- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Stuntman and actor Harvey Parry was born on April 23, 1900 in San Francisco, California. Parry worked as a circus aerialist in his youth and was working as a property man at the studios prior to discovering that his talents as both a boxer and high diver -- he had been an AAU champion in both sports -- made him ideally suited for stunt work. Harvey subsequently joined the Mack Sennett studios in 1919 and embarked on a remarkably long and eventful career as a stuntman that encompassed over sixty years (Harvey was still performing stunts in his 80's). Among the notable actors that Parry doubled for are John Wayne, Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Harold Lloyd, George Raft, Peter Lorre, Clark Gable, and Monty Banks. Moreover, since Harvey was only 5'6" he was also able to double such actresses as Shirley Temple, Mary Pickford, and Carole Lombard. Parry was only seriously injured twice in his career as a stuntman: He broke his back doubling Clark Gable in Call of the Wild (1935) and broke twenty bones in one of his feet after a water tower fell the wrong way during the shooting of How the West Was Won (1962). He also played mostly small parts in a large assortment of films and TV shows. In addition, Harvey kept himself in shape throughout the years with a daily regimen of push-ups, sit-ups, and leg lifts followed by a two-mile brisk walk. Parry died at age 85 of a heart attack on September 18, 1985.- IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders
- SpousesLavinia Vigil(1982 - September 18, 1985) (his death)Dorothy Abril(October 26, 1927 - April 28, 1977) (her death)
- Swam the Golden Gate in San Francisco, circa WWI
- Usually uncredited - especially where the actor he doubled was reputed (as in the case of Harold Lloyd) to "do all his own stunts".
- Was still working at the age of 80.
- Reputedly took part in over 600 movies as stunt-double or stunt-man.
- From the beginning Ford cars have been favored by all us stunt men because they have always been easy to handle, and because it's almost impossible to demolish them. We used to do turnovers at twenty-five miles an hour. But that was in the silent days of undercranking the camera which made the action, with the film run through the projector at normal speed, seem a bit faster. Nowadays it is considered important to have background action in such shots and, therefore, bailing out of a car or turning it over must be done at a higher speed. Chases are done at as high a speed as 100 miles an hour. In a recent movie, An Innocent Adventuress (1919), we cranked up several foreign-made cars to 105 miles an hour.
- [on what it was like to be a stunt man in the silent-film days] It was taboo in those days to say, "I doubled Harold Lloyd or "He doubled Douglas Fairbanks" because the public believed they did their own work. I doubled Harold Lloyd--who couldn't stand heights--and he gave me every precaution I wanted in climbing buildings and so forth. The only thing I could not have was publicity.
- [on how stunt men got hired in the silent-movie days] The casting director or somebody would come out and say, "Anybody wanna make $10?" They [the stunt men] never said, "What have we got to do?" They said, "Yes, I will". The guy that was chosen would have to jump off a building, So he jumped. If he made it, fine. If he didn't, he got free room and board in the hospital for a while.
- [addressing the rumors that Buster Keaton used stunt doubles rather than doing the stunts himself] To my knowledge, [he] never had a double. I've heard a couple of fellows say they doubled him, but I have never seen this happen. This man was a very clever acrobat . . . I don't think I could have done [stunts] the way he wanted them. His fall was a different fall. He didn't just slip and fall down. He'd do a lot of things before he fell down. That's the way Buster was. You can't double a guy like that.
- A good stuntman--his mind has to be at least fourteen feet ahead of his body. That's the way to stay alive, you know.
- Tobacco Road (1941) - $50
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