Dar Robinson

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Dar Allen Robinson (March 26, 1947 – November 21, 1986) was a film stuntman and film actor.

Image:DarRobinson.jpg Dar Robinson grew up in Los Angeles, California. Dar broke 9 world records and made 21 first. He invented the decelerator (use of dragline cables rather than airbags for stunts that called for a jump from high places. This method provided the cameraman with the opportunity to film a top-down view of the stuntman as he fell without having to be concerned with accidentally showing the airbag on the ground. The original can still be seen on display in Arizona.

One of Robinson's first major stunts was a 100 foot jump from a cliff into a river for actor Steve McQueen in the 1973 film, Papillon. In the same year, he appeared as a motorcycle stunt man in the Clint Eastwood film, Magnum Force. He is also remembered for driving over the edge of the Grand Canyon and safely parachuting out before hitting the ground. His performances and innovative ideas made him the best in his time. In 1979 he set the world record for a freefall from a helicopter, dropping 311 feet (95 metres) onto an airbag.

In a highly publicized feat, as the stunt double for actor Christopher Plummer in a 1979 film production, Dar Robinson took a 700 foot freefall from a deck on the world's tallest free-standing structure, the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada first by parachute then for a feature-length television documentary film called The World's Most Spectacular Stuntman, Robinson returned to Toronto to attempt a world record cable jump from the CN Tower. As captured on film, the first test of the cable using a bag of water equal to Robinson’s weight smashed into the ground when the cable snapped. High winds and bad weather delayed the jump but on August 12, 1980 it finally went ahead. Although visibly nervous, he leapt from the tower's edge, plummeting more than 1,200 feet (366 metres) tied to only a 1/8" (3mm)steel cable. This was designed to stop him only a short distance above the ground. For this he was named highest paid stuntman for a single stunt to date currently in the Guinness book of records.

Although his stunts were always well planned, and he never broke a bone in his 19 year Hollywood career. In 1986, on the set of the film Million Dollar Mystery, after completing the main stunt, the emergency medical staff was dismissed from set, and while filming routine camera shots, Dar was accidentally knocked down a cliff by a fellow rider. Dar Robinson is interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. After his passing, a documentary on his life was made in 1988 titled The Ultimate Stuntman - A Tribute to Dar Robinson.

His sons Troy and Shawn Robinson have both followed in their father's footsteps.