David Sharpe

Date de naissance
2 février 1910 · Saint-Louis, Missouri, États-Unis
Date de décès
30 mars 1980 · Altadena, Californie, États-Unis (ALS also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and leukemia)
Nom de naissance
David Hardin Sharpe
Surnoms
- Crown Prince of Stuntmen
- Davey
- Davy
- Dave
Taille
1,74 m

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."
In 1943 Sharpe, then 32 years old, enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was trained as a fighter pilot. He shot down several enemy planes in combat. He was discharged as a captain and returned to Hollywood.

[recalling an incident that happened on Monsieur Joe (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.