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Veteran American stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr., who was famously set on fire for the iconic cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ album, has died aged 88.
Rondell Jr. performed in more than 200 films, inclduing How The West Was Won, Lethal Weapon, Twister and The Matrix Reloaded.
Arguably one of his most famous stunts – especially for music fans – can be seen in the photograph created by legendary artist Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of the English art design group Hipgnosis for Pink Floyd’s ninth studio album, 1975’s ‘Wish You Were Here’.
Rondell Jr. wore a flame-retardant suit and protective gel and was lit on fire on the Warner Bros. Studios backlot in California – then known as The Burbank Studios. The image captures him shaking hands with another suited man – fellow stuntman Danny Rogers.
“I’d been doing a lot of fire work in those days, and I had the special suits and all this stuff for fully enveloped fire,” Rondell Jr. said in the documentary Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here. “It was pretty easy to do, not too life-threatening, and paid well.”
Not too life-threatening, but Rondell Jr. did lose an eyebrow and his moustache during the photo shoot…
Still, the striking cover of ‘Wish You Were Here’ has had an enduring legacy and remains one of the greatest album covers of all time.
Born in Hollywood in 1937, Rondell was in the US Navy before he began work as an extra on TV. He eventually set up Stunts Unlimited, which represented motorcycle racers, car drivers, horsemen, pilots and fight choreographers.
His career spanned from 1955 to 2003, with stunt work on films like Kings Of The Sun (1963), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Blazing Saddles (1974), Commando (1985), They Live (1988), The Hunt For Red October (1990), Thelma & Louise (1991), Last Action Hero (1993), Speed (1994), The Crow (1994) and Batman & Robin (1997).
He also worked on classic TV shows like Charlie’s Angels, Baywatch and Baretta.
He retired in 2000 but returned for one final film, The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and was responsible for the best part of the sequel: the iconic chase sequence, where his son R.A. Rondell served as supervising stunt coordinator.
Rondell Jr is survived by his wife Mary Rondell, his son R.A. Rondell and his grandchildren.