Aces of Trade: Stuntman Stuart Wilson talks about his time in Granville with Bruce Willis

GRANVILLE – He’s a stuntman who came to Granville with Bruce Willis. Now he’s going another direction.

“I’ve been doing some projects with UFC,” said Stuart Wilson from his home in Los Angeles. “I just produced a low-budget film. And I have a couple more films in the works that I’m trying to get off the ground.”

Wilson and Willis were in Granville in 2016 to shoot a movie called “First Kill.” Willis, 68, as you’ve probably heard, has since retired from acting with a form of dementia.

“I try to see him once a month,” Wilson said. “Obviously, everybody is aware what’s going on with him. And it’s running its course. Not only is he a friend of mine but he made it possible to pay my mortgage for 17 years, so I will still go see him once a month as I do.”

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“As far as shooting in Granville,” Wilson said, “I love Granville. I thought the people are fantastic. The town is really cool. I would go back there anytime.”

Wilson grew up in a Los Angeles suburb. His dad was Dick Wilson, an actor in scores of movies and TV shows but was best known as Mr. Whipple in literally hundreds of “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin” TV commercials. His dad was once quoted as saying, “I’ve done 38 pictures and nobody remembers any of them, but they all remember me selling toilet paper.”

His mother was known professionally as Margaret Brown, a dancer and a regular on “The Ed Sullivan Show” back in the day. His sisters were also active in the business.

As for Wilson, he’s been doing stunts since he was 18. At first, he said, “There were a lot of crummy jobs to support myself. I’ve loaded buses at the bus station. I’ve had every crummy job you can think of in hopes of becoming a stunt guy.”

Then came his break. The movie “Live Free or Die Hard” just started filming. Wilson was unemployed, so one of his fellow stuntmen called him to come to the set in downtown Los Angeles. When he got there, the stunt coordinator saw him and instantly chose him as Willis’ stunt double.

“I was shocked,” Wilson recalled. “I went from unemployed to doubling Bruce for four and a half months.”

A month after that movie ended, Willis’ executive producer called and asked if he wanted to work another film called Surrogates. Wilson doubled Willis in every action movie since.

In the movie “RED,” for instance, released in 2010, Willis had a major fight scene with Karl Urban in an office. But as you might imagine, it was Wilson fighting another stunt double.

“We did a big fight in an office where I ended up jumping through a glass window,” Wilson said. “It was a great fight.”

Then there was the scene in the French Quarter section of New Orleans where Karl Urban’s car T-boned Willis’ car. It was Wilson again. “Man, that one hurt,” Wilson said. “My business is hours of boredom with brief moments of terror thrown in. It’s not as glamorous as everybody thinks. It’s a lot of work. But it’s fun.”

Finally, at the end of the movie the scene showed a small army chasing Willis pushing John Malkovich in a cart across a field in Moldova.

“It was supposed to be in Moldova,” Wilson said, “but it was actually in Louisiana, and it was 110 degrees and humid. We do the first take, and we start running. We’ve got 24 explosions going and none of them are supposed to be near the road. But an explosion went off right next to the road, caught me on fire, caught the cart on fire and caught the other stuntman on fire. So we had to do it again.”

There are many, many more examples. Willis was, after all, largely known as an action star and Wilson was his stunt double for almost 20 years.

Now he’s shifting gears.

“I’m trying to keep busy and avoid landing on my head anymore,” Wilson joked. “It’s probably time for me to use my brain for something other than a cushion when I fall down.”

“I turned 61 this year and feel great,” he said. “I certainly don’t act my age. I always tell people, ‘I’m old enough to know better, but still young enough to still make the same mistakes.’”

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they're unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at advocate@newarkadvocate.com.

About stuntman Stuart Wilson

For more information about Stuart Wilson, log on www.fallguyproductions.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Newark Aces of Trade: Bruce Willis' stuntman Stuart Wilson