The most memorable stuntpeople from movies and TV

For years, beloved not-quite-mop, not-quite-puppet Gonzo has been a genial “weirdo” among the Muppet characters. When you go back to the original “Muppet Show,” though, Gonzo’s role was that he was a stunt performer. He’s done daredevil stuff, weird performance art stunts, you name it. Fozzie Bear is the comic, Gonzo is the stunt performer. The Muppets did become famous through their variety show, after all.

You may know Colt Seavers better as “The Fall Guy” given that was the name of the ABC procedural that starred Lee Majors as Seavers. The conceit of “The Fall Guy” was that Seavers worked as a stuntman in Hollywood by day, but had a side gig as a bounty hunter. Did his stunt skills come into play? Of course! Thankfully, the “Fall Guy” movie adaptation starring Ryan Gosling kept the name Colt Seavers.

Brad Pitt finally won his first acting Oscar for his turn as Cliff Booth in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.” In Quentin Tarantino’s excellent Hollywood-set story, Booth has spent the majority of his adult life not just as Rick Dalton’s stunt double, but as his friend, confidant, gofer, you name it. The two are inseparable, even as their respective careers hit a downslope. Maybe, by the time we meet Booth, he’s not doing as many stunts, but he’s still in the game. Also, Pitt is great in the role, and deserving of his Oscar.

Sure, we will admit the most-notable thing about Johnny Blaze is that he is also Ghost Rider, and that he turns into a flaming skull man with superpowers who dishes out vengeance across the Marvel universe. However, he’s also a motorcycle stunt performer! He was doing that before he was turned into the Ghost Rider due to a deal with the devil (literally the Marvel character Mephisto), and he still rides his motorcycle afterwards as well.

One of the first iconic sight gags in “The Simpsons” is Homer hoping to jump over Springfield Gorge on a skateboard, failing, and then later being accidentally dropped back down into the gorge again by the paramedics. That occurred in the episode “Bart the Daredevil.” While Bart does try his hand at stunts, he’s inspired to do so by Lance Murdock, a professional stunt performer in the world of the show. Bart is inspired even though Murdock’s motorcycle jump doesn’t go well. When a lion in a pool mauls you, it’s not ideal.

Bob Einstein could have easily faded into the shadow of his brother, one Albert Brooks. Instead, Bob carved out an excellent comedy career of his own, much of it done in the guise of his character Super Dave Osborne. Super Dave is a parody of daredevils, with his stunts typically going terribly. He would make many late night appearances, but also had his own TV show, and even a movie.

Perhaps not the most famous of Batman’s rogue’s gallery, Roxy Rocket does have a certain set of skills. Roxy worked as a stunt double before she got fired for her recklessness, so she turned to crime for both money and excitement. In addition to her comics appearances, Roxy Rocket has appeared in a few animated shows set in the DC Universe, even crossing paths with Superman once.

G.I. Joe characters needed gimmicks to give them distinct looks (and to sell toys). Certainly that was true of Quick Kick, who was a martial arts expert. The backstory of one MacArthur S. Ito is that he had a black belt in about a half-dozen martial arts then went to work as a stuntman in Hollywood. From there, the Army Rangers recruited him, and from there, G.I. Joe. You can find Quick Kick in the “G.I. Joe” cartoon from the ‘80s.

Well, he literally has “Stuntman” in his name. Quentin Tarantino has an affinity for movie history, as you likely know, and so he’s had multiple stuntpeople pop up in his movies. Stuntman Mike can be found in “Death Proof,” Tarantino’s half of “Grindhouse.” In this horror film with exploitation vibes, Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike, who uses his “Death Proof” car to, well, murder people, until a group of ladies turn the tables on him.

We go from a character with “Stuntman” as a nickname to a movie straight-up called “The Stunt Man.” This film has a little more prestige than “Death Proof,” as it got three Oscar nominations. Cameron, he’s only known by his first name in the course of the film, is a Vietnam vet turned fugitive from the law. He stumbles upon a film set, where he manages to finagle a job as a stuntman. Instead of finding refuge, the unhinged, amoral director Eli Cross (played by the iconic Peter O’Toole) shows no interest in the health or safety of the stunt performers.

Hal Needham started his career as a stuntman, which is how he forged his friendship, and creative partnership, with Burt Reynolds. Needham directed “Smokey and the Bandit” and “Cannonball Run.” The two loved car movies, and they loved stunts. The foremost example of this is “Hooper.” Reynolds literally plays “the greatest stuntman alive” in this action-comedy that is a love letter to the profession.

Movies about disaffected World War II or Vietnam veterans are commonplace, but what about World War I? “The Great Waldo Pepper” is one such film. Robert Redford plays the titular Pepper. The action begins in 1926, with former military pilot Pepper looking for purpose in life. He takes up “barnstorming,” which is to say stunt flying. While it wasn’t as successful a film as the previous collaboration between Redford and director George Roy Hill, “The Sting,” the aerial sequences are quite impressive.

A flop at the time, and a movie that has gotten enough love in recent years we need not stump for it, “The Rocketeer” is a throwback film that is designed to feel like a movie from the era it is set in. Largely, it works, even if people weren’t ready for it in 1991. Cliff Secord becomes the titular “Rocketeer” when he finds an experimental jetpack in 1938 Los Angeles and uses it to become something of a superhero. Like Waldo Pepper, Secord also works as a stunt pilot when he isn’t rocketing around and trying to uncover secret Nazis in Hollywood.

Allan Arkush and, especially, Joe Dante, have directed a few cult classics. Arkush gave us “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,” Dante gave us “Piranha,” “The ‘Burbs,” and both “Gremlins” movies, which are just straight-up classics. They made their respective directorial debuts together on “Hollywood Boulevard.” The two came up through Roger Corman’s production company. In classic Corman fashion, the production started with a bet over making the cheapest film ever for Corman’s New World Pictures company. Arkush and Dante used a lot of footage from other New World films, but having cut their teeth editing trailers for the company they were primed for that. Anyway, lead character Candy Wednesday is an aspiring actor who comes to Hollywood and breaks into the business as a stunt driver.

We end with the most-famous real-life stunt performer ever. When you think of stuntpeople, you probably think of Evel Knievel first. The motorcycle. The jumpsuits. The pageantry. Knievel was a cultural icon. Multiple movies were made about him in his lifetime. He was also, by all accounts, a jerk, a conman, and actually not even very good at performing stunts. What Knievel had was showmanship, a huckster’s penchant for constant marketing, and a willingness to try headline-grabbing stunts he was not capable of performing, and accepting the immense damage done to his body whenever he failed.