Hollywood stuntman and director Hal Needham dies at the age of 82
Hal Needham, a veteran Hollywood stuntman who later embarked on a less risky career as a director of action movies including Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run, both of which starred his friend Burt Reynolds, has died in Los Angeles. Needham was 82.
Hal Needham
1931-2013
Hal Needham, a veteran Hollywood stuntman who later embarked on a less risky career as a director of action movies including Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run, both of which starred his friend Burt Reynolds, has died in Los Angeles. Needham was 82.
During the course of his career, Needham said in a speech at the Academy Awards in 2012, he broke 56 bones, including his back twice. He punctured a lung, had a shoulder replaced and knocked out several teeth. He invented several new stunt methods and devices - among them the introduction of air bags for breaking falls.
At first he appeared primarily in television and movie Westerns, including Gunsmoke and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, leaping to and from galloping horses. On one occasion, he said later, he landed so hard on the roof of a stagecoach that he crashed through it.
In the 1970s, Needham turned his attention to car stunts and collaborated often with Reynolds, whom he had met when they both worked in television. He went on to direct 19 other movies after Smokey and the Bandit in 1977.
He won a scientific and engineering Oscar in 1986 for the development of a camera car.