STUNTS UNLIMITED - Key Persons
Decades before CGI allowed filmmakers to create exciting action sequences from the safety of the editing bay, men and women who were exceptionally brave, tough and a little crazy had to perform the stunts themselves-and wear the bruises and broken bones as badges of honor. Stuntmen jumped the cars, fell from the highest towers and tackled the bad guys from their horses. When it comes to the most influential, iconic and pioneering stuntmen of all time, the nearly indestructible Hal Needham is it-one of the greatest to ever walk onto a movie set. Here are his six greatest stunts. 1163
A former paratrooper, Needham appeared in thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies, performing and designing stunts and new equipment to execute them.
Needham moved out of stunt work, focusing his energy on the World Land Speed Record project that eventually became the Budweiser Rocket, driven most notably by stuntman Stan Barrett. The team failed to set an officially sanctioned World land speed record with the vehicle, and their claims to have broken the sound barrier in 1979 have been heavily disputed. In the 1980s he was best known as the owner for the Harry Gant Skoal Bandit #33 car driven in the Winston Cup Series.
Needham received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards. In 2012 he was awarded a Governors Award by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, where he was introduced by Quentin Tarantino.
Stunts Unlimited, Lance Gilbert, is a 3rd generation stuntman and stunt coordinator - Bigger, better, faster. With over 100 credits to his career, his latest project is the feature film Need for Speed bringing the top selling racing video game to life on the big screen. Check out this behind the scenes look of how the Need for Speed stunts were done, more about Lance and three generations of stuntmen in the Gilbert family.