Mickey Gilbert, the fearless stunt performer who jumped off a cliff for Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and doubled for Gene Wilder in films including Blazing Saddles, Silver Streak and The Frisco Kid, has died. He was 87.
Gilbert died Monday of natural causes at his home in Camarillo, California, his oldest son, Tim Gilbert, also a stunt performer, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Early in his career, Gilbert was a horse wrangler in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) and a bank robber in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). Years later, he took the lumps for Lee Majors’ Colt Seavers on the 1981-86 ABC action show The Fall Guy.
Though they weren’t friends at the time, Gilbert and Redford were in the same class at Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1954. They got together on George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when Redford...
Gilbert died Monday of natural causes at his home in Camarillo, California, his oldest son, Tim Gilbert, also a stunt performer, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Early in his career, Gilbert was a horse wrangler in William Wyler’s Ben-Hur (1959) and a bank robber in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). Years later, he took the lumps for Lee Majors’ Colt Seavers on the 1981-86 ABC action show The Fall Guy.
Though they weren’t friends at the time, Gilbert and Redford were in the same class at Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1954. They got together on George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) when Redford...
- 2/6/2024
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Among the true legends of Hollywood’s stunt profession, Mickey Gilbert has always performed a notch above the rest. The stunt double for Robert Redford from 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” through 2018’s “The Old Man & the Gun,” Gilbert has more than 100 film and TV credits as a stunt coordinator and a second-unit director — all of which sprang from Western stunt work dating back more than half a century.
Born April 17, 1936, in Hollywood to Genevieve and Frank Gilbert, he learned to rope and ride amid the alfalfa fields of Van Nuys. Mentored by his father and an old cowboy named Buff Brady from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, Gilbert quickly mastered all things equestrian. “Training in gymnastics with my dad when I was a kid gave me a vertical leap from the saddle that made the horse-to-horse transfer a sure thing,” he says.
Excelling at local...
Born April 17, 1936, in Hollywood to Genevieve and Frank Gilbert, he learned to rope and ride amid the alfalfa fields of Van Nuys. Mentored by his father and an old cowboy named Buff Brady from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, Gilbert quickly mastered all things equestrian. “Training in gymnastics with my dad when I was a kid gave me a vertical leap from the saddle that made the horse-to-horse transfer a sure thing,” he says.
Excelling at local...
- 8/29/2019
- by James C. Udel
- Variety Film + TV
Telling the true story of Forrest Tucker, who escaped from prison at the age of 70 and then pulled off a string of amazing heists, The Old Man and the Gun is both thrilling and enchanting. Robert Redford engagingly portrays the venerable criminal with sprightly charm and a twinkle in his eye. In in our exclusive featurette, Redford says he was surprised when his old friend Mickey Gilbert showed up on location: "I wasn't expecting to see him .. it was such a feeling of camaraderie...
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- 10/5/2018
- by affiliates@fandango.com
- Fandango
Though the 2012 edition of ActionFest has come and gone it's not too late to get a little taste of the action. Outside of the films screened ActionFest always makes a great point of honoring the professionals that make action cinema possible - both the stars and the stunt professionals. Honored this year were Mma fighters turned screen stars Gina Carano and Cung Le along with stunt vets Jack Gill, Jj Perry and Mickey Gilbert.Video presentations for all were created for the festival and you can take a look at all of them below....
- 4/25/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Actionfest, the all-action movie film festival in Asheville, Nc, celebrates the movie stuntmen who make movies so awesome. This year Mickey Gilbert and Jack Gill were special honorees for Lifetime Achievement (Gilbert) and Man of Action (Gill) Awards. As they spoke to fans in a panel on Trailblazing Stuntmen, and Gilbert spoke after a screening of the classic The Wild Bunch, Gilbert and Gill revealed the close calls that stuntmen survived making films like Fast Five, Showtime and TV shows like Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. 1. The Vault driver from Fast Five – When Vin Diesel and Paul Walker pull a bank vault behind their cars, there’s actually a driver steering the vault from inside. “We found out that with the engine running and with...
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- 4/17/2012
- by Fred Topel
- Movies.com
Mickey Gilbert is a tough sonofabitch, a direct line to the glory days action cinema. His credits go back over 50 years, from his his uncredited roles in Ben Hur and Butch Cassidy to 2nd unit and stunt coordination on giant shows like Waterworld and Apollo 13. Over the years he's been the stunt double for the likes of Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Lee Majors, Billy Crystal and Gene Wilder in Stir Crazy (!). Mickey will be receiving recognition at this year's ActionFest in Asheville, North Carolina for his body of work. Looking over his list of films, the diversity of what he has accomplished is pretty astounding. With almost a hundred films under his belt, we could have talked for hours...
- 4/9/2012
- Screen Anarchy
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