Terry Notary (born August 14, 1968) is an American actor, stunt co-ordinator/double and movement coach. Notary mainly portrays creatures and

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage ...

s for the film and television industry, and is known for his

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

performances in films like ''

Avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appear ...

'', '' The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn'', the ''Planet of the Apes'' reboot series, ''The Hobbit'' trilogy, and '' Kong: Skull Island''. In 2018, Notary played Cull Obsidian in the

Marvel Studios Marvel Studios, LLC (originally known as Marvel Films from 1993 to 1996) is an American film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Walt Disney Company. Marvel Studios produces the Ma ...

films '' Avengers: Infinity War'' and '' Avengers: Endgame''.

Early life

Born in San Rafael,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, Notary was diagnosed as being severely hyperactive at age 7. His parents enrolled him in gymnastics class to burn off excess energy. He won a gymnastics scholarship at UCLA, where he graduated with a major in theatre.

Career

Notary's first career was as a performer with

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 ...

. His first job as a stunt movement coach was on ''

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' is a Christmas children's story by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel written in rhymed verse with illustrations by the author. It follows the Grinch, a grouchy, solitary creature who tries to cancel Christmas by ste ...

''. Director

Ron Howard Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of '' The Twilight Zone''. ...

was hiring Cirque gymnasts for the film, and after sufficiently impressing Howard, Notary was offered the job of teaching all the actors how to move. Notary followed this new career path to Tim Burton's ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...

'', for which he prepared by studying ape movements at the LA County Zoo. Notary's first motion capture film was ''

'', where he was the movement coach for the Na'vi. Swedish director Ruben Östlund hired Notary when casting his Palme d'Or-winning 2017 film '' The Square''. For Oleg, a character who acts like an ape, Östlund discovered Notary after running a

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

search for "actor imitating monkey" and viewing one of Notary's performances (which was for an audition for ''Planet of the Apes''). His performance in that single scene, in which a performance artist acts like a hostile ape at a fancy dinner, was widely praised, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' calling it "the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year."

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Notary, Terry Living people American stunt performers American male film actors Actors from San Rafael, California 1968 births Male motion capture actors