,” 40.
9. Andy Furillo, “For LAPD ‘Entertainment Squad’ Narcs, Coke Is It,” Los Angeles Times, Metro edition, March 22, 1985.
10. Will Tusher, “Drug Abuse Serious and a Growing Problem among Pic and TV Workers,” Variety, December 29, 1986.
11. Grey-Johnson interview, March 1987. The incident related by Julie Johnson took place on January 24, 1980. A few interviewees stated that drug use on the set was common knowledge, but they called it “recreational.” Two said that by the fourth season of Charlie’s Angels (1979–1980), “the drugs came out.” The smooth-running show began to fall apart, and season five was its last.
12. Baxter, Stunt, 12.
13. Odile Astié performed stunts in many French and U.S. films, including The Great Race, The Southern Star, Bluebeard, and The French Connection II. She doubled Brigitte Bardot, Claudia Cardinale, Ursula Andress, and Jeanne Moreau.
14. Minutes of the SAG Ad Hoc Stuntwomen’s Subcommittee meeting, December 6, 1980, from Julie Johnson’s collection. Glory Fioramonti’s source for the report was stuntman Ralph Carpenter; stuntmen Ernie Orsatti and Chuck Couch were allegedly present as well.
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