America's Greatest Daredevils

Taking risks for maximum reward is all part of the American experience—but these stuntmen and women took that to a whole new level. Here are some of the greatest American daredevils of all time.

Buster Keaton

Noted by Jackie Chan as one of his heroes, Buster Keaton was a silent film actor and is often considered America's first stuntman. One notable stunt is the "water tank scene" from Sherlock Jr (1924). Keaton was supposed to grab a water spout while walking on a moving boxcar train, but the water from the spout was much more powerful than Keaton anticipated—it knocked him off-balance and he fell off the train, breaking his neck on the steel railway tie. The craziest part is that he didn't know it until years later.

Insomnia Cured Here, Flickr

Vic Armstrong

Vic Armstrong holds more world records than anyone else in Hollywood. He's doubled for Christopher Reeve in Superman (1978) and Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones. He's also responsible for the stunts in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). He has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and a Technical Academy Award.

Jeff Goode, Getty Images

Hal Needham

Hal Needham's stunt career mostly revolved around things moving very fast. His career began in the TV Western Have Gun Will Travel (1953). He trained throughout the 1960s and became one of Hollywood's premier stuntmen, culminating with the movie Smokey And The Bandit (1977). After that success, a toy company released action figurines of Needham. He passed on at the age of 82 in 2013.

Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Colin Follenweider

Colin Follenweider is one of Hollywood's current stuntmen, performing stunts in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (2008) for Shia LeBeouf's character. He's also appeared in X Men: Days Of Future Past (2014) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Paramount, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Evel Knievel

Robert Knievel, best known as "Evel Knievel", is one of America's most iconic stuntmen. Inspired by Joie Chitwood as a young man, Knievel made his stunt debut in 1966 in California and quickly became one of the biggest crowd draws in the industry. Knievel is a legendary figure and one of America's greatest daredevils, but he paid the price: suffering over 400 bone fractures in his career.

Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

Bam Margera

Bam Margera is a former professional skater turned stuntman, mostly using his skateboard  But after leaving professional skating he found a career in stunts with Johnny Knoxville. One of his most famous stunts was using golf carts in a destruction derby. After not landing the jump, Margera almost broke his neck.  

Nikki Margera, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Bud Ekins

You've seen The Great Escape (1963), yes? That moment where Steve McQueen jumps 65 feet over barbed wire to escape the Nazi concentration camp? That's Bud Ekins on that bike. He was also one of the stunt drivers for McQueen's car chase through the streets of San Francisco in Bullitt (1968).

United Artists, The Great Escape (1963)

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini is a name that will ring a bell for everyone. Known as one of the greatest escape artists of all time, he began his career by escaping out of a pair of handcuffs in 1899. That trick would set him on the road to stardom by 1900 and he would tour Europe throughout the early 1900s. One of his most famous escapes was from a straitjacket while suspended by his ankles from the ceiling.

Lasky Corporation, Wikimedia Commons

Sign up to our newsletter.

History’s most fascinating stories and darkest secrets, delivered to your inbox daily. Making distraction rewarding since 2017.

SUBSCRIBE

Thank you!

Error, please try again.

Steve McQueen

When Bud Ekins wasn't performing McQueen's stunts, he was doing them himself! While McQueen didn't perform all of the stunts in Bullitt (1963), nor perform the infamous jump to freedom, he did jump off a cliff into the waters of the Pacific in Papillon (1973), saying it was "one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life".

Solar Productions, Le Mans (1971)

Travis Pastrana

This American stunt rider is a professional motorcyclist. He's won many championships and gold medals at the X Games. Travis is well-known among motorcycle racers as a daredevil and began stunting motorbikes at just 13 years old, winning his first championship at 14. 

Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Helen Gibson

Helen Gibson was America's first professional stuntwoman. She began with rodeo riding at the age of 18 and got her first film feature in Ranch Girls On A Rampage (1912). Rodeo riding continued and she became a stunt double alongside it in films, with her most dangerous stunt occurring in April 1915, when she leapt from the roof of a building onto a moving train in an episode of The Hazards of Helen.   

Kalem Company, Wikimedia Commons

Jackie Chan

Another infamous name in the American stunt universe is Jackie Chan. Born in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan got his start performing as a stunt double for mixed-martial art scenes. His first prominent appearance was in Bruce Lee's Fist Of Fury (1972). From there, Chan has continued a long career of performing his own stunts and even set up his own choreography company to perform, the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, in 1983.

Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Sam Patch

Sam Patch is known as "America's First Daredevil". His specialty was leaping from very high structures and/or natural elements into waterfalls and bodies of water. His most famous jumps are leaping over the 77-foot Passaic Falls in New Jersey, earning him the nickname of "Jersey Jumper," and a 120-foot jump into Niagara Falls from a self-made platform. Patch drowned in 1829 after attempting a 125-foot jump over the Genesee River.

Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

Annie Edson Taylor

Many people try to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, but until Annie Edson Taylor, no one had lived to tell the tale. In October 1901, Annie Taylor pushed off over the falls from inside a barrel, escaped contact with the deadly rocks, and then plummeted over Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side—she miraculously escaped with only minor injuries.

Francis J. Petrie Photograph Collection, Wikimedia Commons

Bessie Coleman

A stunt pioneer if ever there was one, Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman to become a pilot. But, she had to train in France because African-American women weren't allowed to fly in the United States. One famous stunt is when she parachuted from the wing of a moving aircraft at a Texas airshow in 1925, landing right in the center of a crowd of onlookers. 

TradingCardsNPS, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Clem Sohn

The original Bat-Man. Clem Sohn became famous for his outrageous stunt of leaping from moving aircraft at over 15,000 feet, wearing a homemade parachute consisting only of metal rods and canvas sails as long as his arms. It gave him the appearance of a "bird man", which became his nickname. A famous jump was a leap from 18,500 feet in Brooklyn. Clem Sohn would also carry a bag of flour with him to allow onlookers to follow his glide across the skies. Sohn lost his life in front of 40,000 onlookers in April 1937, in Paris, France, when his wings failed to deploy at 1,000 feet.

Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Kittinger

Joseph Kittinger was one of America's most famous stuntmen, not for what he did on Earth—but for what he did in space. Kittinger was a 32-year-old Air Force Captain in 1960, when he rode a helium-filled balloon to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere—a height of 102,000 feet. And then parachuted back down. He held the world record for the highest skydive until 2012 and was the first man to fully witness the curvature of the Earth.

U.S. Air Force, Wikimedia Commons

Felix Baumgartner

Felix Baumgartner is the man who broke Joseph Kittinger's record for the world's highest skydive in 2012. Like Kittinger, he was sent off into space from a helium balloon and free-fell 119,000 feet from space, after jumping from 127,000 feet high. Baumgartner fell at a speed of 836 mph, making him the first human being to break the sound barrier from outside of a vehicle. 

12. Internationale Sportnacht Davos, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

Wendy Leech

Despite being born in the UK, Wendy Leech is widely considered America's greatest stuntwoman. She's performed stunts for the first three Indiana Jones movies, the first three Superman movies, and actually plays the stunt double for C-3PO in Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi (1983). She's married to Vic Armstrong.

Chris Jackson, Getty Images

Dar Robinson

Dar Robinson is widely viewed as America's greatest stunt performer. He's also a pioneer in the field, inventing a system of dragline cables, instead of airbags, allowing cameramen to film the stunt person as they fell, without seeing the airbag on the ground in the shot. He was the stunt double for Steve McQueen in Papillon (1973). In 1979, for the film Highpoint (1982), Robinson made a 700-foot free-fall from the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. In another stunt, he fell 1,200 feet suspended by a 1/8" cable from the CN Tower, stopping just a few feet before the ground.  

Bob Riha Jr, Getty Images

Mad Max 2: "Did You Get The Shot?"

Guy Norris was the stuntman for Mad Max 2 (1981), a movie famous for its crazy stunts. But none more crazy than a scene in which stuntman Guy Norris was ejected from a moving motorbike and was supposed to miss an upturned car before catapulting through the air. He didn't miss it. Catching the edge of the car with both legs, he broke his femur and both ankles. Norris' first words after he came around? "Did you get the shot?" 

Warner Bros., Mad Max 2 (1981)