Bobby Bass

Stuntman and actor Bobby Bass was born on August 6, 1936 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Bobby not only was a Judo champion with a third degree black belt, but also was a paratrooper, Green Beret, and a Special Forces instructor in the military prior to being introduced to the stunt business by fellow stuntman and actor Gene LeBell in the mid-1960's. Outside of his extensive work as a stuntman, Bass also taught such people as Mel Gibson, Burt Reynolds, Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Michael Douglas, and Kathleen Turner how to either fight and/or handle weapons (Bass helped popularize the use of the head butt in barroom fights). In addition, Bobby became a staunch advocate of safer working conditions in the stunt industry after stuntwoman and then girlfriend Heidi Von Beltz was paralyzed from the neck down in the wake of an automobile stunt going disastrously awry during the shooting of The Cannonball Run (1981) as well as the tragic helicopter accident that claimed the lives of Vic Morrow and two child actors that occurred during the making of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). Bass died at age 65 from Parkinson's disease on November 7, 2001.