<\/p>\n
Ronnie Rondell Jr., a stuntman in a family full of them who performed in films including How the West Was Won<\/em>, Ice Station Zebra<\/em>, Twister<\/em> and The Matrix Reloaded<\/em>, has died. He was 88.<\/p>\n Rondell died Tuesday at a senior living facility in Osage Beach, Missouri, his family announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n More from The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Rondell is known to the Pink Floyd faithful as the businessman on fire on the cover of the band\u2019s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here<\/em>. In an era before computer effects, his mustache was burned off during the photo shoot that took place on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.<\/p>\n His father, Ronald R. Rondell, was an extra and then a veteran assistant director on films like Around the World in 80 Days<\/em> and TV programs including Bachelor Father<\/em> and The Jack Benny Show<\/em>, and one of his sons, R.A. Rondell, is a stunt performer and coordinator with credits including Clear and Present Danger<\/em> and The Avengers<\/em>.<\/p>\n Another son, Reid Rondell, 22, died in January 1985 in a helicopter crash near Newhall, California, while performing a stunt as a double for Jan-Michael Vincent<\/a> on the CBS action series Airwolf<\/em>.<\/p>\n For television, Rondell Jr. spent three years standing in for Robert Blake<\/a> on the 1975-78 ABC series Baretta<\/em> and served as the stunt coordinator on such Aaron Spelling-produced shows as The Rookies<\/em>, S.W.A.T.<\/em>, Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/em>, Fantasy Island<\/em>, Dynasty<\/em>, Falcon Crest<\/em>, Vegas<\/em>, Hart to Hart<\/em> and T.J. Hooker<\/em>.<\/p>\n Five-foot-10 and 170 pounds in his prime, Rondell was known for his daring diving, gymnastic and hang-gliding skills. In the Mayan adventure film Kings of the Sun<\/em> (1963), starring Yul Brenner and George Chakiris, he fell many, many feet from a box on a wooden pole that had been set on fire and toppled. (See it here<\/a> in the movie\u2019s trailer at about the 2:40 mark.)<\/p>\n And in the Civil War-set Shenandoah<\/em> (1965), starring Jimmy Stewart, he can be seen in midair flying upside down above a cannon.<\/p>\n Rondell also put his body on the line in Grand Prix<\/em> (1966), Diamonds Are Forever<\/em> (1971), Blazing Saddles<\/em> (1974), Hooper<\/em> (1978), Against All Odds<\/em> (1984), Cannonball Run II<\/em> (1984), To Live & Die in L.A.<\/em> (1985), Lethal Weapon<\/em> (1987), They Live<\/em> (1988), The Hunt for Red October<\/em> (1990), Thelma & Louise<\/em> (1991), Last Action Hero<\/em> (1993), Speed<\/em> (1994), The Crow<\/em> (1994) and Grosse Pointe Blank <\/em>(1997).<\/p>\n For his final credit, he limped out of retirement to participate in a spectacular car chase<\/a> in The Matrix Reloaded<\/em> (2003), on which son R.A. was the supervising stunt coordinator.<\/p>\n Ronald Reid Rondell was born in Hollywood on Feb. 10, 1937. He accompanied his dad to movie sets \u2014 he liked to hang around the stunt performers \u2014 and got to be an extra in several Ma and Pa Kettle<\/em> films.<\/p>\n Rondell excelled in gymnastics and diving at North Hollywood High School, then entered the U.S. Navy, where he specialized in scuba diving and mine force demolition. After the service, he worked in construction.<\/p>\n While picking up a paycheck as an extra on a Western, he impressed actor Lennie Geer, who began schooling him in fights, falls and horseback riding. That led to him doubling for such actors as David Janssen on Richard Diamond, Private Detective<\/em>, Robert Horton on Wagon Train<\/em>, Doug McClure on The Virginian<\/em> and Michael Cole<\/a> on Mod Squad<\/em>.<\/p>\n Along with stunt performer turned director Hal Needham<\/a> and stunt performer Glenn Wilder, he launched Stunts Unlimited in 1970 in Calabasas, California. Its membership would include top motorcycle racers, car drivers, horsemen, pilots, aerial specialists and fight choreographers.<\/p>\n Rondell was a stunt coordinator himself, on films including La Bamba<\/em> (1987), The Two Jakes<\/em> (1990), The Mighty Ducks<\/em> (1992), Sliver<\/em> (1993), Star Trek: First Contact<\/em> (1996) and Batman and Robin<\/em> (1997).<\/p>\n For the Pink Floyd shoot, Rondell wore a fire-retardant layer underneath his business suit, was dowsed with gasoline and lit on fire. (The idea was, here are two music executives, and one of them is \u201cgetting burned\u201d in a deal.)<\/p>\n The process was repeated 15 times. On the last one, \u201cthe flames were blown back and ignited his real mustache for an instant,\u201d Storm Thorgerson, from the design team Hipgnosis, recalled in the 2012 documentary Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here<\/em>. \u201cA close shave, one might say.\u201d<\/p>\n Said Rondell, who rolled around on the ground before the flames were extinguished: \u201cThere\u2019s a funny thing about fire. When it gets in your face, you\u2019re going to move.\u201d<\/p>\n He left California in 2000 to retire to Camdenton, Missouri.<\/p>\n In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of 56 years, Mary; his grandchildren, Brandon, Rachel and Dalton; his great-grandson, Rocco; and his brother, Ric Rondell, a production manager in Hollywood.<\/p>\n During his long career, Rondell broke ribs, arms, wrists and vertebrae, detached his triceps, suffered concussions and had his hips replaced and his spine fused.<\/p>\n \u201cYou never told anyone you were hurt,\u201d he said in Kevin Conley\u2019s 2008 book, The Full Burn: On the Set, at the Bar, Behind the Wheel, and Over the Edge With Hollywood Stuntmen<\/em>. \u201cBecause they always had another guy that could fit the clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for THR’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ronnie Rondell Jr., a stuntman in a family full of them who performed in films including How the West Was Won, Ice Station Zebra, Twister and The Matrix Reloaded, has died. He was 88. Rondell died Tuesday at a senior living facility in Osage Beach, Missouri, his family announced. More from The Hollywood Reporter Rondell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1964400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[347044,22860,34395,347042,345177,347040,343919,347041,347038,347043,347039,347037],"class_list":["post-1964399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-george-chakiris","tag-hollywood","tag-hollywood-reporter","tag-ice-station-zebra","tag-pink-floyd","tag-reid-rondell","tag-robert-blake","tag-ronald-r-rondell","tag-ronnie-rondell","tag-stunt-coordinator","tag-stuntman","tag-the-matrix-reloaded"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Ronnie-Rondell-Jr-Hollywood-Stuntman-Set-on-Fire-for-a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1964399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1964399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1964400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1964399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1964399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1964399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}