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Book Reviews:

Stuntman: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life 

By Hal Needham

Little, Brown and Company - 2011
ISBN 978-0-316-07899-3
$25.99, 320 pages

It's impressive to read all that Hal Needham has accomplished over his lifetime.  The legendary stuntman would go onto to become a legendary Stunt Coordinator for the likes of John Wayne and his buddy Burt Reynolds.    Needham broke off to form his own stunt group, which took not only courage but conviction to make that kind of career move payoff.  Needham has broken 56 bones and his back twice.  He has won numerous awards including an Emmy and Academy Award.

Needham helped put together the Budweiser Rocket Car, which broke the sound barrier.  Help invent the movie industry used Shotmaker, a vehicle to not only carry the camera on the move but house a generator to power the lights and hold other production equipment.

He owned the Skoal-Bandit NASCAR race team.  He's worked on 4,500 television episodes, 310 feature films and he's directed 10 films.  I believe he's very underrated as a film director because not only has his films earned over a billion dollars but more importantly entertained millions of people worldwide.  At one time, Alfred Hitchcock called SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT his favorite movie.  I know it was certainly one of my personal favorites, as my school buddies and I still get a laugh out of it to this day.  In fact at my bachelor party, my two best men and I watched it the night before the big day.

What's so great reading Stuntman is not only reading about the numerous death-defying stunts Needham pulled off but the way in which Needham tells his stores.  He does it the same casual fashion he tells stories on film.  A  point blank honest style, which many people can appreciate.

Hal Needham wasn't handed down anything.  This is a man who was a sharecropper's son and came from a tiny town in Arkansas during the Great Depression.  He served time in the military jumping out of airplanes.  Then started out as a professional tree climber and eventually moved to Los Angeles.  This is where he got a job that took him into a career in the movies.  One thing is for sure, Needham made is own breaks.  Whenever an opportunity came to make an impression, he never let it pass by.  He approached each chance with passion, honesty and courage.  That's obviously a recipe for success. 

This book has many interesting stores about many of the movies Needham was part of.  But there are a couple others that were just as fascinating and kind of scary to read also.  What happened to him twice in the same hotel while attending NASCAR races is pretty hilarious (though I wouldn't be laughing if it happened to me).  Another story was when he accidentally crossed paths with the mid 70s psychopath known as the Skid Row Slasher while living in Burt Reynolds house.  This story seemingly comes out of nowhere in terms of it's almost true crime tone but is absolutely captivating to read.

I very much suggest reading Stuntman and live vicariously through Hal Needham's thrilling life.

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