Stunt Doubles facts

While investigating facts about Stunt Doubles Salary and Stunt Doubles That Died, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick movies, was Keanu Reeve's stunt double in the Matrix trilogy

how stunt doubles work?

On the set of "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" the stunt double for Milla Jovovich was so badly injured that her arm was amputated. Olivia Jackson had performed stunts in several hit films including Star Wars, Mad Max, Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

What are stunt doubles?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are stunt doubles used for. Here are 50 of the best facts about Stunt Doubles Who Became Actors and Stunt Doubles Avengers I managed to collect.

what stunt doubles do?

John Wick was directed by two of Keanu Reeves' former stunt doubles.
Danielle Radcliffes stunt double for the harry potter films, David Holmes, injured his spine when a stunt went wrong and is now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair
When Lord of the Rings cast members Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Dominic Monaghan, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, and Sean Bean got matching tattoos, John Rhys-Davies sent his stunt double to get the tattoo instead.
The scene in Kill Bill in which The Bride cut a thrown baseball in two with a sword was not done with special effects. Zoe Bell (Uma Thurman's stunt double) performed the trick live on set.
Brandon Lee's stunt double in "The Crow" was later used as a stand-in for Lee after his death and CGI was used to digitally superimpose Lee's face onto the head of the double. The stunt double was Chad Stahelski who later directed "John Wick" and "John Wick: Chapter 2".
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's first cousin (Tanoai Reed) has nearly the same body type as The Rock, and has been his stunt double for all of his movies the past 13 years.
Halle Berry's stunt double in Catwoman was a man. Hawaiian-born Nito Larioza was the same height/skin color and wore Red Lipstick and a cat suit for the filming
Contrary to popular belief, Jerry Maren was not the last surviving Wizard of Oz cast member; he was the last one with a speaking role. An actor for a Winkie guard survived til late 2018, and Dorothy's own dance stunt double is still alive as of this posting.
Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double was paralyzed by an injury filming a stunt in the Deathly Hallows.
While playing the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton suffered second-degree burns due to a pyrotechnics accident, so she refused to do any more "fireworks" scenes. Later her stunt double was on a flying broomstick, which exploded between her legs and left her permanently scarred.

stunt doubles facts — What do stunt doubles get paid?

Why do actors have stunt doubles?

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The Mad Max Fury Road stunt doubles for Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron both met on set and are now married with a 14-month old son

Keanu Reeves gave all 12 Hugo Weaving stunt doubles a custom Harley Davidson motorcycle as a surprise gift on the day they wrapped the huge fight scene in “The Matrix Reloaded.” - source

Daniel Radcliff's stunt double for the first six 'Harry Potter' movies was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident on the set of the seventh movie. - source

John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, was Keanu Reeve's stunt double in The Matrix

John Wick was directed by Keanu Reeves' stunt double in The Matrix trilogy. He also did work on Spider-Man 2, V for Vendetta, Rambo, Spy Kids, and many others. John Wick was also his directorial debut. - source

When were stunt doubles first used?

8 of the 9 actors representing the Fellowship of the Ring received tattoos of the word "Nine" in Tengwar script. The holdout was John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), who had is stunt double get one instead.

How much do stunt doubles make?

Patrick Swayze cracked four ribs while filming the surfing sequences in the 1991 film "Point Break." He refused to use a stunt double as he never previously had one for fight scenes or car chases.

For the movie Antichrist a stunt double was needed for Willem Dafoe's nude scenes because his penis was too big

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron's stunt doubles on 'Fury Road' fell in love on the set and got married.

Verne Troyer was the stunt double for Bink in Baby's Day Out

All actors of the Fellowship have the number nine tattooed on them in elvish, apart from John Rhys Davies,who had it tattooed on his stunt double.

When did stunt doubles become a thing?

Bruce Lee's corpse is featured in his final film. The studio pieced together the 14 minutes they had, rewrote the story so the main character fakes his death and gets plastic surgery and shot the rest of the film using a stunt double and recycled footage, including footage of Bruce Lee's funeral

The voice of Toy Story's Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks in the films) in video games and commercials belongs to Hanks' younger brother Jim. Apart from this, Jim is in a few running scenes as Tom's character in Forrest Gump, and he was also Tom's stunt double in 2011's Larry Crowne.

Zoë Bell, a New Zealander stuntwoman and actress who was a stunt double for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess among others, has appeared in six Tarantino movies, the same as Samuel L. Jackson.

TV series Bonanza, starting from the fourth season, dressed all regular characters in the same outfit in nearly every episode. It made duplication of wardrobe easier for stunt doubles and saved them from re-filming horse riding action shots as previously shot stock footage could be reused

How much do stunt doubles get paid?

Tony Hawk was fired from Police Academy 4 as David Spades stunt double for being too tall and unable to hide his face.

The dog who played Eddy on "Frasier" received more fan mail than his human castmates, and his son Enzo played his stunt double. Enzo later found his own fame in "My Dog Skip"

Joseph Stalin had four stunt doubles (political decoys) that were used during rallies, parades, etc.

During the making of Troy, Brad Pitt and Eric Bana did not use stunt doubles for their epic duel. They made a gentlemen's agreement to pay for every accidental hit; $50 for each light blow and $100 for each hard blow. Pitt ended up paying Bana $750, and Bana didn't owe Pitt anything.

Vic Armstrong, the director of the Left Behind reboot, is the world's most prolific stunt man. He was Christopher Reeve's stunt double in Superman, and Harrison Ford's stunt double in Star Wars and Indiana Jones

In Back to the Future 2, Cheryl Wheeler Duncan, stunt double for Darlene Vogel was injured during filming of the hoverboard scene. Instead of flying through the glass in the courthouse, she hit the concrete pillar and then fell on to the concrete below. You can see this in the final film.

Willem Dafoe’s cock is so massive, that during the filming of the 2009 film “Antichrist” they had to use a stunt double for nude scenes as to not confuse the viewers with the sheer size of Dafoe’s penis

Tom Cruise did the rock climbing scene in Mission Impossible II himself without a stunt double using only a thin safety cable

When Bruce Willis' stunt double was seriously injured on the set of "Live Free or Die Hard" he picked up the tab at area hotels for the mans parents and visited him a number of times at the hospital. The stunt double had fallen 25 feet and suffered multiple broken bones in his face.

The American Gladiator Toa (Tanoai Reed) is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Stunt Double and Cousin.

For just the opening chase sequence in Skyfall, 85 Tom Ford tailor made suits were created for Daniel Craig and his stunt double. Each one served a specific purpose, such as a suit with longer sleeves when riding the motorbike.

Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee had the same stunt double in Star Wars: Episode III. His name is Kyle Rowling, and he also portrayed General Grievous in the same movie.

On the set of the newest and final Resident Evil film a stunt double has been injured to the point of needing amputation and another was crushed and killed by a Hummer

Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double for the first 6 Harry Potter movies was paralyzed from an accident on set in the 7th movie

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