Jimmie Dundee

Biography

Beefy, lantern-jawed Hollywood bit part actor and stuntman who had been a professional boxer in the early 1920's. Dundee was an expert in automobile and motorcycle crashes, high falls and work with explosives. He led a crack team of stuntmen at Paramount, collectively known as the 'Suicide Squad'. Reputedly fearless, Dundee would overturn a car at 60 miles per hour merely to see if it could be done. Arguably Hollywood's most prolific stunt performer of the period, this guy lived a surprisingly charmed life: whether blown up in a truck (Wake Island (1942)), tumbling from a great height (The Glass Key (1942)) or exiting the flaming wreckage of a burning motor, he invariably walked away without a scratch. Dundee's lucky charm became a white piece of marble chipped off the Lincoln Memorial while overturning a taxi cab in My Son John (1952). A favorite of legendary directors Preston Sturges and Cecil B. DeMille, Dundee appeared on rare occasions in 'straight' roles (for instance as a no-nonsense marine in Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)). At other times, he was utilised as a double for some of the burlier screen stars, especially George Brent and William Bendix. Given his profession and the extent of his filmography, it may seem ironic that Jimmie Dundee died peacefully in bed after a two year-long bout with leukemia. He is an inductee into the Stuntmen's Hall of Fame.