Stuntwomen

by Mollie Gregory

  15. Michael Szymanski, “Gag Work Takes Its Toll in Injuries—and Lives,” Torrance (CA) Daily Breeze/News-Pilot, April 25, 1986. Other deaths in 1981 included director Boris Sagal (The Omega Man, The Diary of Anne Frank), who was killed on May 22 on the set of World War III “when he walked into a rotating helicopter blade,” and stuntman Jack Tyree, who died in August “when he missed the air bag that was to break his fall from an 80-foot cliff on The Sword and the Sorcerer.” Michael Szymanski, “Film, TV Accidents on Rise,” San Fernando Valley Sunday Daily News, October 25, 1987.

  16. Michael London, “Safety, First, Last, Ever?” Los Angeles Times, February 6, 1983.

  17. Jack Slater, “On the Risk of Filming Stunts,” Los Angeles Times, July 14, 1981.

  18. According to Needham, Stuntman! 261, Cannonball Run cost $15 million and had a thirty-two-day shooting schedule.

  19. Heidi Von Beltz with Peter Copeland, My Soul Purpose: Living Learning and Healing (New York: Random House, 1996), 9–11.

  20. Dave Robb, “When a Stunt Goes Wrong: One Victim’s Tragic Aftermath,” Hollywood Reporter, September 4, 1981.

  21. Dave Robb, “Needham Stands Alone in Stunt Car-Crash Suit,” Variety, January 10, 1983.

  22. Von Beltz, My Soul Purpose, 14–16.

  23. Robb, “Needham Stands Alone.”

  24. Von Beltz, My Soul Purpose, 186. Heidi sued and won $3.2 million on June 13, 1986, almost six years after the accident.

  25. London, “Safety, First, Last, Ever?”

  26. Robb, “Needham Stands Alone.”

  27. SAG membership numbers courtesy of Glenn Hiraoka, SAG stunt and safety director.

  28. Minutes of the SAG Ad Hoc Stuntwomen’s Subcommittee meeting, December 6, 1980. Among those present were Dottie Catching, Paula Dell, Jeannie Epper, Lila Finn, Glory Fioramonti, Sandy Gimpel, Leslie Hoffman, Louise Johnson, Diane Peterson, Sherry Peterson, and Sharon Schaffer.

  29. The report was circulated by the SAG Women’s Conference Committee, December 11, 1980.

  30. SAG Stuntwomen’s Fact Sheet, September 8, 1984.

  31. Karen Lustgarten, “Stunt Women Speak Up,” Reel News 3, no. 2 (April 1993): 16.

  32. Gregory, Women Who Run the Show, 21–23.

  33. Author interview with Julie Johnson, and excerpts from Johnson’s written memorandum about the EEOC.

  10. Breaking the Code of Silence

  1. Stephen Farber and Marc Green, Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego and the Twilight Zone Case (New York: William Morrow, 1988), 16.

  2. Originally cited in the minutes of the Stuntwomen’s Subcommittee meeting, December 6, 1980, and reiterated in the minutes of February 25, 1982. In 1982 subcommittee members included Jeannie Epper, Diane Peterson, Leslie Hoffman, K. C. Nichols, Dottie Catching, Debbie Kahana, Sherry Peterson, Paula Dell, Rita Egleston, Lois Gaines, and Debbie Porter.

  3. Ibid.

  4. In 2015, thirty-three years later, the second stuntwomen’s survey was prepared and distributed. Julie Johnson and Jadie David spearheaded that effort.

  5. Finn interview in SAG, “Stuntwomen’s Oral History Project,” 3–4, 6, 8–9.

  6. Grey-Johnson interview, 18–20.

  7. Joe Dante, George Miller, and Steven Spielberg directed the other three segments of Twilight Zone.

  8. Farber and Green, Outrageous Conduct. See also London, “Safety, First, Last, Ever?”

  9. London, “Safety, First, Last, Ever?”

  10. Farber and Green, Outrageous Conduct, 169. Stunt people who worked on Twilight Zone included Eurlyne Epper, Debby Porter, Terry James, Thomas Byrd, Eddy Donno, Joseph Hieu, and Al Leong. Gary McLarty stunt-coordinated.

  11. Ibid., 107–12.

  12. Ibid., 169.

  13. Ibid., 106, 168–70, 207.

  14. SAG Stunt and Safety Committee minutes, February 27, 1982.

  15. Szymanski, “Gag Work Takes Its Toll.” In a later article, Szymanski noted that 10 people had been killed and 4,998 injured in California productions since 1982. Szymanski “Film, TV Accidents on Rise.”

  16. Deborah Caulfield and Michael Cieply, “Twilight Aftermath: It’s Caution on the Movie Set,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1987.

  17. See Von Beltz, My Soul Purpose, 188, for the usual handling of stunt injuries.

  18. Both Jean Coulter and Leslie Hoffman claimed they were blacklisted for their work on the survey. Coulter was also blacklisted because of her sexual harassment suit against stunt coordinator Roy Harrison. Julie Johnson blamed her blacklisting on her work on the survey, her complaints about unsafe and inadequate stunt cars, her EEOC complaint, and her subsequent suit against Spelling-Goldberg.

  19. Norma also wanted Julie to present the stuntwomen’s survey results to the L.A. City Commission on the Status of Women, which she did on March 25, 1987.

  20. Stuntwomen’s Survey, 1982, archives of Julie Johnson. One respondent wrote that the New York group had thirty stuntmen (ten of whom were coordinators), seven stuntwomen, and one female stunt coordinator.

  21. Interoffice communication from Kim Fellner to the SAG Board of Directors, November 3, 1982.

  22. Letters to the editor, Variety, December 17, 1982, quoted by committee members D. K. (Debbie) Kahana and K. C. Nichols, who agreed that the survey’s goal had been accomplished.

  23. Leslie Hoffman served on the SAG board from 1982 to 1985. She was cochair and later chair of the board’s Stunt Committee and also served on the national and Los Angeles boards of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

  24. Dave Robb, “EEOC Searchlight on Hollywood,” Variety, April 27, 1984.

  25. Michael Leahy and Wallis Annenberg, “Discrimination in Hollywood: How Bad Is It?” TV Guide, October 13, 1984, 8–10. Carol Roper is an award-winning writer whose credits include Orphan Train, The Lady Killers, episodes of Knot’s Landing, Kaz, and All that Glitters.

  26. Ibid. In the 1980s Johnson worked on Heartbeeps, Bare Essence, The Thorn Birds, and episodes of St. Elsewhere, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and MacGyver, but these jobs amounted to much less work than in her earlier career.

  27. Julie Johnson filed her class-action suit on February 21, 1984. In April 1984 the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing allowed the case to go to trial. The suit alleged that SAG’s referral of producers to the stunt associations “perpetuated discrimination.”

  28. Maria Denunzio, “Stunt Woman Claims SAG, Other Groups Discriminate,” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, February 22, 1984.

  29. Robb, “Okay on the Job.”

  30. It is unknown how many others were blacklisted. There is no doubt that blacklisting was used as a threat.

  31. Memo from Tom Gleason, assistant to attorney Matt Byron, to Jean Coulter and Julie Johnson, April 26, 1984, from Julie Johnson’s collection.

  32. From 1999 to 2008 Leslie Hoffman stunt-coordinated The Innocents Mission and six episodes of Star Trek: New Voyages: Phase II. Her other coordinating credits include Never Land, Safe Journey, Everything Put Together, As Far as the Eye Can See, and Daybreak Berlin; she was fight coordinator on Dead Ballerina and she was a stunt rigger on Dead above Ground.

  33. Author interview with Jean Coulter and e-mail from Coulter, August 19, 2007. The two-part “Golden Gate Cop Killers” episode of Vega$ aired in March 1980. Stunt credits included Coulter and Sherry Peterson; Roy Harrison was not listed as coordinator.

  34. Mary Murphy, “Sexual Harassment in Hollywood,” TV Guide, March 29–April 4, 1986, 3–5.

  35. Ibid., 4. According to Murphy, the judge rejected Jean Coulter’s lawsuit because the statute of limitations had expired. In her interview with the author, Jean said her lawyer had missed the filing deadline.

  11. Women’s New Attitudes and Ambitions

  1. Statistics supplied by Glenn Hiraoka, SAG.

  2. Gloria Steinem, “Women Are Never Front-Runners,” New York Times, January 8, 2008.

  3. New stuntwomen in the 1980s included Julie Adair, Joni Avery, Simone Boisseree, Eliza Coleman,
Kelsee King Devoreauz, Annie Ellis, Cindy Folkerson, Sarah Franzl, Marian Green, Bonnie Happy, Marguerite Happy, Sy Hollands, Barbara Anne Klein, Tina Mckissick, Caryn Mower, Patricia M. Peters, Alison Reid, Debby Lynn Ross, Sharon Schaffer, Patricia Tallman, Kim Wade, Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon, and Boni Yanagisawa.

  4. Annie Ellis’s credits include Fatal Attraction, Burglar, Lethal Weapon, Point of No Return, Made in America, The Matrix Reloaded, True Blood, Green Lantern, Fast Five, The Green Hornet, and The Lone Ranger. In 2009 Ellis and others performing in Iron Man won the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a stunt ensemble. David Ellis was stunt coordinator or second-unit director for Patriot Games, Gorky Park, Fatal Attraction, and The Perfect Storm; he directed Cellular and Snakes on a Plane.

  5. Clifford Happy’s credits include Patriot Games, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Rules of Engagement, and The Fugitive; he regularly doubles Tommy Lee Jones. Edith Happy was a stunt rider in Westward the Women, After the Sunset, and other films. Bonnie Happy was a trick rider for eleven years in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Her stunt credits include Crank, Problem Child 3, Home Invasion, Hellhole, Silverado, Dynasty, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance. The United Stuntwomen’s Association was formed in 1984 by stuntwomen Tonya Russell, Christine Anne Baur, and Faith Minton.

  6. In Matt Houston, Jimmy Nickerson doubled Lee Horsley, and Bonnie Happy doubled Pamela Hensley. Nickerson began in the business in 1970 and started stunt-coordinating in 1976; his many credits include Rocky, The Deep, Rocky II, Raging Bull, and Dynasty.

  7. Romancing the Stone was directed by Robert Zemeckis; Diane Thomas wrote the screenplay, with contributions from Treva Silverman, Lem Dobbs, and Howard Franklin. Jeannie Epper’s other work in the 1980s included The Blues Brothers, Used Cars, Smokey and the Bandit II, Cannonball Run, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Dynasty, Poltergeist, Terms of Endearment, and Blade Runner. Terry Leonard stunt-coordinated A Man Called Horse, The Fugitive, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance; he was second-unit director for Cowboys and Aliens, Expendable, and The Fast and the Furious. Vince Deadrick Jr. started in the business in 1978 and began stunt-coordinating in 1983. His credits include Avenging Angels, MacGyver, True Grit (2010), Victorious, and Star Trek: Enterprise; he was second-unit director for Arlington Road and The Hat Squad.

  8. Day, “Jeannie Epper Real-Life Wonder Woman,” 12–13.

  9. Charles Champlin, “The Adrenalin Junkies,” Los Angeles Times Magazine, March 16, 1986, 18.

  10. The 2002 Taurus World Stunt Awards cited the car jump over the waterfall as one of the five most memorable stunts in motion picture history.

  11. Walter Grauman was producer-director of The Untouchables, Blue Light, and The Streets of San Francisco.

  12. Formed by Alan Gibbs in 1980, the International Stunt Association (ISA) has about forty members. Mary Albee is the only woman.

  13. Alice West’s credits include first assistant director–coordinating producer of L.A. Law; first assistant director of Murder, She Wrote; co–executive producer of Ugly Betty, Ally McBeal, Snoops, and Picket Fences; and producer of The Practice.

  14. Mary Albee’s credits include second-unit director for Snoops and Crossing Jordan and stunt coordinator for L.A. Law; Murder, She Wrote; Border Line; Brooklyn Bridge; Perfect Couples; George Lopez; Tucker; and Weeds.

  15. Statistics courtesy of Glenn Hiraoka.

  16. The Color Purple was adapted from Alice Walker’s prize-winning novel. Greg Wayne Elam was stunt coordinator for the movie.

  17. Kim Murphy, “Injured Stunt Woman Sues Warner Bros.,” Los Angeles Times, November 16, 1986. Carol Daniels’s other credits include The Rifleman, The Untouchables, That Girl and Desperate Housewives.

  18. Michael Szymanski, “Stunt People Risk Injuries, Death on Set,” Torrance (CA) Daily News, October 25, 1987.

  19. Caulfield and Cieply, “Twilight Aftermath.”

  20. Hot Pursuit was stunt-coordinated by Ted White; the second-unit director was Max Kleven. There were four stuntmen plus Eurlyne Epper, whose other credits include Scarface, Acapulco, HEAT, Bitch Slap, True Blood, Con Air, Side Out, and Murphy’s Law.

  21. In Fatal Attraction, Tracy Dashnaw doubled Ann Archer, Annie Ellis doubled Glenn Close, and Freddie Hice doubled Michael Douglas. Other stuntwomen in the film were Laurie Shepard and Janet Brady.

  12. Julie Johnson’s Day in Court

  1. Heidi Yorkshire, “Stuntwoman Claims that Fight for Equality Has Tripped Her Up,” Reader, April 25, 1984, 3.

  2. Author interview with Julie Johnson and excerpts from her memoranda, supplied to the author.

  3. Plaintiff and defense opening statements, August 11, 1987, transcript, Johnson v. Spelling-Goldberg Productions, from the archives of Julie Johnson (unless otherwise noted, all testimony cited is from this source). Witnesses testified on different dates during the three-week trial, so their testimony is not necessarily presented in chronological order. In some cases, testimony has been summarized for clarity.

  4. Author interview with Richard Grey. Subsequent quotations from Grey that are not part of the trial transcript are from this interview.

  5. Plaintiff and defense opening statements.

  6. Testimony of Norma Connolly, August 11, 1987, 445–82. Connolly’s Broadway theater credits include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Love of Four Colonels, and Angel Street.

  7. Testimony of Joe Ruskin, August 14, 1987, vol. 5, 1039–50. Ruskin’s film credits include Prizzi’s Honor, The Magnificent Seven, and Oh God.

  8. Deposition of Joe Ruskin, August 12, 1987, 11–13, 29, 31–37, conducted by Kenneth G. Anderson, defendant’s counsel, and Jennifer B. Kaufman, plaintiff’s counsel.

  9. Testimony of Aaron Spelling, August 12–14, 1987, 687–786, 876–982; excerpts from appellant’s opening brief, June 29, 1990, 824–46.

  10. Testimony of Elaine Rich, August 17, 1987, vol. 3, 1054–128.

  11. Testimony of Ron Rondell, August 12–13, 1987, vol. 3, 565–70, 623–95, 760–92. Rondell’s extensive credits include stunt coordinator for Sphere, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, and Mod Squad and second-unit director for Baywatch, Midnight Rider, and McQ.

  12. Testimony of Jean Coulter-Marek, August 14, 1987, vol. 5, 929–30.

  13. Testimony of Bobby Bass, August 18, 1987, vol. 6, 1190–251.

  14. Testimony of Roy E. Harrison, August 18, 1987, 1326–32.

  15. Coulter-Marek testimony, 949.

  16. Bass testimony, 1264–88.

  17. Testimony of Richard Rawlings Jr., August 26, 1987, vol. 11, 2340–85.

  18. Harrison testimony, 1322–25.

  19. Rich testimony, 1137–46.

  20. Testimony of Gary Epper, August 25, 1987, vol. 10, 2104–89. Epper’s stunt work included Annie Oakley, Fury, Rin Tin Tin (1950s), L.A. Confidential, Eraser, Jurassic Park, Starsky & Hutch, and Scarface. He was stunt coordinator for Charlie’s Angels, Witness, and Night of the Hunter, among other shows.

  21. Rich testimony, 1069–1124.

  22. Rondell testimony, 662–64.

  23. Rich testimony, 1073–1134.

  24. Rondell testimony, 635–39.

  25. Rebuttal testimony of Julie Johnson, August 27, 1987, 2455–87.

  26. Deborah Caulfield and Michael Cieply, “Elation, Anger Greet Outcome of ‘Twilight Zone’ Trial,” Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1987.

  27. Sharon Bernstein and Robert W. Welkos, “In the Line of Duty,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1996.

  13. High Falls

  1. Dar Robinson and Vic Armstrong created and refined various systems to control the speed of high falls. Armstrong won a technical achievement Academy Award in 2001 for his Fan Descender, which safely arrests the descent of a stunt person doing a high fall; he won the Michael Balcon Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2002. Robinson, who started out on a trampoline, did the 100-foot cliff jump into the river in Papillon, set a free-fall record from a helicopter (311 feet into an airbag) in 1979, and performed a 220-foot free fall in Sharky’s Machine and a 7
00-foot free fall from the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. In 1980 he jumped 1,170 feet from the same CN Tower using a steel cable that stopped him a few feet from the ground.

  2. John D. Ross, “High Fall Basics,” Inside Stunts, Summer 2004. There are four high-fall categories: the face-off, the header, the suicide, and the back fall. Ross interviews with experts Jon Epstein, Nancy Thurston, Scott Leva, Leigh Hennessy, Bob Brown, and Andy Dylan.

  3. The credits of Betty Thomas Quee (not Betty Thomas the actress-director-producer) include Once a Thief, Jumangi, The Edge, Excess Baggage, The Boy Who Could Fly, and Romeo Must Die.

  4. Michael Joy is a well-known production designer in Canada; his credits include Alice, The Tin Man, and Resurrection. Stuntwoman Corry Glass (Carpool, X-Men: The Last Stand) also worked on Snowbound. Glenn Randall was the stunt coordinator–second-unit director on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

  5. Melissa Stubbs’s stunt-coordinating credits from the 1990s–2000s include Power of Attorney, Once in a Blue Moon, Bounty Hunters, To Brave Alaska, Perfect Body, A Cooler Climate, Romeo Must Die, Mission to Mars, Along Came a Spider, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, and X2; she was second-unit director for New York Minute, Hunt to Kill, License to Wed, and My Bloody Valentine.

  6. Sophia Crawford’s credits include Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, U.S. Seals II, Sword of Honor, Fifteen Minutes, seventy-eight episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and sixty episodes of Power Rangers. She has expertise in numerous areas: trampoline, martial arts, wirework, weapons (broadsword, staff), ratchets, stair falls, fight choreography, and hitting the ground. Jeff Pruitt’s credits include The Hunter, Timecop, The Berlin Decision, Red Skies, Deadly Target, Sheena, and Sword of Honor.

  7. Sophia Crawford and Jeff Pruitt were married on January 15, 2010.

  8. Kym Washington’s credits include Sister Act; Ghost; One False Move; Corrina, Corrina; Boys on the Side; Die Hard: With a Vengeance; Asunder; The Forgotten; The Invasion; Madea Goes to Jail; Live Free or Die Hard; War of the Worlds; Taxi; The Break-up; The Interpreter, and King’s Ransom. LaFaye Baker worked on Grand Canyon, Metro, Con Air, True Crime, Made in America, Hannibal, and Fat Albert. Sharon Schaffer’s credits include Blood Work, Hollow Man, Next Action Star, Lost in Plainview, Article 99, D.C. Cab, In the Line of Fire, and Burglar. Sonja Davis worked on Deep Cover, Class Act, Timecop, Live Wire, Ballistic, The Fear, and Hearts and Souls.