In Remembrance: Edward Smith

     Edward “Eddie” Smith, co-founder of the Black Stuntmen’s Association, has passed away in Culver City, CA on June 24, 2005. He was 91.

     Born in 1914 in St Louis, MO, Smith entered into show business in 1955, working as a film extra and as a freelance television news cameraman for local Los Angeles stations.

     Smith first conceived the idea of a black stuntmen’s group while working as an extra on the 1963 comedy It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World when he saw a white stuntman being made up to double for black comic actor Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. Although such a practice, called a “paint down” was common at the time, Smith complained to the film’s director Stanley Kramer, who told Smith he would hire a black stuntman if he could find one.

     Smith approached Henry Kingi, asking if he and his fellow re-enactors of the all-black Buffalo Soldiers 10th Cavalry Unit wanted to become stuntmen. The group, which would grow to become the Black Stuntmen’s Association, soon began practicing and working out in Athens Park in South Los Angeles. For a while, they were coached by two top white stuntmen, Glenn Wilder and Ronnie Rondell, the co-founders of Stunts Unlimited. Reportedly many of the group’s early practice sessions were monitored by undercover police officers who suspected them of being a black militant group.

     Many white stuntmen were concerned that with the rise in African American and other minority actors gaining more prominent film roles combined with an increase in the number of minority stuntmen, they would start loosing many potential jobs.

     Since a majority of stunt coordinators, the ones who controlled the hiring of stuntmen, were white, it was often an uphill battle for Smith and his fellow black stuntmen to get jobs. In 1971, Smith learned that a white stuntman had been chosen to double for actor Louis Gossett Jr for the movie Skin Game. Smith lobbied the producing studio, Warner Brothers, to use Tony Brubaker, an Association member, instead. Eventually the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Screen Actors Guild and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were all involved in the controversy before Warners agreed to discontinue the practice of “painting down” and to include black stuntmen in scenes involving general stunt work.

     In 1969, Smith injured his leg in a helicopter accident on the set of Robert Altman’s MASH (1970). Smith continued to work despite the lasting limp the accident caused, wanting to keep himself as high profile as possible to help advance the Association’s cause.

     Smith performed stunts in many 1970s films including Dirty Harry (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974), three installments of The Planet of the Apes series (Beneath…, 1970, Conquest Of…, 1972 and Battle For…, 1973) and the high profile blaxploitation films Across 110^th Street (1972) and Cleopatra Jones (1973).

     Smith landed his first job as a stunt coordinator for the 1973 James Bond actioner Live And Let Die. He also served as a stunt coordinator on the 1977 classic television mini-series Roots and for the films Fast Forward (1985), Do The Right Thing (1989), House Party (1990) and Jason’s Lyric (1994). He also continued doing stunt work through the 80s and 90s on such films as The Sword And The Sorcerer (1982), D.C. Cab (1983), Predator 2 (1990 and The Nutty Professor (1996). He retired in 1996.