{"id":79269,"date":"2025-08-18T17:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79269\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T17:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:56:08","slug":"stuntman-on-pink-floyd-album-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/79269\/","title":{"rendered":"stuntman on Pink Floyd album cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a Hollywood stuntman Ronnie Rondell spent much of his adult life crashing cars, braving blazes, tumbling from galloping horses and hurtling through the air, but the daredevil performed his most famous stunt for the cover picture of Pink Floyd\u2019s 1975 album Wish You Were Here.<\/p>\n

The idea was to show two music industry executives shaking hands, and one of them (Rondell) bursting into flames as he was \u201cburnt\u201d by the deal. <\/p>\n

Aubrey Powell, the photographer, said Rondell was initially reluctant to be set alight. \u201cIt\u2019s dangerous for a man to stand still on fire,\u201d the stuntman told him. \u201cNormally you\u2019re running and the fire\u2019s spreading behind you, or you\u2019re falling and the fire is above you, or you can always make out with camera angles that the stunt person is closer to the fire than they actually are. But to stand still\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pink<\/p>\n

The Wish You Were Here album cover<\/p>\n

He eventually agreed, however, and the scene was shot on a back lot of the Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, California. Rondell wore a business suit and wig soaked in flame-retardant, and was smeared with a protective gel. Fourteen times he was doused in petrol and set on fire as Powell sought the perfect shot, but the 15th attempt coincided with a gust of wind and the flames suddenly licked around Rondell\u2019s face. <\/p>\n

He threw himself to the ground where Powell\u2019s team sprayed him with foam and smothered him in blankets. He lost only an eyebrow and part of his signature moustache, but declared: \u201cThat\u2019s it! I\u2019m done!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRonnie was very gracious about it, considering,\u201d said Powell, who had fortunately taken the picture he craved on the previous attempt. <\/p>\n

That photograph went on to become one of the great album covers. Years later, Rondell said his only regret was that it completely eclipsed the far more dangerous stunts he had performed during a career that included more than 200 movies and television series. <\/p>\n

In the course of that career, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he \u201cbroke ribs, arms, wrists and vertebrae, detached his triceps, suffered concussions and had his hips replaced and his spine fused\u201d. But, he said: \u201cYou never told anyone you were hurt \u2026 because they always had another guy who could fit the clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ronnie<\/p>\n

Rondell at the annual world stunt awards at Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, in 2004<\/p>\n

SHUTTERSTOCK EDITORIAL<\/p>\n

Ronald Reid Rondell was born \u2014 quite literally \u2014 in Hollywood, California, in 1937. His father, Ronald, a native of Naples in Italy, was himself a stuntman and actor. His mother, Ruth, had worked as a secretary in the movie industry.<\/p>\n

As a boy, he would visit film sets with his father and worked as an extra in the film Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952). At North Hollywood High School he excelled at high diving and gymnastics. During a spell in the US navy in the late 1950s he served as a scuba diver and mine clearer. Thereafter he worked as an extra in various films before following his father into stunt work and serving as a double for various well-known actors.<\/p>\n

His first stunts were for the television series Soldiers of Fortune, which ran from 1955 to 1957. He appeared in Spartacus (1960). He toppled from a flaming 100ft pole in the Mayan adventure film Kings of the Sun (1963). His 5ft 10in, 13st body was filmed flying upside down over a cannon in the civil war movie Shenandoah (1965). For the spy thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968) he drove an exploding car.<\/p>\n

Later he worked on numerous television series including Baywatch, Charlie\u2019s Angels and Dynasty, and dozens of movies including Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), and Thelma & Louise (1991).<\/p>\n

In 1970, as the age of westerns gave way to action movies, he and two other stuntmen, Hal Needham and Glenn Wilder, formed a company called Stunts Unlimited to represent \u201cHollywood\u2019s top A-list performers \u2026 motorcycle racers, car drivers, pilots, aerial specialist and fight choreographers\u201d.<\/p>\n

As he aged, Rondell turned to stunt co-ordination, working on films such as The Mighty Ducks (1992), Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Batman & Robin (1997).<\/p>\n

Though he officially retired in 2000, he made his last appearance as a stuntman in a spectacular car chase in The Matrix Reloaded three years later. His son, also named Ronald, was the film\u2019s stunt co-ordinator.<\/p>\n

Rondell and his wife, Mary, whom he married in 1969, had two sons, Ronald and Reid. Both followed him into the stunt business to create one of its most famous dynasties. <\/p>\n

Reid was killed in 1985 when his helicopter crashed into a hillside near Los Angeles while filming a routine scene for a television series entitled Airwolf. He was just 22. Rondell was devastated, but told Don Bellisario, the producer: \u201cIt goes with the territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years later Rondell told the Los Angeles Times: \u201cYou just gather it up and deal with the grief and go on with it, and try to make sure it never happens again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought never crossed my mind to quit this business. It\u2019s the job I chose. It\u2019s the thing I do best.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the end, he died not in a blaze or a crash on a film set or a dreadful fall, but in the peace of a Missouri care home.<\/p>\n

Ronald Rondell, US stuntman, was born on February 10, 1937. He died on August 12, 2025, aged 88<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a Hollywood stuntman Ronnie Rondell spent much of his adult life crashing cars, braving blazes, tumbling from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-79269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}