World of Stunt Illusions Part 4
“Lots of the things we do are dangerous, but life itself is dangerous; nothing is really worth bothering with that isn’t full of danger.” Jimi Hendrix
Stuntman Mike : Well Pam, which way you goin' left or right?
Pam : Right.
Stuntman Mike : Aww, that's too bad.
Pam : Why?
Stuntman Mike : Well, because there was a fifty-fifty shot on whether you'd be going left. You see, we're both going left. You could have just as easily been going left too and if that was the case, it would have been awhile before you started getting scared. But since you're going the other way, I'm afraid you're gonna have to start getting scared... immediately! Death Proof
When the daily cycle fades and night falls on the stuntman’s day, he closes his eyes, anticipating sunrise, where he’ll face stressful challenges to his mind and body unimaginable to the average person. Winding down, he calms his mind from mental noise while watching the screen in his mind, visualizing tomorrow‘s stunt, preparing his mind for the next day’s work — seeing his body walk across a high, dangerous, rickety beam carrying another stuntman on his back without injury or possible death. He has a special kind of courageousness where his mind and body come together, confronting heroic, death-defying feats of body legerdemain. This is his life, living with the forecast of danger. It's what gives him life and purpose, resonating with the famous quote by famous high wire walker Karl Wallenda, "To be on the wire is life; the rest is waiting." implying that he is most alive when performing stunts and the rest of living is a formality. Jonathan (my ex-husband) liked that quote and often used it when describing his professional lifestyle in magic and stuntwork. That night before he walked on the beam, Jonathan fell into deep slumber waiting while he rested.
He woke in the morning ready to undertake his tightrope. As a teen, Jonathan readied his future as a stuntman by partnering with his friend Michael Vendrell; together, they would jump from building to building, practice pratfalls, free falling, repelling down the sides of cliffs, fistfights, karate, catching fire and explosions were a short list of stunt skills he and Michael practiced preparing their future. There was a special bond and camaraderie and companionship. They were each other's best friends, mentoring one another while learning valuable lessons about trust, bravery, discipline, common sense and coolness under stress, a team effort, and collaborating to become professional stunt performers.
As a reward for his hard work as a college student, Jonathan was given a coveted position at the University of California, Irvine’s exclusive Claire Trevor School of the Arts, instructing theater students in the fine art of motion and stunts for actors. That morning, he greeted the sunrise by psyching up for the day — focusing his mind on how to stay on the beam. In an interview with Wallenda’s widow Helen, following his death from a high wire accident in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1978, he said, “All Karl thought about for three straight months before the accident was falling. It seemed to me he put all his energy into not falling - not into walking the tightrope." Jonathan understood focusing on what was important, knowing from Wallenda’s last experience that not doing so could result in deadly consequences.
When Time Ran Out was released in 1980 with an all-star cast consisting of top Hollywood actors: Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert, Red Buttons, Barbara Carrera, Valentina Cortesa, Ernest Borgnine and Burgess Meredith, and Irwin Allen produced disaster film with a volcano as the threatening force. Burgess plays Rene, a retired circus tightrope walker who rescues a child in the movie while escaping a live exploding volcano that destroys the road, preventing the survivors from escaping. The party happens upon a crumbling bridge over a river of molten lava connecting to the safe side. Survivors cross the bridge in pairs before further decay with only one thin, rickety beam remaining. The last survivors left were Rene, played by Meredith, and a frightened native child. Using his tightrope skills to negotiate the dangerous beam, he crossed it with the child on his back.
It was a memorable tense scene in the film requiring four stunt performers: one to double Burgess Meredith and another for Paul Newman and two to double the native children. Through his mentor and friend Fred Waugh, a legendary stuntman was the stunt coordinator, Jonathan was cast to play Burgess crossing the beam, and Bobbie Porter at 4’ 10’, known for Battle of the Planet of Apes, was ideal playing the child who traveled on his back. By this time, Jonathan was well-established in his stunt career, having performed stuntwork in numerous films and TV Shows. Freddie would double Paul Newman and I'm not certain the name of the double for the second child.
Along the way during his stunt career he met and was befriended by Waugh, an icon in Hollywood whose background in gymnastics and circus was similar to Jonathan's. Freddy was instrumental to the heartbeat of Jonathan’s stunt career. He had been the stunt coordinator and doubled Nicholas Hammond in the popular action TV series Spiderman, doing crazy stunts like walking along the edge of the Empire State Building with a camera to show the height of his stunt. When I see it, I still get chills because I'm afraid of heights. He took Jonathan under his wing and taught him everything about the stunt business, encouraging him to do the same when he was older, mentoring a younger, less experienced stunt performer. In When Time Ran Out, Fred Waugh was not only the stunt coordinator, but he also doubled Paul Newman in the movie. I know Jonathan was pleased working with Fred and was excited by the challenge of playing Meredith in his harrowing, scary walk across the flowing lava filmed in an enormous soundstage at MGM Grand Studios in Culver City, now Lorimar Telepictures.
Doubling Burgess Meredith, who at that time in his career was an older man, and Jonathan was a young, fit 20-something, came with many obstacles. To effectively play Burgess, Jonathan had to mimic Meredith’s kinetics, unlike his own, due to their age difference. Once he was able to impersonate Meredith‘s body movements, he then had to transfer those moves to the thin beam to become Burgess. To further create the illusion of being Burgess, the proper makeup and hair needed to be applied and done so with the magic of skillful makeup artists and hairstylists. During filming, Jonathan‘s makeup took more work than some stars, like Jacqueline Bisset, who often sat beside him for her makeup. Her makeup was fast and easy because she had the type of face that required very little or no makeup. A little powder, blush, lip gloss, and mascara, and she was ready. One day, while sitting next to him, she leaned over and stared into Jonathan’s eyes and remarked about the intensity of their blueness and the anomaly of having star shapes in them. Jonathan’s eyes are like that, intense blue with white stars. It was surreal for Jonathan to have a beautiful Hollywood movie star peer into his eyes. It's through our eyes our souls connect, and it was a magic moment indeed. Years later, we worked with Jacqueline Bisset and Monte Carlo, and I recall her gracious manner as she remembered Jonathan from their days together in the makeup room.
When Jonathan walked on the set to play Burgess Meredith, he looked just like him. He got Meredith‘s movements right, so sometimes you forgot he was Jonathan when he walked around. It was uncanny and made more so by the fact the only thing they had in common was their height. Jonathan was known for doubling actors who didn't resemble him and challenging him to find stunt doubles. Other actors he doubled, like Craig Wasson, whom Jonathan permanently doubled, and Richard Lynch, whom he doubled, resembled him, but most were odd body types like John Belushi and Burgess Meridith. It became a component of Jonathan's talent to use his acting abilities to impersonate actors skillfully. Wearing khaki pants and a white shirt, applying make-up and hair, and using exact body language, Jonathan became Burgess Meredith on that day. Just like he became indistinguishable from John Belushi, causing the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, at the time to be confused when he mistook Jonathan for John when he ran into Jonathan in John’s dressing room on the set of The Blues Brothers. Jonathan was a dedicated performer who spent time perfecting these characters and making them come together within himself. These were techniques he applied on stage as a magician and separated him from most magicians, putting him in a class all by himself.
It's not often I showed up on the set when Jonathan worked, and it was the same for me. There is a reason for that because a stuntman needs to be focused on his life's stunt. A wife or a girlfriend showing up on the set is a distraction that could harm his safety when filming his scene. But the day Jonathan performed his stunt, walking on the thin beam of wood posing as Burgess Meredith, I was there along with my friend Becky Myers to watch. Freddy Waugh had invited me along with his two young sons, Scotty and Ricky, exposing them to another big film and grooming them for their future film careers, and today, Ric and Scott Waugh are successful directors. Like every movie, you must learn to hurry up and wait, meaning you wait a long time on the set watching the crew race against time. Your call to be on the set might be at 5 a.m., but you may not be on camera until after lunchtime. This is normal in the film industry, leaving cast members and some crewmembers a lot of free time to observe and meet one another. It was exciting for Becky and me to watch the scene filmed, but I was anxious, hoping and praying Jonathan would not make a mistake.
Interestingly, my fear for his safety didn't enter my mind until then because I had always had confidence in Jonathan. I was distracted that day from the incredible movie legends Becky and I met earlier, suffering from star-struckness. At that moment, I understood the importance of staying calm under pressure as I faced the tension creating havoc. I kept tranquil, knowing any expression of fear might distract Jonathan and throw him off his focus, detrimental to his security.
Instead, I put my fear behind me the best I could and supported Jonathan by giving him space. I watched the stunt from afar, and this calmed my concern for some reason. I sat back and watched as, serendipitously in my mind, the lyrics to Tight Rope by Leon Russell played. The song is a commentary on the tension and pressure of notoriety and success but appreciating the danger and thrill of living on the edge, and just like on a tightrope, there is room for a little error. There was no room for error that day as Jonathan walked across the volcano “pire” high up on the beam. Ohh, the altitude. Song 🎶
I'm up on the tightwire
one sides ice and one is fire
its a circus game with you and me.
I'm up on the tightrope
one sides hate and one is hope
but the tophat on my head is all you see
And the wire seems to be
the only place for me
a comedy of errors
and I'm falling
Like a rubber-neck giraffe
you look into my path
well, maybe you're just too blind to see
I'm up in the spotlight
ohh does it feel right
ohh the altitude
seems to get to me
I'm up on the tightwire
flanked by life in the funeral pyre
putting on a show
for you to see
Like a rubber-neck giraffe
you look into my path
well, maybe you're just too blind
to see
I'm up in the spotlight
ohh does it feel right
ohh the altitude
really gets to get to me
I'm up on the tightwire
flanked by life in the funeral pyre
putting on a show for you to see
Before Jonathan began his walk on the beam, I observed Paul Newman's first cross of the bridge in his scene when it was intact before the volcano tore most of it. Newman had been aloof on the set because he suffered from grief following the recent loss of his son. He mainly stayed alone and spent much time alone in his dressing room. I never met him like I did the other actors, but I had the opportunity to watch him work intimately with Fred and Jonathan. Fred doubled Newman carrying a stunt actor posing as the second child traversing what was left of the bridge. In the film, every time you see Paul Newman or Meredith crossing the bridge, it’s Fred and Jonathan. Camera shots are needed to blend the scenes where the stuntman finishes and the actor picks up the motion. When you watch my fight scene in Charlie’s Angels doubling Farrah Fawcett, you get glimpses of my face when you freeze specific frames, but when the film is rolled, these little nuances aren’t noticed. The camera work and editing in When Time Ran Out is exceptional because the scenes between the actors and stunt performers are flawless, creating the illusion that Meredith and Newman performed their stunts.
Ideally, the director is happy when a scene can be finished in one shot. It saves time, and time is money. But that's usually dreaming because most scenes require many takes to complete, especially ones with stunts and special effects. The bridge settings combined stunts and pyro, so coordination between all the players had to be timed perfectly. During one of the takes, Jonathan had to walk backward back to his mark after the director yelled “cut,” causing Bobbie Porter to whisper in Jonathan’s ear, asking what he was doing. Whispering back, Jonathan told him he was walking backward. Porter then asked, “Can you do that?” Jonathan could. I'm unsure how many takes it took to film Jonathan and Fred’s stunts. It was a long scene, but everyone in it performed their parts like clockwork, working together as a whole. The set was terrific, and the bridge was about 40 feet above the lava. Explosions and the crumbling bridge add to the intense moments. When watching Jonathan that day, I admit, I closed my eyes regardless of my confidence, knowing even though this was a Hollywood movie illusion, the dangers were real. Victory ruled the day as Jonathan and Fred left the set unscathed. Two friends leaving the day behind them, one a mentor and one a mentee, leaving the stage together as the curtain fell, and when the makeup washed off and the disguise peeled off, the illusion of playing two famous actors fades into the sunset.
A very big WOWWW What a story, and what a gifted story teller you are, Charlotte. I found myself holding my breath! 💙💫
I love that quote you mention, by famous high wire walker Karl Wallenda, "To be on the wire is life; the rest is waiting.".
Sums up everything really, Charlotte.
Thank you for sharing more of your recollections.