MoviesObituaryRoy Scammell obituary
Film and television stuntman whose work ranged from James Bond movies to The Great EscapeRoy Scammell, who has died aged 88 following a short illness, was one of Britain’s leading film and television stuntmen – for more than three decades he was considered the best high-fall man in the business.
He stood in for some of cinema’s most famous names during action sequences, including Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas and Deborah Kerr. Even though Steve McQueen did many of his own stunts, he still needed Scammell on hand for key moments in The Great Escape (1963, including parts of the famous motorcycle chase) and Papillon (1973).
As part of the TV stunt team Havoc, Scammell worked on Doctor Who several times, including doubling for the leading actor Caroline John for a dangerous sequence dangling over a raging weir in the story The Ambassadors of Death (1970), and performed the highest fall attempted up to then on the small screen, from the top of a 50ft gasometer in another story from that year, Inferno. From the following year he was also the regular stunt arranger for the popular seafaring saga The Onedin Line.
Popular with colleagues, Scammell was famous for stripping down to a pair of tight swimming trunks in between takes and grabbing any opportunity to top up his tan: his bronzed skin, well-toned body and unmissable shock of blond hair were an incongruous but welcome sight on many a film set.
He was born in Kingsbury, London – his father, Frederick Scammell (known as John), was a car dealer who did part-time acting, modelling and stunt work, and his mother, Amelia (nee Borley), was an office manager. During the second world war, Roy and his younger brother, Terence (later a Shakespearean actor), were evacuated to Ridgmont, Bedfordshire, attending Ridgmont lower school. Roy later left the Annunciation Catholic school in Edgware, north London, aged 13, having discovered a love for rollerskating and ice-skating, and proved a precociously talented senior ice hockey player for the Wembley Lions. He was also a high diver with Highgate Diving Club and was reckoned to be the best amateur in the country – only financial constraints prevented him from trying for the 1948 Olympics.
He devised his own more stunt-oriented ice act – jumping over 16 barrels in the rink – and was hired by the Tom Arnold Ice Show before setting off round Europe with the Holiday on Ice touring show. When his friend Anthony Newley’s agent was looking for someone handsome for an advert, he suggested Scammell, who then ended up in Newley’s film Vice Versa (1948). His resemblance to Dirk Bogarde then led to him doubling for the star in a high-speed bike chase in Once a Jolly Swagman (1949).
In 1955, after national service with the RAF at Credenhill (he was posted to Korea), he married Monique Garlopeau. He had hoped to tour the US with Holiday on Ice but his wife became ill and so, with a friend’s help, he was cast as Tarzan in revue at the Windmill theatre (1956-57), jostling for attention among aspiring comics and nude tableaux. He also played an acrobatic role in Scapa at the Adelphi theatre (1962) before answering an advertisement in the Stage for film stuntmen, which led to him doubling the lead in The Legend of Young Dick Turpin (1965) and doing his first high fall in Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) – despite not having performed one before, he was told to do the stunt or lose the job, so, typically, he went for it.
He worked on several James Bond films and for Stanley Kubrick on the stylised and brutal violence of A Clockwork Orange (1971) and later Barry Lyndon (1975). He also worked on Rollerball (1975), Midnight Express (1978), Alien (1979), Saturn 3 (1980), Flash Gordon (1980, appearing as one of the Hawkmen, hanging from wires for hours in order to achieve the film’s flying sequences), Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984, working with a live panther while dressed as an ape) and Willow (1988).
Although by nature a daredevil he was meticulous with his planning, and his gentle, considered nature and quiet, dry humour were the antithesis of the stereotypical image of the crazy, gung-ho adrenaline junkie.
He helped Andrew Lloyd Webber with the coordination of the skate-racing scenes in the stage hit Starlight Express (1984) and he co-devised Ice Warriors (1998), ITV’s prime-time ice-rink-based rival to the hit show Gladiators, which, despite winning bronze at the 1998 Rose d’Or broadcasting festival, lasted for only one series. He remained active, devising Chariots of Courage, a sport with elements of ice hockey, polo and lacrosse, designed for disabled competitors.
His marriage to Monique ended in divorce in 1973. He is survived by their daughter, Karen, two grandchildren, Ashley and Tasmin, and two great-grandchildren, Spencer and Archer.
Royston Edwin Scammell, stuntman, born 28 July 1932; died 15 May 2021
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