This
interview first appeared in Issue 1 of STUNTS magazine. Many
thanks to Jon Auty for allowing us to re-print his article for Roy's
legions of fans to enjoy.
Roy
Alon is one of the worlds great stunt performers and when
he's not working on another long running television series or
creating new and exciting stunts for film he's explaining his
craft to the new performers arriving onto Equity's 'Stunt
Register'. I first became aware of Roy after he won the ITV
programme Stunt Challenge in 1983. He reversed a car up a ramp and
through the side of an articulated lorry. This, I was to find out,
was only one of his many talents. Versatile is his middle name as
seen here from 'Curse of the Pink Panther' where he doubles for
Herbert Lom during the films climatic sequence. His engineering
background told that if he was to perform this 'gag' successfully
he'd have to tether the wheel-chair with fish wire. After all you
don't want to be crushed by the wheel-chair after surviving the
initial 70ft fall. So he could concentrate on his fall and
positioning and not worry about where the wheel-chair was going to
be.
I
caught up with Roy at Yorkshire Television in Leeds and asked him
about those special moments he's created on screen. Starting with
his first feature film.
'My first actual feature film was 'A Bridge
Too Far'. I'd done a lot of television before and I was still
living in the North, although I had met a few of the established
stunt-men like Gerry Crampton, Colin Skeaping and Marc Boyle etc.
Then in 1976 I got a phone call from Andy Armstrong to work at
Plnewood Studios on 'The New Avengers'. The job involved diving
head first from a speeding truck, which was driven by Alan Stuart.
Rocky Taylor, doubling for the hero, was driving the car chasing
us and Eddie Stacey was jumping out of the way. I had a really
great time. Fortunately the job also went well and I will always
be grateful to Andy Armstrong because he then recommended me to
his brother Vic, who was doing the film 'A Bridge Too Far' with
Alf Joint in Holland. Consequently, I finished up in Holland,
riding in the back of a speeding jeep driven by Vic which he was
about to crash and turn over and, as the bullets rang out, once
again I dived out head first and went sliding down the tarmac. It
was on that film, that I met my great pal Billy Horrigan and
people like Paul Weston, Chris Webb, George Leach (Wendy's
father), Stuart Fell, etc. and many more. Most of them have become
more than just colleagues but also genuine friends over the years.
It was a real turning point.'
This
was the start of a very solid working relationship with Vic
Armstrong. Whenever Vic needed a stuntman to perform something a
little different, he'd call Roy. A perfect example of this was on
the 1981 film 'Green Ice' where a high fall was called for whilst
on location in Mexico City.
 |
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| Roy
Alon performing a spectacular high-dive for the film
'Green Ice' in Mexico City |
'Well, it was Vic's 'gag'. He was Stunt
Co-ordinator and he probably also directed the second unit. He had
been to Mexico on a recce and had seen the building which was over
300ft high. He told me about the 'Fan Descender' which Dave
Bickers had made and which we would be using in the film to escape
from the building. Later on Vic decided we could also do part of
the fall using the fan-descender for the first time ever, which
was a brilliant idea. So when you put the 'descent' together with
a genuine highfall you get the best of both worlds. This technique
has since been copied many times. There's a funny thing about this
fall. Vic asked if I fancied doing it. I'd thought about it and
said yes, because it's great to be asked and offered a 100ft fall
at that time was, to a stuntman, a bit like an actor being offered
the lead in a West End play. Although my fall was to be in Mexico
in a couple of months, by coincidence Vic himself also had a 100ft
fall to perform the following week, on a different film here in
the UK, so he suggested that we rehearse our falls together at
R.A.F Cardington in the giant airship hangers. So we both went
there and together we practiced falls into an air-bag, each time
getting progressively higher as we rehearsed, learning not only
the skills required in high-falls, but also how to conquer our
fears and to overcome other problems. As anyone who has ever done
it will tell you, each time you go higher it can and does get
scary, but also it is great fun. At one point, Vic had just done
around 80 to 85ft and was about to go up to the 90ft level.
Personally, I was having difficulty progressing beyond the 80ft
level, so I said to Vic, "What I'm going to do is to go up to
a much higher level and then look down and watch you from above.
When you go, I'm going to run back down to the lower level, which
hopefully will now 'appear' much lower, to follow you and jump
off'. Well I felt I was getting close to what at that time was
approaching my limit and as I said, I was having a few problems
getting past 80ft. So now I'm standing high above Vic looking down
at him way below on the 90ft ledge, watching his every move. After
a few short moments, he leaned slightly forwards and very slowly,
allowed his body attitude to tilt past the point of balance moving
into the zone from which there is no turning back. At this point,
to maintain control he pushed off and just sailed way out and
downward dropping away further and further. It seemed like he was
going on forever and I'm asking myself, when is he going to tuck?
Just like a Formula One car coming straight at you on TV, there's
a distortion of distance, which is just what it looked like from
above. It seemed to take forever and I was wandering by now is he
ever going to tuck, sooner or later he has to, he must, and
eventually he did just before landing on the bed. Up to this
point, I was still holding my breath when I realised I had to
follow that and do the same. For some reason, hurrying back down
the steps no longer appealed to me so I slowly walked back down as
I mentally prepared myself to follow him.
