Well I guess in some ways this was an appropriate, if tragic way to go.
Grant Page, a stuntman who worked on the Mad Max films, has died in a car crash, aged 85.
The “legendary” stunt performer’s death was announced by his son Leroy, with details revealing he hit a tree while driving alone near his home on the coast of New South Wales, Australia
Leroy said his father died “very happy”, telling Daily Mail Australia: “He died in very high spirits and he was very motivated.”
Page had an illustrious career in the world of stunt performing, and regularly collaborated with Mad Max director George Miller.
Having performed memorable stunts in the first film (1979) and third film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Page reunited with Miller for forthcoming film Furiosa, which is a prequel focused on Charlize Theron’s character from Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
Page also collaborated frequently with Brian Trenchard-Smith, whose credits include The Stuntmen, Kung Fu Killers, and The Man From Hong Kong, in which he doubled for James Bond actor George Lazenby.
In tribute to Page, Trenchard-Smith honoured the stuntman as being able to “deliver Hollywood-level action and mayhem”, calling him: “Australia’s pioneer stunt performer and my friend for 52 years.”
He continued: “Most people accept that age weighs upon us, gravity holds us down, death awaits us if we dare too much. Not necessarily, said Grant, as he successfully tampered with the laws of physics and probability.
“He had courage and daring, tempered by a realistic attitude about the risks of his profession in the era before computer-generated stunts.”
One of Page’s most memorable stunts arrived in 1976 film Mad Dog Morgan, starring Dennis Hopper, in which he jumped backwards off an 80-foot cliff while on fire.
In a foreword for Page’s 2009 memoir Man on Fire: A Stunt of a Life. director Mark Hartley wrote of the stuntman: “Everyone agreed that he was the single most fearless man they had ever met – and quite possibly the luckiest.”
Page is survived by his sons, Gulliver and Leroy, who are also performers, Adrian and Jeremy.
