Terry J. Leonard

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Terry James Leonard (born 1941) is an American stuntman, second unit director, film director, and stunt coordinator. He is most well known for his work as stunt coordinator and second unit director, including several collaborations with John Milius, Andrew Davis, and Robert Zemeckis.

Contents

Life and career

Leonard is a frequent collaborator of John Milius, serving as second unit director on the Milius-directed Big Wednesday , Conan the Barbarian , and Flight of the Intruder , as well as Used Cars , which Milius served as executive producer.

Leonard served as second unit director on the 1993 Andrew Davis film The Futigive , for which he staged the train crash sequence with Davis. According to an interview he did with Los Angeles Times in 2015, Leonard said "Andy Davis turned me loose. You are under a lot of pressure on making it go right. You use everything in your playbook that you have learned before to try and outsmart the gremlins." [1]

In 1987, Leonard made his directorial debut with Death Before Dishonor , which is so far the only film he has directed.

Other films he has directed second unit on include Rush Hour , Romancing The Stone , The Expendables , Maverick , Tombstone , Cowboys & Aliens , 2 Fast 2 Furious , and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift .

Filmography

Second unit director/Stunts

YearTitle Stunts Second unit director Director
1978 Big Wednesday YesYes John Milius
1979 Apocalypse Now YesNo Francis Ford Coppola
1980 Used Cars YesYes Robert Zemeckis
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark YesNo Steven Spielberg
1982 Conan the Barbarian YesYesJohn Milius
1983 Blue Thunder YesYes John Badham
1984 Romancing the Stone YesYesRobert Zemeckis
1989 The Package YesYes Andrew Davis
1990 Downtown YesYes Richard Benjamin
1991 Flight of the Intruder YesYesJohn Milius
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze NoYes Michael Pressman
Delirious YesYes Tom Mankiewicz
Backdraft YesNo Ron Howard
Showdown in Little Tokyo YesYes Mark L. Lester
1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer YesYes Fran Rubel Kuzui
Far and Away YesNoRon Howard
1993 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III NoAdditional Stuart Beattie
The Fugitive YesYesAndrew Davis
Tombstone YesYes George P. Cosmatos
1994 Maverick NoYes Richard Donner
1995 The Quick and The Dead YesYes Sam Raimi
Die Hard With a Vengeance YesYes John McTiernan
Money Train NoYes Joseph Ruben
1996 Eraser NoYes Chuck Russell
1998 Rush Hour YesYes Brett Ratner
The Horse Whisperer NoYes Robert Redford
Mighty Joe Young YesYes Ron Underwood
1999 Wild Wild West YesYes Barry Sonnenfeld
2001 Planet of the Apes YesNo Tim Burton
American Outlaws NoYes Les Mayfield
Impostor YesNo Gary Fleder
Joy Ride YesYes John Dahl
2002 The Sum Of All Fears YesNo Phil Alden Robinson
2003 2 Fast 2 Furious YesYes John Singleton
Agent Cody Banks NoYes Harald Zwart
2004 The Forgotten YesYesJoseph Ruben
2006 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift YesYes Justin Lin
Date Movie YesYes Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story YesNo Jake Kasdan
2008 Soul Men YesNo Malcolm D. Lee
2009 Fast and Furious YesYesJustin Lin
2010 The Expendables YesYes Sylvester Stallone
Inception YesNo Christopher Nolan
Due Date YesNo Todd Phillips
2011 Cowboys & Aliens NoYes Jon Favreau
The Green Hornet YesNo Michel Gondry
Bad Teacher YesNoJake Kasdan
2012 Django Unchained YesNo Quentin Tarantino
2013 Gangster Squad YesYes Ruben Fleischer
2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 YesNo Marc Webb
2015 Furious 7 YesNo James Wan
Hot Pursuit YesNo Anne Fletcher
2016 Jason Bourne YesNo Paul Greengrass
2017 CHiPs YesNo Dax Shepard
2020 The Call of the Wild YesNo Chris Sanders
2023 Outlaw Johnny Black YesNo Michael Jai White

Director

YearTitleNotes
1987 Death Before Dishonor Directorial debut [2]

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References

  1. King, Susan (May 16, 2015). "Classic Hollywood: Stuntman Terry Leonard's career grew by leaps and bounds in Hollywood". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2024-09-29.
  2. "Death Before Dishonor". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2024-09-29.