Birthday Of Stunt Supremo Gary Powell

By: Anders Frejdh

Published:
2016-09-10

A celebration of Gary Powell on his birthday. Powell, a great stunt performer himself, comes from a talented family with special bonds to the James Bond film franchise. All in all, the family has over 40 years of experience working on the films.

With this special page, From Sweden with Love would like to send our sincere best wishes to the brave stuntman and talented stunt coordinator.

"Happy birthday Gary, warm regards from Sweden. Keep up the great work, your credits speak for themselves."

About Gary Powell:
Gary Powell was born in London and comes from a family of stuntmen with a special association with the James Bond films. He is the younger son of Nosher Powell (1928-2013) who worked on every Bond film from From Russia with Love (1963) (1963) to A View to a Kill (1985) (1985). His elder brother, Greg Powell, worked on some of the films with Roger Moore (The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), For Your Eyes Only (1981) and A View to a Kill (1985)) as well as Never Say Never Again (1983) (1983) with Sean Connery.

Powell performed his first stunt at the age of 11 on the British television series Carry On Dick (1974) - a spin-off of the 'Carry On' films - doubling for Barbara Windsor. Working his way through the ranks to stunt coordinator, his other credits include: Titanic (1997), Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan (1998), Terminator 3 (2003), Alexander (2004), The Legend of Zorro (2005), Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), The Green Lantern (2011) and 47 Ronin (2013).

When Gary finished his work on SPECTRE (2015) it was his fourth consecutive James Bond film in the role as Stunt coordinator. The first was Casino Royale (2006) in 2006, the second Quantum of Solace (2008) in 2008, and the third Skyfall (2012) in 2012.
In Casino Royale, the stunt team broke a Guinness World Record for the ‘Most Cannon Rolls In a Car’, won the Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Stunt At Height and Powell himself won the World Stunt Award for Best Stunt Coordinator.

Previously, Powell worked as a stuntman on three consecutive 007 film adventures; GoldenEye (1995) (1995) in which he doubled for Pierce Brosnan driving the tank, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) (1997) and The World Is Not Enough (1999) (1999) (doubling for Pierce Brosnan in the boat chase on the Thames).

Gary Powell has changed the face of action in the Bond films the way that Bob Simmons did back in the sixties. His understanding of the action genre is without equal and this is evident in the steady stream of big Hollywood directors who want to have him for their project.

Editor's note:
Gary's uncle, Dennis 'Dinny' Powell, also worked on the Bonds along with his brother Nosher.

And just in case you thought that was it from the Powell family, Greg’s daughter Tilly is one of the stunt drivers in Skyfall. Stunting is truly a family business.

>The 50 greatest stunts in James Bond films
>James Bond stunt doubles
>The top 10 stunts in the James Bond film series

Other talented James Bond stunt people featured on From Sweden With Love:
>Belle Williams (stuntwoman)
>Bill Weston (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Bob Anderson (stuntman/sword master)
>Doug Robinson (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Eunice Huthart (stuntwoman)
>George Leech (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Greg Powell (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Jim Dowdall (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Lars Lundgren (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Malcolm Weaver (stuntman)
>Martin Grace (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Mickey Baker (stuntman)
>Nick Gillard (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Nick Wilkinson (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Nosher Powell (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Paul Weston (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Remy Julienne (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Richard Graydon (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Rocky Taylor (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Roy Alon (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Sarah Donohue (stuntwoman)
>Terry Cade (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Terry Richards (stuntman)
>Trevor Steedman (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Vic Armstrong (stuntman/stunt coordinator)
>Wendy Leech (stuntwoman)

Photo above:
Gary Powell on the set of Skyfall in Istanbul riding Patrice's motorcyle.

Check out Gary Powell's profile on IMDB for more information about his work in films:

www.imdb.com/name/nm0694120/

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#birthdays

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Birthday Of Stunt Supremo Gary Powell

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