RIP Bud Ekins

Message

silverscreenselect · #1 Post by **silverscreenselect** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:06 am

I think this is the first RIP post on this new Bored......

You may not recognize the name, but you know his best work. Ekins was a champion motocross racer turned stunt driver whose most famous stunt was doubling for Steve McQueen in the motorcycle jump over the barbed wire in The Great Escape. Many people think McQueen, who was a talented motorcyclist, did the stunt himself, but the studio wouldn't let him for insurance reasons, so he personally suggested his friend Ekins do it. McQueen himself always gave Ekins credit for the stunt in any publicity connected with the film, but film lore persisted that McQueen did the actual work.

Ekins also appeared in a number of other films including Bullitt (a film in which McQueen DID do the famous car chase himself). Age 77.

SportsFan68 · #2 Post by **SportsFan68** » Thu Oct 11, 2007 11:22 pm

So S-cubed was around; dint realize it until I went searching.

Actually I searched the membership list, not the posts.

That was an amazing piece of work -- the motorcycle stunt in Great Escape, I mean. I looked up an old interview -- he jumped a stock motorcycle! He said he landed hard -- oof! He also said he deliberately jumped it uphill so he wouldn't have so far to fall. At the apex, he was about 12 feet above the ground. With the uphill, he fell about six feet.