I have finished GREEN HORNET and started on THOR for Marvel Comics. Kenneth Brannagh is directing and I have not worked with him since HENRY V which was a while ago so I am looking forward to working together again.

GREEN HORNET went fantastically well and I had a blast working with Seth Rogan who is an amazing talent and very professional and dedicated. My brother Andy and I along with my son Scott and nephew’s James and Jesse delivered a real “Kick Ass” car chase and I think it is one of the best I have done for a long time so look out for it later this year.

The Diamonds in the Raw awards are aimed at honoring various people in action and films and also to raise money and awareness for under privileged kids and to give them a chance and an insight into the movie business and hopefully give them some hope and a goal to aim for in life.

Other honorees were Mohammad Ali’s daughter Laila Ali, a World Champion boxer in her own right. Laila gave a wonderful and inspiring speech and Jamie Lee Curtis’s speech was hilarious and showed what a truly great and generous person she is as she praised her stunt double.

Thank you ladies for the honour it is very much appreciated

I first met Mickey in Tunisia on “RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK”, the unit had been shooting a while when I was drafted in to double Harrison. I had been shooting a picture in Mexico called “GREEN ICE” up until then. I learnt so much from Mickey, and his words of wisdom still come back to me today when I am directing and I often say to myself “what would Mickey do in this situation”?

Mickey is the role model for every action unit director out there today with his calmness, politeness, safety first, his thoughtfulness and his incredible knowledge. Since Raiders I have worked with Mickey many times in various places around the World.Thank you Mickey on behalf of all cinema goers around the World and every stuntman past and present, you have touched us all with your magic carpet, I look forward to seeing you at your 100th Birthday Party. Vic

Chilterns Crematorium
Whielden Lane
Amersham
HP7 0ND

He was one of the most elegant men in the business and he is now at peace at that big race track in the sky, mixing with all the other legends he worked and played with over the years. Thank you Jim.

Prior to this I was doing some extra shooting on "WOLFMAN" for Universal which was great fun and kept me in the UK for a nice period of time and I got lots of stuff done around the farm at weekends. It was also fun shooting Wolfman because I had Wendy running the main unit and Jordi running my Action Unit and Nina was also working with Jordi so it was fun to be all working together. Scott has been in New York doubling Liev Schreiber on "SALT" with my friend Simon Crane which he really enjoyed and I am sure learnt a lot.

This is my LA view when I wake up

Jimmy Lodge and the gang

From the left to right we have Gerard Naprous, Tony Smart, Myself, Jimmy Lodge and George Leech.

Gerard and Tony are from my era and we all started around the same time. Jimmy Lodge is the Gentleman that got me started as a stuntman in 1965. George Leech is my Father in Law and one of the first stunt men in the UK back in the day.

Jimmy was a very good amateur steeplechase jockey and was the number one horseman in the film business in the 60′s. When I met him he had just come back from Spain where he was working with Yul Brynner on “The Long Duel”. Jimmy used to come and exercise my fathers racehorse to keep himself fit and one day he asked me if he could borrow one of our horses for a movie called “ARABESQUE” of course I said yes. Jimmy was doubling Gregory Peck in this big chase sequence and the horses they had from the usual horse hirer just could not jump the fences that were required. Jimmy new the horse that he wanted to borrow from me could jump anything you put in front of him. The next day Jimmy called and said we need another rider do you want to do it, so I said “you’ll have to give me about two seconds to think it over”.  I went to work for Jimmy and got the fantastic amount of £20 a day as a riding stunt double which was a Kings ransom in those days and actually more than the average persons weekly wage. The rest is history as they say, I just loved the work and luckily at the time they were making a lot of “horse operas” as they were nick named like “Mary Queen of Scott’s” Macbeth” “Young Winston” and being one of the only young stunt guy’s in those days I worked on them all. I soon branched out into other aspects of stunts such as fights, falls and driving and got an impressive resume very quickly.

The bottom line is I owe it all to Gentleman Jimmy Lodge, he taught me how to handle productions and how to negotiate and how to stand firm for what was safe and right and the many things a successful stuntman has to know, he also introduced me to his tailor because I was always in awe of Jimmy’s immaculate dress sense and later on when I could afford it I had my clothes made by the same tailor Bernard Wetherill of Windsor.

I last saw Terry in Victorville California where I was shooting a sequence for “VALKYRIE” in the desert. Terry walked into the same hotel one night and it turned out he was shooting a sequence for the latest “FAST & FURIOUS” movie on a dry lake bed just down the road from where I was shooting. We had a nice early dinner together and reminisced a little about the old days and I promised to send him a copy of this picture which was taken at the last TAURUS WORLD STUNT AWARDS. We then turned in early because we both had to leave at the crack of dawn the next morning, it sure wasn’t like the old days!!