Antony Britton is a British escapologist and

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 ...

. He has performed a series of large scale spectacular

stunt 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. Befo ...

s done for television and charity. Britton first attracted notice in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

, England in a 2012 stunt. He went on to perform a series of stunts for charity, and in 2014 thousands turned out in Bradford city centre to watch him attempt the inverted straitjacket escape. In 2015 he attempted the Buried Alive escape challenge, making him the third person to have attempted the routine in 100 years. He was unsuccessful and had to be rescued.

Early life

Britton was born in

Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salts Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allo ...

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, England, and has one brother and an older sister. He went to Wycliffe Middle School in Saltaire and Beckfoot School in Bingley. At a young age he was diagnosed with

dyslexia Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, wri ...

. Britton trained as a welder whilst performing escapes, he would be seen by the public been chained, padlocked and handcuffed before jumping in the canals of Saltaire and Bingley. Britton performed his escapes in private at meetings in old mills around the Yorkshire area until 2012 when he joined forces with a team of friends, where he wanted to bring hard hitting entertainment to the public for free due to the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

as well as raising money for national charities.

Media

In 2015, Britton attempted to escape from a grave in the Buried Alive challenge, made famous by

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 ...

in 1915. At the time, he was thought to be only the third person to have attempted this escape. Britton failed to escape and lost consciousness, requiring him to be dug out by assistants and resuscitated. He described a

near-death experience A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...

to reporters.

Guinness World Record

In October 2016 Antony attempted to break a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

at Wandle Park,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

by running the "Longest Distance Full-Body Burn without Oxygen". He succeeded in breaking the record, however Guinness did not accept that attempt due to a technicality. However, he tried again on Friday 13 October 2017 at Huddersfield Rugby Union Club where he broke not one record, but two: * Fastest 100 m sprint (full body burn, without oxygen) * Longest distance run (full-body burn, without oxygen)

Known escapes

* Buried Alive * Inverted straitjacket escape * Lucifer’s Chamber * Exploding Crate * Chinese Water Torture Cell

References

External links

* https://www.antonybritton.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Britton, Antony Living people Escapologists Year of birth missing (living people)