Stunt Performer
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles. Overview A stunt performer is an actor skilled in both choreographing and safely presenting actions on-screen that appear to be dangerous, risky, or even deadly. Stunts frequently performed include car crashes, falls from great height, drags (for example, behind a horse), and the consequences of explosions. There is an inherent risk in the performance of all stunt work. There is maximum risk when the stunts are performed in front of a live audience. In filmed performances, visible safety mechanisms can be removed by editing. In live performances the audience can see more clearly if the performer is genuinely doing ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Stunt Pyrotechnics Luc Viatour
A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer-generated imagery special effects, these depictions were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to carry them out, even such dangerous acts as jumping from car to car in motion or hanging from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double. Types of stunt effects Practical effects One of the most-frequently used practical stunts is stage combat. Although contact is normally avoided, many elements of stage combat, such as sword fighting, martial arts, and acrobatics required contact between performers in order to facilitate the creation of a particular effect, such as noise or physical interaction. Stunt performances are highly cho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Sideshow
In North America, a sideshow is an extra, secondary production associated with a circus, traveling carnival, carnival, fair, or other such attraction. They historically featured human oddity exhibits (so-called “Freak show, freak shows”), preserved specimens (real or fabricated, such as the Fiji mermaid, Fiji Mermaid), live animal acts, burlesque or Striptease, strip shows, actually or ostensibly dangerous stunts, or stunts that appear painful like human blockhead. Most modern sideshows feature fewer to no animal acts, and have a greater focus on trainable feats or consensual body modification rather than exhibiting people with congenital disabilities, either due to changing public opinion or local laws prohibiting the exhibition of disabled people or animals. Trainable acts associated with sideshows include sword swallowing, Fire breathing (circus act), fire breathing and manipulation, Magic (illusion), magic and visual illusions, human blockhead, knife throwing, lying on a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Akshay Kumar
Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career spanning over 30 years, Kumar has appeared in Akshay Kumar filmography, over 150 films and has won List of awards and nominations received by Akshay Kumar, several awards, including two National Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards. He received the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, from the Government of India in 2009. Kumar is one of the most prolific actors in Indian cinema. ''Forbes'' included Kumar in their lists of both highest-paid celebrities and highest-paid actors in the world from 2015 to 2020. Between 2019 and 2020, he was the only Indian on both lists. Kumar began his career in 1991 with ''Saugandh (1991 film), Saugandh'' and had his first commercial success a year later with the action thriller ''Khiladi (1992 fil ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Jayan
Krishnan Madhavan Nair (25 July 1939 – 16 November 1980), better known by his stage name Jayan, born as the son of Madhavan Pillai (Kerala title), Pillai and Bharathiyamma in Kollam district, Kollam, was an Indian actor, Officer (armed forces), naval officer, and stunt performer of the 1970s and 1980s. He starred in over 150 Malayalam films, primarily as an action star. In 2010 he was referred to as the first and most successful action hero of Malayalam cinema. His superstar image became a cartoon, email, and SMS phenomenon in the early 2000s, portraying him as a comic superhero with Jayan quotes, unique quotes of superhuman strength attributed to the action star becoming widespread. These movements were fuelled by a renewed fascination with his style of dialogue delivery and his machismo image. These were claimed to honour his memories, but were also criticised for parodying the actor years after his death.Mathrubhumi weekly, 21 November 2010, p. 10 Early life Jayan was bo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Moon Lee (Hong Kong Actress)
Moon Lee Choi-Fung (; born 14 February 1965) is a former Hong Kong actress, martial artist and stuntwoman who frequently played roles related to the Hong Kong action and martial arts genres in films and TV serials. She was particularly notable in the sub-genre known as girls with guns. Biography From age 6 to 12, Lee lived in Kaohsiung, Taiwan with her father, who had business there. She attended Youchang Elementary School. During her stay in Taiwan, she learned Mandarin Chinese and developed her piano and dancing expertise. As a result, she often had performances. When Lee first returned to Hong Kong to attend middle school, her Cantonese was not perfect. At age 15, Lee was accidentally discovered by a television director, , during a school dancing performance. She was recommended to play a role in a television series ''Fatherland''. Since the series did not require too much of her time and she could still study at school, her parents agreed to let her act. In the series, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Michelle Yeoh
Yeoh Choo Kheng (; born 6 August 1962), known professionally as Michelle Yeoh (), is a Malaysian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, Yeoh has appeared Michelle Yeoh filmography, in projects encompassing a wide array of genres, and List of awards and nominations received by Michelle Yeoh, received various accolades, including an Academy Awards, Academy Award and a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for two British Academy Film Awards. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films, she rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s after starring in Hong Kong action cinema, Hong Kong action and Martial arts film, martial arts films where she performed her own stunts. These roles included ''Yes, Madam (1985 film), Yes, Madam'' (1985), ''Magnificent Warriors'' (1987), ''Police Story 3: Super Cop'' (1992), ''The Heroic Trio'', ''Tai Chi Master (film), Tai Chi Master'' (both 1993), and ''Wing Chun (film), Wing Chun'' (1994). After moving to the Un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Yuen Biao
Yuen Biao (born Ha Lingchun; 26 July 1957) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist and stuntman. He specialises in acrobatics and Chinese martial arts and has also worked on over 80 films as actor, stuntman and action choreographer. He was one of the Seven Little Fortunes from the China Drama Academy at the Peking Opera School along with his "brothers" Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. Throughout the 1980s, he was part of the "Three Dragons" along with Chan and Hung; the three starred in six Hong Kong films together. Yuen Biao has appeared in over 130 films. He has played roles in eight television series for the Hong Kong channel TVB. Early life Born Ha Lingchun () in Nanjing, China on the 26th July 1957, he was the fifth child in a family of eight children. He and his family moved to Hong Kong when he was five years old. At the age of six he was enrolled at the Peking Opera School '' The China Drama Academy''. He was given the stage name Yuen Biao (Little Tiger) and trained alon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Sammo Hung
Samuel "Sammo" Hung Kam-bo ( zh, t=洪金寶, j=Hung4 Gam1-bou2; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and Film director, director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Kim Tai-chung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Yuen Wah. Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and popularized the zombie-like jiangshi fiction, jiangshi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew. Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh", meaning "Big Brother", until the filming of ''Project A (film), Project A'' (1983), which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Jackie Chan
Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. With a Jackie Chan filmography, film career spanning more than sixty years, he is regarded as one of the most Cultural icon, iconic and influential martial artists in the history of cinema. Films in which he has appeared in have grossed over $5.8 billion worldwide. Starting as one of the China Drama Academy#The Seven Little Fortunes, Seven Little Fortunes at the China Drama Academy, where he was trained in acrobatics, martial arts and acting, Chan entered the Hong Kong film industry as a stuntman before making the transition to acting. His breakthrough came with the action comedy ''Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'' (1978). He then starred in similar action comedies such as ''Drunken Master'' (1978) and ''The Young Master'' (1980 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Hong Kong Action Cinema
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese culture, Chinese and Culture of Hong Kong, Hong Kong cultures, including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Cinema of the United States, Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong Film genre, genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards. The first Hong Kong action films favoured the ''wuxia'' style, emphasizing mysticism and swordplay, but this trend was politically suppressed in the 1930s and replaced by kung fu films that depicted more down-to-earth unarmed martial arts, often featuring folk heroes such as Wong Fei Hung. Post-war cultural upheavals led to a sec ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Harry Houdini
Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as Harry "Handcuff" Houdini on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it. In 1904, thousands watched as Houdini tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's ''Daily Mirror'', keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists, pursuing a persona ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent films during the 1920s, in which he performed physical comedy and inventive stunts. He frequently maintained a stoic, deadpan facial expression that became his trademark and earned him the nickname "The Great Stone Face". Keaton was a child vaudeville star, performing as part of his family's traveling act. As an adult, he began working with independent producer Joseph M. Schenck and filmmaker Edward F. Cline, with whom he made a series of successful two-reel comedies in the early 1920s, including ''One Week (1920 film), One Week'' (1920), ''The Playhouse (film), The Playhouse'' (1921), ''Cops (1922), Cops'' (1922), and ''The Electric House'' (1922). He then moved to feature-length films; several of them, such as ''Sherlock Jr.'' (1924), ''The General (1926 film), The General'' (1926), ''Steamboat Bill, Jr.'' (1928), and ''The Camerama ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |