Thread: Manny Perry, '70s bodybuilder and Hollywood stuntman

Manny happy returns
May 2006 Flex Magazine
By Greg Merritt

It's the nature of his business: you've seen him maybe hundreds of times on screens big and small, and yet you've never recognized him. No champion bodybuilder has worked on more film and TV projects than he has, and no more than two--certainly Arnold Schwarzenegger and, perhaps, Lou Ferrigno--have been more financially successful in Hollywood, but you may not know his name. Who is the mystery legend? Meet Manny Perry. He was one of the premier bodybuilders of the '70s, and he is now established as one of the best stuntmen who ever lived.

Perry was born on November 5, 1948, in historic Plymouth, Massachusetts. His high-school wrestling coach encouraged the athletic teen to join a weightlifting gym, and by the time he was in his mid-twenties, working blue-collar jobs and racing cars and motorcycles on local tracks, 6'2" Perry was winning New England bodybuilding contests. In 1975, he set off for Venice, California, to pursue his bodybuilding dreams.

"When I first came to Venice, I was trying to find Gold's Gym," Perry remembers. "When I finally found it, the door was in the back and the windows were hard to see through. So I went around the back, and all the while I heard the iron clanging. When I walked in, I saw Arnold [Schwarzenegger], I saw Franco [Columbu], I saw Frank Zane, I saw Dave Draper, I saw Robby Robinson. The top bodybuilders in the world were all there at the same time training in shorts and tank tops, and I was so intimidated I ran out."

Perry returned. He moved across the street from Gold's and, in short order, began winning Southern California bodybuilding contests. By the time he won the 1976 AAU Mr. USA, he was accepted into the Gold's group of elite bodybuilders. "We trained together. We went to the beach together. We ate together at restaurants that catered to bodybuilders. It was a great era, and I was glad to be a part of that." Perry competed two more times, winning the tall class of the AAU Mr. America in 1977 and 1978 (he lost the overall both times), but by then his primary focus had shifted to the brighter lights of Tinseltown.

In 1977, prior to launching The Incredible Hulk, producers auditioned more than 50 men to stunt-double for Lou Ferrigno. Although many were athletes, none had the muscle mass to impersonate a 6'5" 275-pound pro bodybuilder. The producers found Ferrigno's clone at Gold's Gym in the person of Manny Perry, then preparing for the Mr. America and weighing 260. "The problem was I'm black and Lou's white, but they took a look at me with the green makeup on and decided green is green, and they weren't going to get a better match than me."

There were initial complaints from some white stuntmen (ironically, it had long been accepted practice for white stuntmen in blackface to double for African-American actors), but Perry won the role and double Ferrigno for all five seasons.
Perry tells FLEX how bodybuilding prepared him for his Hulk stunts: "I always did my reps with a full range of movement and I did a lot of stretching, and that style of training helped me considerably in The Incredible Hulk, because I was always jumping or carrying someone or going through a wall--stuff that combined strength with dexterity. Also, when you play the Hulk, you're wearing a pair of cutoff jeans. There's no shirt or pants that could hide pads, like there usually is when you do a stunt. My padding was my muscles. That taught me to be creative and extra careful to avoid injuries. The Hulk was one of the most challenging roles a stuntman could have."

And that role was only the beginning. Perry went on to double for Mr. T on The A-Team (wearing a Mohawk cap and fake gold chains) and such actors as Jim Brown, Carl Weathers and Michael Clarke Duncan. Utilizing his physical prowess from bodybuilding and his driving proficiency from auto racing, Perry has performed stunts in a long list of major movies, including Eraser, Armageddon and The Fast and the Furious.

He is the rare veteran stuntman who has never broken a bone or suffered a major injury--a record he attributes, in part, to the natural "padding" of his muscles. Only the world's very best stunt pros are allowed in Stunts Unlimited; Perry has been a member of that elite company for more than two decades.

Today, 57 and firmly established in his field, he passes up the risky stunts others do to make names for themselves. Instead, he focuses more on his busy roles as a stunt coordinator (planning and supervising stunts) and a second-unit director (overseeing action sequences).

He has been stunt coordinator on such films as Daddy Day Care and such TV shows as Punk'd. Married, he has a teenage daughter and young son. Three to five times per week, he hits the weights at the flagship World Gym near his home in Marina del Rey, California.

"I still love bodybuilding," he says. "I got what I wanted out of it. Bodybuilding made my career, and it's given me a great life." As they say on movie sets but never in gyms: break a leg, Manny.


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