 |
Buddy Joe Hooker | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 30, 1942 |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, second unit director, stunt man |
| Children | 2 [1] |
| Website | buddyjoehooker |
Buddy Joe Hooker (born May 30, 1942) is an American actor, second unit director, stunt man, and stunt coordinator. He is known for his expertise in designing and performing vehicle stunts for movies and television.
Hooker began as a young child actor on the television series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin . Under the stage name, Buddy Hart, his acting career continued in shows such as Gunsmoke , Father Knows Best and Twilight Zone . He also starred in the family feature that his stunt performer father, Hugh Hooker, produced called The Littlest Hobo . That role led to a part on Leave It to Beaver as one of Wally Cleaver’s best friends, Chester, from 1957 to 1960. [1] He was also one of the bachelors on The Dating Game in 1969, as "Joey Hooker", [2] where he was chosen by the bachelorette Farrah Fawcett. [2]
Hooker pursued the stunt profession in Rock Hudson’s Tobruk and Shirley MacLaine’s Sweet Charity . Throughout the years, his reputation as an all around stuntman led to his regular employment as Disney’s premiere stunt coordinator for 8 years.
Hooker’s reputation as the go-to coordinator for car chases grew with movies such as To Live and Die in L.A. , Jade , and Death Proof . [3] He was coordinator for Harold And Maude , The Outsiders , Godfather III , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Meet Joe Black , and 40 Year Old Virgin .
In the 1977 film about the stunt business, Hooper , Hooker broke industry records with a rocket powered car jump and many other stunts doubling Jan Michael Vincent’s character Ski. [4]
His career continued with the first motorcycle jump over a helicopter as it landed, and rolling a truck 17 times down a sand embankment in the 1971 action feature Clay Pigeon .
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences inducted Hooker into its membership during the first year it began a limited initiation of motion picture stunt coordinators.[ citation needed ] He is an original member of the stunt talent organization Stunts Unlimited and has served five terms as its president. [4]
Hooker was presented with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 2014 World Stunt Awards. [5]
Hooker and his wife Gayle, who is also a stunt performer, have twin sons who worked as stunt performers in the film Spy Kids . [4] [1]
The 1978 feature film Hooper , starring Burt Reynolds, is based on a fictionalized account of his life. In the film, Hooker actually performed stunts for both Reynolds and Jan-Michael Vincent. [1] He was also on The Dating Game in 1969 with Farrah Fawcett, which broke out into a staged fight. Hooker was the bachelor selected by Fawcett. [6] [2]
Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal was an American actor. Born in Los Angeles, he trained as an amateur boxer before beginning a career in acting in 1960.
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. was an American actor who was considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.
A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer-generated imagery special effects, these depictions were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to carry them out, even such dangerous acts as jumping from car to car in motion or hanging from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double.
Farrah Leni Fawcett was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she played a starring role in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels.
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
The Cannonball Run is a 1981 action comedy film. It was directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong's Golden Harvest films, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan and Dean Martin. The film is based on the 1979 running of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an actual cross-country outlaw road race beginning in Connecticut and ending in California.
Hooper is a 1978 American action comedy film directed by Hal Needham and starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jan-Michael Vincent, Brian Keith, Robert Klein, James Best and Adam West. The film serves as a tribute to stuntmen and stuntwomen in what was at one time an underrecognized profession. At the time of filming, Field and Reynolds were in a relationship, having met on the set of Smokey and the Bandit the previous year.
Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983).
David Richard Ellis was an American film director and stunt performer born in Santa Monica, California in 1952. His credits included dozens of films and television series including National Lampoon's Vacation, Baywatch, Lethal Weapon, and Patriot Games.
Frederick Albert Travalena III was an American entertainer, specializing in comedy and impressions.
Zoë E. Bell is a New Zealand stuntwoman and actress. Some of her most notable stunt-work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess and for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.
The Taurus World Stunt Awards is a yearly award ceremony held midyear that honors stunt performers in movies. It is held each year in Los Angeles. The first awards were given out in 2001. The deciding committee has been around since the year 2000. The awards were created by Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull. The awards statue was sculpted by Austrian artist Jos Pirkner, and is a figure in the form of a winged bull.
Doug Chapman is a stunt coordinator, stunt performer and actor, a member of Stunts Canada, who works in film and television.
Brian Smrz, also Brian Delaney Smrz, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director of projects such as Live Free or Die Hard, Mission: Impossible 2, Eagle Eye, Night at the Museum, Windtalkers and Superman Returns, among others. He is also the director of Hero Wanted, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta and of 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke and Xu Qing. He won the Taurus Award twice and was nominated for a third time.
Scott Leva is a Academy Award-winning stuntman and stunt coordinator who entered stuntwork in the 1970s.
David Leitch is an American filmmaker, actor, stunt performer and stunt coordinator who made his directorial debut on the 2014 action film John Wick with Chad Stahelski, though only Stahelski was credited. Leitch then directed the 2017 thriller film Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron, and 2018's Deadpool 2, the sequel to the 2016 film. In 2019, he directed Hobbs & Shaw, a spin-off of the Fast & Furious franchise, and in 2022 directed Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt.
ActionFest was an annual film festival in Asheville, NC, started by Carolina Cinemas and Magnolia Pictures founder Bill Banowsky and action director/producer Aaron Norris, along with Dennis Berman and Tom Quinn. ActionFest was the first film festival in the world devoted exclusively to action film. It was also the only film festival in the world that honoring stunt performers, filling a void caused by the decision of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences not to recognize stunt men and stunt women in its Academy Awards. ActionFest's stated mission was to "recognize, honor and appreciate the remarkable efforts of these amazing people who risk their lives every day to make Hollywood films look exciting and great."
Keir Beck is an Australian stuntman and film director based on the Gold Coast. He works out of, and is founder of, the stunt training venue AP8.
Kerry Darrell Rossall is an American stunt coordinator, stuntman, actor and film producer known for three Taurus World Stunt nominations for Apocalypse Now Redux. He appeared in the films Apocalypse Now, They Live, The Crow: City of Angels, Tomorrow You're Gone and produced Friend of the World and Movin' Too Fast.
Michael G. “Mic” Rodgers is an American film and commercial director, second unit director, stunt coordinator, and stunt performer. As a stunt performer, he is known for serving
A couple of the others have graduated from stunt-girl/stand-in status, which should give hope to Death Proof's actual stunt team, including one Buddy Joe Hooker, a name made for marquees.
Each move of the fight was choreographed, and the entire thing was staged.