Hollywood's true heroes

Falling from horses, out of windows and down stairs, and to be beaten up by well coiffured actors (and that under someone else’s name), doesn’t sound like a dream job. But at the Taurus World Stunt Awards the professional fall guys got the respect they deserve.

“They’ve never gotten their due,” says Burt Reynolds about Hollywood's stunt men and women, “They’re incredible athletes. I trained with these guys. I ran with these guys … the stuff that they do, day after day, is just incredible. And they’ve never gotten the credit they deserve.”

The seventh Stunt “Oscars”

After all, since 2001 the athletes, without whom a Hollywood film would hardly be imaginable, have taken center stage once a year. The Taurus World Stunt Awards, taking place this year on May 20 in Hollywood’s Paramount Studios, have meanwhile become something like the complement to the Academy Awards: They show the outstanding stunt performances of the previous year in cinema.

Hot catwalk show

According to the jury, the most masterful stunts were seen in movies like “Casino Royale,” “Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest,” “Superman Returns” and “Crank”. The above-mentioned Burt Reynolds, Gerard Butler from “300” and stunt legend Jeannie Epper received special awards for their significant contributions to the world of action films. The award presentation was accordingly raucous: As well as sword fights and acrobatic climbing pursuits over the auditorium the audience also got to see a catwalk show with half-naked models – who were of course lit on fire.

Standing ovations from Indiana Jones and Max Guevera

These and other comparable highlights were not missed by Hollywood’s squad of stars. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Will Ferrell, Dennis Hopper and Jessica Alba, to name just a few, applauded the award winners at the gala in Paramount Studios. And nobody contradicted the show host Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson when he said: “Stuntmen are the backbone of Hollywood.”

Gala proceeds for the foundation

In the nature of things lies the relatively high professional risk of stunt men and women. For them a serious injury usually means the end of their career, the health consequences in this hard business, usually economic troubles. For this reason the Taurus World Stunt Awards Foundation supports all the athletes who’ve had bad luck in their job – like Johnny Depp’s double Tony Angelotti.

A stunt going wrong

Tony Angelotti was injured while stunt doubling for Johnny Depp and rehearsing the "roll down" stunt for “Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Dead Man's Chest”. Perched 80 feet above the ground and hooked to a descender, he had five wraps around his waist and was about to unravel like a human yo-yo, ending the stunt looking as if he were dangling by one leg. On "GO!" his quick release was pulled but he didn’t unravel. Instead, he went into a free fall. He free-fell 35 feet when the descender operator applied the brakes, causing him to unravel almost like a cracking bullwhip. He spun so uncontrollably fast that between the inertia and revolution speed, his body nearly snapped in half when he reached the end of the line just seven feet above the ground. He underwent three operations in the two-and-a-half weeks following the accident and had to learn to walk all over again. Using his life savings, Tony began rehabilitation and has worked his way back. Three-hundred-and-sixty-nine days later, Tony returned to “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End” to complete the project he started. Tony has been Johnny Depp's stunt double for “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest”, and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End”.

Give up? Never!

Although the charity aspect is a fundamental part of the Taurus World Stunt Awards, it wasn’t supposed to be in the foreground, says the show’s Executive Producer Michael Dempsey: “We wanted the show to be fun,” he explains. “We wanted there to be serious moments too, but we didn’t want everything to be serious.” And that’s also the line another tough nut like Larry Rippenkroeger takes: the stuntman, whose cracked skull, broken ribs, shattered wrists and pierced lung have now healed, is already working on his comeback – just like Angelotti ...

The winners:

Best Work with a Vehicle
Presented by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly
TALLADEGA NIGHTS
Steve Kelso, Doc D. Charbonneau, Paul M. Lane

Best Fight
Presented by Michael Buffer
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2: DEAD MAN’S CHEST
Tony Angelotti, Phil Culotta, Thomas Dupont, Lisa Hoyle, Jeremy Fry, Kirk Maxwell, Tom Morga, Buddy “Love” Sosthand, Mark A. Wagner, Jeff Wolfe

Best High Work
Presented by THE FANTASTIC FOUR, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd
CASINO ROYALE
Ben Cooke, Kai Martin, Marvin Stewart-Campbell, Adam Kirley

Best Overall Stunt By A Stunt Woman
Presented by Kelly Hu
SUPERMAN RETURNS
Debbie Evans

Best Specialty Stunt
Presented by Shaun White and Elisha Cuthbert
CRANK
Sean Graham, Michael Nicely