5 men behind the action of Bond

Posted by admin on Feb 29, 2012 in Headline | 3 comments

It’s easy to sit back and watch James Bond films, believing in every moment that James, shaken not stirred himself is pulling off all of those awesome moves. Of course, while Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and even Sean Connery sat back with their feet up, a stunt man was putting his neck on the line to make the guys in the smart suits look good. Here, we take a look at a few of the best stunt men in the business.

Rocky Taylor

Rocky Taylor is famous both for acting as stunt double for two different Bond’s in one calendar year, as well as breaking the world record for driving a spinning car through a plate of glass! At the ripe old age of 64 Taylor is still prepared to risk life and limb for nothing more than thrills, and for this, we salute him!

Ben Cooke

This is Ben Cooke – the man who was behind the wheel for Casino Royale’s famous chase scene. Ben has been involved in every manner of stun scene in a variety of films, and is still very much at the height of his career. thanks to an incredible fitness regime which means looking every inch as honed as Daniel Craig himself, Ben should be pretty busy for many years to come.

Derek Lea

Could not imagine him in mountain hardwear

Derek Lea not only has the distinction of being a stunt doubler for James bond – he has also taken time out to show current Prime Minister David Cameron how to throw the perfect punch! of course, David is normally working hard to keep in shape for his next role. Derek has been working in the industry for the last twenty years, and shows no signs of slowing down.

Bob Simmons

Bob Simmons sadly passed away over twenty years ago, but that doesn’t mean that he is not remembered well and fondly by people who know and understand the stunt man profession. Bob was well known for his involvement with the James Bond films, and was involved in every film directed by Terence Young until his death in 1987. He played Bond three times for Sean Connery, and is known to be the only person who has been filmed in the gun barrel silhouette intro scene without actually playing the part of Bond.

Rick Sylvester

The Guardian newspaper once complied a list of the top ten best stunts ever pulled, and it was no surprise to see that Rick Sylvester had been singled out for pulling off an incredible base jump followed by a ski straight off a ledge, followed by a sky dive which resulted in a last second parachute pull which revealed the famous union jack parachute top – a fabulous moment in cinema. Rick Sylvester apparently had to wait at the top of the mountain for two weeks to be able to pull the stunt off properly in the right conditions – that’s dedication! there’s no doubt that e would have got through an incredible amount of ski wear during the shoot – the materials they used on those days were not water proof at all. Stunt men like Rick Sylvester would probably put today’s stunt men to shame. No special diets, old fashioned equipment, but courage and skill in abundance and the will to be creative with the laws of gravity!