It's obvious when Astaire leaps from the balcony and swings on the vines he is being doubled, but the credits list no stunt actor. Longtime stunt men Jimmy Fawcett and Ken Terrell are listed in the credits as "drunks" and might be the "couple" in the funhouse sequence. Did they inspire Mel Brooks in BLAZING SADDLES? Terrell had a very long career, but Fawcett died young.
shareYou know the earlier scene, where the dancing Englishman on the city street was imitating "Jerry Halliday" (the Astaire character)? That was Joe Niemeyer, a dancer who met Astaire years before in vaudeville and who by coincidence was hired for this role. It was on this film that Niemeyer became Astaire's double--a job he held for another twenty years--and it is Joe you see making "Leonard's Leap."
Thank you. I didn't know about Niemeyer or that Astaire had a double. When I saw Jimmy Fawcett and Ken Terrell's names in the credits(drunks) I assumed one of them had doubled Astaire.
According to IN THE NICK OF TIME's chapter on stuntmen, Terrell and Fawcett had been a vaudeville team, and I didn't recognize either of them in that funhouse number. Fawcett, I think, was married to stuntwoman Helen Thurston and died in a motorcycle accident. Terrell had a lengthy career at Republic and was one of the several Republic stuntmen in SPARTACUS.(Tom Steele, Carey Loftin, Cliff Lyons, etc)
Cool! I didn't know that.
shareTMC, I think, did a documentary THE REPUBLIC PICTURES STORY years and interviewed Tom Steele to whom it was dedicated. Steele had a long career going back to CAPTAIN BLOOD. A tall, man he became more visible in CAT BALLOU, BLAZING SADDLES, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE where he stands next to Hackman during the Xmas tree sequence. He also visibly doubles Hume Cronyn during the fight with Burt Lancaster in BRUTE FORCE. The resemblance between Steele and Cronyn is so strong it creates a flub.
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