At the age of 88, veteran Hollywood stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr. passed away. He was most famous for being consumed in flames for the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here.
According to Rondell’s family, the well-known stuntman died on Tuesday at an assisted living home in Osage Beach, Missouri, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The reason of death has not yet been revealed.
Over the course of his multi-decade career, Rondell Jr. starred in a number of motion pictures, such as The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Lethal Weapon (1987), and How the West Was Won (1962). However, he was best known to music lovers as the man who was burned on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here.
A half-burning Rondell Jr. and fellow stuntman Danny Rogers are seen shaking hands in the iconic photo, which was taken on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California. Both men are wearing business suits.
In the documentary Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here, Rondell Jr. remembered, “I had been doing a lot of fire work in those days, and I had the special suits and all this stuff for fully enveloped fire” (via Rolling Stone). It paid well, wasn’t too dangerous, and was quite simple to complete.
Due to wind and other circumstances, it took about fifteen tries to take the iconic picture, and Rondell Jr. even lost part of his eyebrow and mustache in the process.
Aubrey Powell of the English art design firm Hipgnosis told The Guardian in 2020, “We went through the procedure fourteen times, took the picture, and then on the fifteenth a gust of wind blew up and wrapped the fire around his face and burned him.” His entire crew piled on blankets to put him out once he threw himself to the ground.
He went on, “I knew I had a special picture.” Persuading Ronnie to stand exactly as I wanted took a while, but in the end, he showed great bravery, and the composition was flawless.
His other credits include The Hunt for Red October (1990), Thelma & Louise (1991), Last Action Hero (1993), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), They Live (1988), Kings of the Sun (1963), Shenandoah (1965), Grand Prix (1966), and The Crow (1994).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rondell Jr. also served as a stunt coordinator for several television shows that Aaron Spelling produced, including The Rookies, S.W.A.T., Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Vegas, Hart to Hart, and T.J. Hooker.
After retiring from the industry in 2000, Rondell Jr. made a comeback to appear in a chase scene in The Matrix Reloaded (2003), where his son, R.A. Rondell, served as the stunt coordinator in charge.
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