Biography

David Sharpe

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Overview

Born
February 2, 1910 · St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Died
March 30, 1980 · Altadena, California, USA (ALS also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and leukemia)
Birth name
David Hardin Sharpe
Nicknames
- Crown Prince of Stuntmen
- Davey
- Davy
- Dave
Height
5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)

Biography

He made his first appearance before the camera at the age of 14 in Douglas Fairbanks's Robin Hood (1922) Young Dave became the National A.A.U. tumbling champion in 1925 and 1926. Still in his teens, he began taking bit parts in films. His big break came in Masked Emotions (1929). It led him to a series of Hal Roach comedies. In 1933 Ajax Pictures signed him as one of the leads in its "Young Friends" series. In the 1930s he played a variety of roles in many B westerns. He was one of the three leads, with with Charles Quigley and Bruce Bennett, in the Republic Pictures serial Daredevils of the Red Circle (1939). While at Republic he met stuntman Yakima Canutt and began doing stunt work. Dave doubled for almost every western lead at Republic and also some of the ladies. In 1942 Monogram Pictures signed him as one of the leads in its Range Busters western series. Dave appeared in three of them: Texas to Bataan (1942), Trail Riders (1942) and Haunted Ranch (1943). Dave joined the US Army Air Corps and and rose to the rank of captain. After his discharge he returned to Hollywood and confined his career mainly to stunt work and second-unit directing. He doubled Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Tony Curtis in all of their action films. He didn't restrict his stunt work to just films, though; he also doubled the leads in such TV series as The F.B.I. (1965), Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951) and many others. He was also seen as the old lady in the wheelchair on The Red Skelton Hour (1951). Dave was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame in 1970, and in 1978 contracted ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
- IMDb mini biography by: Peter Greco <pgreco2254@cs.com>

Family

Spouses

Trivia

Probably holds the honor of being in more films (albeit, often uncredited as a stuntman) than any other person in Hollywood history. Sharpe's film/TV resume, if complete, would likely total more than 5000 entries. Ranks with Yakima Canutt as Hollywood's premier stuntman.
In an early film appearance, the director secretly shot a scene rehearsal and printed it, to Sharpe's displeasure. From that point on he habitually rehearsed with a cigar clamped in his teeth so the rehearsal could not be cut into the film.
He was one of the members of Republic Pictures' famous stable of stuntmen. Republic would often have him doing double duty, playing his own character and also doubling for other actors in the same film.
Appeared in over 4,500 films, while working for every studio in Hollywood in a career that stretched seven decades. Sharpe told film historian Mark Hall, "When Shana Alexander interviewed me for Life magazine in 1952, she gave up after 4,000. At one time or another, I've worked for every studio in Hollywood, for almost every director with most of the actors and actresses."
He won the US National Tumbling Championship in 1925, when he was 15. He won it again the next year.

Quotes

[recalling an incident that happened on Mighty Joe Young (1949), on which he was second-unit director] We were shooting some action stuff in a nightclub scene which featured lions, tigers, elephants, and apes in cages around the table area. We had trained lions to run from one side of the set to the other. One of them broke loose, jumped onto the top of his cage and grabbed the trainer by the throat. I was in the camera cage. I pushed the iron door open, raced across the set and punched the lion in the face. I guess I shocked him so badly he let go, turned tail and ran into his cage.