Dar Robinson
| Dar Robinson | |
|---|---|
The Ultimate Stuntman
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| Born |
Dar Allen Robinson March 26, 1947 Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Died | November 21, 1986 (aged 39) Page, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupation | Stunt performer |
| Years active | 1973–1986 |
Dar Allen Robinson (March 26, 1947 – November 21, 1986) was an American stunt performer and actor. Robinson broke 19 world records and set 21 "world's firsts." He invented the decelerator (use of dragline cables rather than airbags for stunts that called for a jump from high places) which allowed a cameraman to film a top-down view of the stuntman as he fell without accidentally showing the airbag on the ground. The original decelerator can still be seen on display in Moab, Utah.
Robinson grew up in Los Angeles, California. At the early age of nine, Dar made the cover of Life Magazine for his accomplished abilities on the trampoline. Dar's father, Jess Weston Robinson, was responsible for the "trampoline sensation" that swept the country. Dar spent many hours helping in his father's Gymnastic Supply Company. Dar's natural athletic abilities and his accomplished ease on the trampoline would quickly render him the ranking of 3rd place for his division. One of Robinson's first major stunts was a 100-foot jump from a cliff into a river for actor Steve McQueen in the 1973 film, Papillon. In the same year, he appeared as a motorcycle stunt man in the Clint Eastwood film, Magnum Force. He is also remembered for driving over the edge of the Grand Canyon and safely parachuting out before hitting the ground. In 1979, he set the world record for a free-fall from a helicopter, dropping 311 feet (95 m) onto an airbag.
In a highly publicized 1979 feat, as the stunt double for actor Christopher Plummer in the 1982 film Highpoint, Robinson made a 700-foot free-fall from a deck on the CN Tower, then the world's tallest free-standing structure, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
At 220 feet, the stunt from Atlanta's Hyatt Regency Hotel (doubling for the Westin Peachtree Plaza) in the 1981 Burt Reynolds film Sharky's Machine still holds up as the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially released film. However, despite it being a record-setting fall, only the beginning of the stunt as he goes through the window is used in the film. A dummy was used for the outside wide shot. However, Robinson performed a similar falling stunt for his largest role as an actor in the 1985 Burt Reynolds film Stick, but this time all but the end of the stunt is fully visible as he is seen from above falling from a tall building firing a pistol at the same time.
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