# Manny Perry, '70s bodybuilder and Hollywood stuntman



## Curt James (Jul 3, 2010)

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.


From *Manny happy returns | Flex | Find Articles at BNET*
Muscle Memory page: *Perry, Manuel*
IMDb page: *Manny Perry*


----------

