Born in Hollywood, Rondell’s father acted in silent films, and later was an assistant director for films and TV shows. (His mother was a secretary for a film studio.) Rondell’s father would often take his son to work on film sets, and the boy got a small part in a film, Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952). After high school, Rondell enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a diver. After discharge, he returned to Hollywood, and found work as an Extra.
The work wasn’t too interesting, so Rondell started doing stunts on TV shows, doubling for several actors, including David Janssen, Robert Horton, and Doug McClure. He specialized in aerial stunts (such as falling with a 100-foot pole — which was on fire — in Kings of the Sun in 1963) and fiery vehicle crashes (such as driving an exploding car in Ice Station Zebra in 1968). In 1970, he joined with stuntmen Hal Needham and Glenn Wilder to form a stunt agency, Stunts Unlimited.
That got him into numerous action films in the 1980s and 90s, including Lethal Weapon (1987), Thelma & Louise (1991), and Speed (1994). His own sons, Ronald (“J.A.”) and Reid Rondell, often went with him to gigs, and got into the business too. Reid was killed at 22 in a 1982 helicopter crash, ironically burning to death; he was working as a stunt double for actor Jan-Michael Vincent on the TV show, Airwolf. Ronnie and J.A. investigated the circumstances, but neither quit the business. “You just gather it up and deal with the grief and go on with it,” Ronnie said later. “And try to make sure it never happens again.”
Despite working multiple high-visibility gags, Rondell is best known for a non-film/TV stunt. In 1975, rock group Pink Floyd released the album Wish You Were Here. Photographer Aubrey Powell tells the story: graphic designer Storm Thorgerson, who worked on many album covers for the group, had the idea that “‘Have A Cigar’ [the album’s third track] is about insincerity in the music business. What about an image of two businessmen, and one of them is getting burned in a deal?” Powell said “We all thought the image was a good idea, and I remember saying to Storm: ‘How are we going to do that?’ He replied: ‘Set a man on fire’.” Enter Ronnie. “I explained to Ronnie what I needed and he said: ‘It’s dangerous for a man to stand still on fire. Normally, you’re running and the fire’s spreading behind you, or you’re falling and the fire is above you, or you can always make out with camera angles that the stunt person is closer to the fire than they really are, but to stand still …?’ He was very reluctant, but eventually agreed.”
Rondell slathered a business suit — and a wig — with flame retardant gel, and was set on fire. Not just once or twice, but 14 times. Powell still didn’t think he got exactly what he needed. On the 15th try, the wind shifted, and the flames on the wig whipped around into Rondell’s face, taking an eyebrow and part of his moustache. But Powell got the shot, and the album sold …well… like wildfire — 13 million copies by 2004, counting the one I got in the 90s. “I knew I had got a special picture,” Powell said. “It took a long time to persuade Ronnie to stand exactly as I wanted, but in the end he was very brave and it was a perfect composition.”
In the 1990s, Rondell transitioned to behind the camera, directing one film and serving as a second unit director for several others. His last stunt gig brought him out of retirement as a favor for the stunt director of The Matrix Reloaded (2003): J.A. Rondell; the scene was a “complex car chase.” Ronald Reid Rondell Jr., a member of the Hollywood Stuntman’s Hall of Fame, died in an assisted living facility in Osage Beach, Mo., on August 12. He was 88.