Paul Stader

Paul Stader
Born(1911-02-13)February 13, 1911
Neosho, Missouri, U.S.
DiedApril 10, 1991(1991-04-10) (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Kansas
Occupation(s)Actor, assistant director, stuntman
Years active1937–1991
SpouseMarilyn Stader[1]

Paul Stader (February 13, 1911[2] – April 10, 1991) was an American actor, assistant director and stuntman.[3]

Life and career

Stader was born in Neosho, Missouri.[4] He attended at the University of Kansas, where he played football and practiced swimming.[4] Stader then moved to California, in which he would join the swimming team for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.[4][5] He swam for the Summer Olympics,[5] but didn't make it.[4] While participating at the Summer Olympics, Stader became friends with 400-meter freestyle gold medal winner Buster Crabbe and actor, Johnny Weissmuller.[4] He then was a lifeguard in Santa Monica, California.[4][5] Stader began his film career in 1937, when he appeared in the film The Hurricane, doing 70-foot, 97-foot and 100-foot highdives.[4][5] He also had to jump off a cliff.[1] Stader doubled for actor, Jon Hall on the film.[4]

Stader doubled for actor Kirk Alyn in the 1948 serial film Superman.[4] He doubled for actors on numerous films including Our Man Flint, The Missouri Traveler, Demetrius and the Gladiators, The Great Waldo Pepper, The Towering Inferno, Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl, Revolt in the Big House, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Last of the Badmen, Blazing Saddles, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Valley of Head Hunters, Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land and Our Man Flint.[1][4][5] Stader said that his favorite stunt was in the film Markow, in which he doubled for actor Robert Mitchum, and fell from a roof and had his fall broken by an awning.[5] He appeared in westerns, including The Virginian, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train and Tales of Wells Fargo, among others, and doubled for actor John Wayne.[2][6]

On television, Stader doubled for actor Lloyd Bridges in the action adventure television series Sea Hunt from 1958 to 1961.[4]

Death

Stader died in April 1991 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 80.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c Higham, Charles (June 9, 1974). "Hollywood's Disaster Craze Is a Stuntman's Paradise". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Kotar, S. L.; Gessler, J. E. (December 2009). Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series, 1959-1961. BearManor Media. p. 258. ISBN 9781593935054 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Freese, Gene (1998). Hollywood Stunt Performers: A Dictionary and Filmography of Over 600 Men and Women, 1922-1996. McFarland. p. 213. ISBN 9780786405114 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Freese, Gene (April 10, 2014). Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s-1970s: A Biographical Dictionary, 2d ed. McFarland. pp. 264–265. ISBN 9780786476435 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Anderson, Hilmer (July 3, 1982). "71-year-old stuntman still going strong". United Press International. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  6. ^ Mank, Gregory (May 23, 2014). The Very Witching Time of Night: Dark Alleys of Classic Horror Cinema. McFarland. p. 229. ISBN 9781476615431 – via Google Books.