The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman

The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman PDF

Author: Vic Armstrong

Publisher: Titan Books

Published: 2011-12-01

Total Pages: 613

ISBN-13: 085768793X

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You may not know it, but you've seen Vic Armstrong's work in countless movies. From performing stunts in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice to directing the actions scenes for recent blockbusters The Green Hornet and Thor, the Academy Award-winning Vic Armstrong has been a legend in the movie industry for over 40 years. Along the way he's been the stunt double for a whole host of iconic heroes, including 007, Superman, and most memorably, Indiana Jones - as Harrison Ford once joked to him, "If you learn to talk I'm in deep trouble." As a stunt co-ordinator and second unit director, Vic is behind the creation of such movies as Total Recall, The Mission, Dune, Rambo III, Terminator 2, Charlie's Angels, Gangs of New York, War of the Worlds, I Am Legend and Mission: Impossible III, to name but a few, as well as several Bond films. He's got a lot of amazing stories to tell, and they're all here in this hugely entertaining movie memoir, which also features exclusive contributions from many of Vic's colleagues and friends, including Harrison Ford, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Pierce Brosnan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angelina Jolie, Kenneth Branagh and Sir Christopher Lee. With an introduction by Steven Spielberg, and over 100 previously unpublished on-set photos from Vic's own collection.

The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman

The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman PDF

Author: Vic Armstrong

Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)

Published: 2011-05-17

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1848568746

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"No CGI can match what Vic can accomplish" - Steven Spielberg "Vic is The Man" - Pierce Brosnan "Vic Armstrong is, of course, a legend" - Martin Scorsese "This is the best and most original behind-the-scenes book I have read in years, gripping and revealing. Vic Armstrong is modest, humorous and wry - altogether brilliant company." - Roger Lewis, Daily Mail "[A] page-turner... I couldn't put it down! I had a great time reading this book and give it my highest recommendation." - Leonard Maltin "[Vic has] been this unheralded savior of movie magic for decades, and hearing how he makes the incredible credible is a must for any film fan." - Hollywood.com "Armstrong's a fascinating guy and a straight shooter. His book is fantastic." - Ain't It Cool News "The man is a legend in the industry... [A] mind-blowing, must-read biography." - Movies.com "The movie memoir of the year!" - SciFi Mafia "[Vic] talks to you like he’s your cool uncle, or the uncle you wished you had, really down to earth, but at the same time you can tell he’s got a twinkle in his eye as he’s talking..." - Geek Six “A hell of a read.” – Film School Rejects "The key to an entertaining autobiography is a combination of good stories to tell and a distinctive life; Armstrong has them both." - Library Journal "Armstrong has done it all." - Empire "A spills’n’thrills ride through a fast-forward life in pictures." - The Times "Armstrong takes us on the spectacular journey of his life that left me wondering who would be brave enough to play him in a movie. What a legacy! What a life! What a book!" - Geeks of Doom -- Think you don’t know Vic Armstrong? Wrong! You’ve seen his work in countless films... He’s been a stunt double for James Bond, Indiana Jones and Superman, and he’s directed action scenes for three Bond movies, Mission Impossible 3, Thor, and the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man to name but a few. Counting Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger among his friends, and officially credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World's Most Prolific Stuntman, Vic’s got a lot of amazing stories to tell, and they’re all here in this - the movie memoir of the year!

Stuntman!

Stuntman! PDF

Author: Hal Needham

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2011-02-09

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0316122858

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The classic no-holds-barred memoir from Hollywood's most legendary stuntman -- an inspiration for Brad Pitt's character Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood -- is "full of incredible stories as told by a real man of action" (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Yep that's me, Hal Needham, on the cover doing a fire stunt. When you're on fire you don't dare breathe because if you do, you'll suck those flames right down your throat. I was Hollywood's highest paid stuntman so I should know. I wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up, was dragged by horses, and along the way broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth...I hung upside down by my ankles under a bi-plane in The Spirit of St. Louis, jumped between galloping horses in Little Big Man, set a world record for a boat stunt on Gator, jumped a rocket powered pick-up truck across a canal for a GM commercial, was the first human to test the car airbag-and taught John Wayne how to really throw a movie punch. Life also got exciting outside of the movie business. I had my Ferrari stolen right from under my nose, flew in a twin-engine Cessna with a passed out pilot, rescued the cast and crew from a Russian invasion in Czechoslovakia, and once took six flight attendants on a date. I owned the Skoal-Bandit NASCAR race team, the sound-barrier breaking Budweiser Rocket Car and drove a souped-up, fake ambulance in a "little" cross-country race called The Cannonball Run, which became the movie I directed by the same name. Oh yeah, I also directed Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper and several other action/comedy movies that I liked a bunch. I was a sharecropper's son from the hills of Arkansas who became a Hollywood stuntman. That journey was a tough row to hoe. I continually risked my life but that was the career I chose. I was never late to the set and did whatever I had to do to get the job done. Hollywood's not all sunglasses and autographs. Let me tell you a few stories...

What Fresh Lunacy is This?

What Fresh Lunacy is This? PDF

Author: Robert Sellers

Publisher: Constable

Published: 2013-06-13

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1472101146

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Oliver Reed may not have been Britain's biggest film star - for a period in the early 70s he came within a hairsbreadth of replacing Sean Connery as James Bond - but he is an august member of that small band of people, like George Best and Eric Morecambe, who transcended their chosen medium, became too big for it even, and grew into cultural icons. For the first time Reed's close family has agreed to collaborate on a project about the man himself. The result is a fascinating new insight into a man seen by many as merely a brawling, boozing hellraiser. And yet he was so much more than this. For behind that image, which all too often he played up to in public, was a vastly complex individual, a man of deep passions and loyalty but also deep-rooted vulnerability and insecurities. Why was a proud, patriotic, intelligent, successful and erudite man so obsessed about proving himself to others, time and time again? Although the Reed myth is of Homeric proportions, he remains a national treasure and somewhat peculiar icon. Praise for other books by Robert Sellers: Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed: 'So wonderfully captures the wanton belligerence of both binging and stardom you almost feel the guys themselves are telling the tales.' GQ. Vic Armstrong: The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman: 'This is the best and most original behind-the-scenes book I have read in years, gripping and revealing.' Roger Lewis, Daily Mail. Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down: '...a rollicking good read... Sellers has done well to capture a vivid snapshot of this exciting time.' Lynn Barber, Sunday Times.

Cowboy Stuntman

Cowboy Stuntman PDF

Author: Dean Smith

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781682831489

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"Chronicles the life and achievements of Dean Smith, a Texan and Olympic gold medal winner who became a Hollywood stuntman and actor"--

Unmasked

Unmasked PDF

Author: Michael Aloisi

Publisher: Authormike Ink

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780985214678

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The official Biography of Kane Hodder

Jock Mahoney

Jock Mahoney PDF

Author: Gene Freese

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1476612870

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Iowa-born Jock Mahoney was an elite athlete and U.S. Marines fighter pilot prior to falling into a film career. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest stuntmen in movie history, having taken leaps and bounds for Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, and Gregory Peck. One of the first stuntmen to successfully move into acting, he was the popular star of the 1950s television westerns Range Rider and Yancy Derringer and twice played Tarzan on the big screen, presenting a memorable portrayal of an educated, articulate and mature jungle lord true to author Edgar Rice Burroughs' original vision. Filming in real jungles around the world took a physical toll on Mahoney that transformed him from leading man to burly character actor. He had to overcome the effects of a stroke but true to his tough guy nature rose above it to resume his life's many adventures. Mahoney was beloved by fans at conventions and appearances until his untimely demise in 1989 from a stroke-caused motor vehicle accident.

Confessions of a Hollywood Stunt Man (or It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time!)

Confessions of a Hollywood Stunt Man (or It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time!) PDF

Author: Jesse Wayne

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US

Published: 2019-05-20

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 9781301711451

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Veteran stuntman Fred "Krunch" Krone, Stuntmen's Assn. co-founder and first secretary, treasurer, said "Jesse has written what no one has ever said or would dare say. It's a must read."Jesse's attention to detail made this book hard to put down. As a youngster, I grew up visiting the sets watching Jesse work with my father (a veteran stuntman himself). Now being a stuntman myself for many years, it has been a pleasure to relive a lot of those historic days through Jesse's words. I've read all of the books by stunt performers and Jesse's is the best. Great job Jesse! Veteran stuntman Vince Deadrick, Jr."If you would like to take a book trip through a day to day and year to year life of a stuntman, this is the real deal. The path is laden with egos, conditions, danger, personalities, talent, and lack of talent. I'm a thirty-two year veteran stuntman and Jesse took my mind out of retirement, and back on the set with this book." Jack Verbois SAMP Lifetime MemberNot all stunt men are six-feet tall. Confessions of a Hollywood Stunt Man is the thrilling saga of a five-foot-four, 18 year old kid who became a stunt double for Hollywood's most famous short men, women and children. In an adventurous, daring career spanning 40 years, Jesse Wayne details the many comedic and tragic incidents in front & behind the cameras, including a vicious murder of an 8 year old black kid on a New Orleans film location. When the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures was formulated in 1961, he documented its history as secretary, treasurer and board member. Jesse appeared in over 500 TV productions and feature films, in addition to hundreds of live stunt shows. If this seems like a lot, it's because he began in the early days of Los Angeles' live television, when he was eight years old. His most exhilarating experiences was meeting and working with the greatest actors, writers, producers and directors of the 20th Century.In 1959, Jesse became Mickey Rooney's stunt double at MGM. Continuing, he doubled small men, women, and virtually every child actor in Tinseltown. Jesse performed Fights, Car Work, Stair Falls, Bicycles, High Work, High Falls and Horse Work. Fire Gags became one of his prime specialties. He quit water stunts after the "Julia Belle Swain" riverboat ran over him in the Missouri River on Tom Sawyer (1973) while doubling Jeff East.Jesse also stunt-doubled The Three Stooges (Moe Howard and Larry Fine), Robert Morse, Kurt Russell, Red Buttons, Sir John Mills, Frankie Avalon, Kay Lenz, David Wayne, Leslie Caron, Barbara Stanwyck, Helen Hayes, Harry Morgan, Arte Johnson, José Feliciano, Johnny Crawford, George Gobel, Robin Williams, Gary Burghoff, Strother Martin, John Hillerman, Donald Pleasence, Mel Brooks, Don Johnson, Billie Hayes (aka "WitcheePoo"), Brenda Vaccaro, Barbara Rhoades, Pamela Austin, Lurene Tuttle, Eddie Hodges, Michael Burns, Buck Kartalian, William 'Billy' Benedict, Richard Bakalyan, Michael J. Pollard, and Mel Tormé and so many more.Jesse has also performed behind the camera as a first assistant director, cinematographer, videographer, director, gun coach, and just about every other job on a movie set.

When Harry Met Cubby

When Harry Met Cubby PDF

Author: Robert Sellers

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2019-09-23

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0750992905

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'Enthralling . . . an essential read, particularly for fans of 007.' - Cinema Retro 'When Harry Met Cubby is a fitting tribute to two extraordinary men. If you love behind the scenes stories about the making of movies, there's plenty of drama to sate you here.' - Entertainment Focus Albert R. 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman remain the most successful producing partnership in movie history. Together they were responsible for the phenomenally successful James Bond series; separately they brought kitchen-sink drama to the screen, made a star out of Michael Caine in the Harry Palmer films and were responsible for the children's classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But their relationship was fraught almost from the very beginning. With such contrasting personalities, their interactions often span out of control. They managed to drive away their coveted star, Sean Connery, and ultimately each other. Loved and hated in equal measure, respected and feared by their contemporaries, few people have loomed as large over the film industry as Broccoli and Saltzman, yet their lives went in very different directions. Broccoli was feted as Hollywood royalty, whereas Saltzman ended up a forgotten recluse. When Harry Met Cubby charts the changing fortunes and clashing personalities of two titans of the big screen.

The World of James Bond

The World of James Bond PDF

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-04-18

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1538126370

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The most current and insightful look at the politics and culture of the Bond world as the last Daniel Craig movie hits theaters. This book presents an insightful and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the political context of the Bond books and films. Jeremy Black offers a historian’s interpretation from the perspective of 2020 and the latest Bond film, assessing James Bond in terms of the greatly changing world order of the Bond years—a lifetime that stretches from 1953, when the first novel appeared, to the present. Black argues that the Bond novels—the Fleming books as well as the often-neglected novels authored by others after Fleming died in 1964—and films drew on current fears in order to reduce the implausibility of the villains and their villainy. The novels and films also presented potent images of national character, explored the rapidly changing relationship between a declining Britain and an ascendant United States, charted the course of the Cold War and the subsequent post-1990 world, and offered an evolving but always potent demonology. Bond was, and still is, an important aspect of post–World War II popular culture throughout the Western world. This was particularly so after Hollywood launched the filmic Bond, thus making him not only a character designed for the American film market but also a world product and a figure of globalization. Class, place, gender, violence, sex, race—all are themes that Black scrutinizes through the ongoing shifts in characterization and plot. His well-informed and well-argued analysis provides a fascinating history of the enduring and evolving appeal of James Bond. This updated edition explores new developments in the Daniel Craig years, looks to the post-Craig years, and considers the cultural significance of Bond in the modern world.