Kenny Bates

Kenneth W. Bates is an American stuntman, film producer, second unit director, and actor, best known for his work with Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Life and career In 1988, Bates was the stunt double for Alan Rickman in the film Die Hard during the scene where the latter's character, Hans Gruber, falls to his death. Bates then became one of few stuntman to win an Academy Award for such a feat.

In 2004, when Bates could not find an existing high-speed camera vehicle that could shoot dynamic, low to the ground car chase sequences, he developed and created his own, the versatile Gas Go-Kart and Electric-Kart so he could film his high-octane action sequences. He later founded PFA Prague Film Associates with producer Tomas Rotnagl.

In 2023, Bates joined the production crew of the upcoming Bollywood film NTR 30.

He is also a frequent collaborator of Michael Bay's, having directed second unit on almost all of his films, including first three Transformers movies, Bad Boys 1, The Rock, Armageddon, The Island, and Pearl Harbor, the latter of which won him a Taurus World Stunt Award for "Best 2nd Unit Director".

Filmography Year Title Stunts Second unit director Producer Director 1988 Rambo III Peter MacDonald Die Hard John McTiernan 1989 Star Trek V: The Final Frontier William Shatner 1990 Another 48 Hrs. Walter Hill Die Hard 2 Renny Harlin 1991 Fast Getaway Spiro Razatos 1992 Lethal Weapon 3 Richard Donner 1993 Loaded Weapon 1 Gene Quintano 1994 The Crow Alex Proyas On Deadly Ground Steven Seagal Class of 1999 II: The Substitute Spiro Razatos The Shadow Russell Mulcahy The Mask Chuck Russell Street Fighter Steven E. de Souza 1995 Bad Boys Michael Bay 1996 The Rock 1997 Con Air Simon West 1998 Armageddon Michael Bay 2001 Pearl Harbor The Fast and The Furious Rob Cohen Training Day Antoine Fuqua 2002 Changing Lanes Roger Michell Bad Company Joel Schumacher The Hours Stephen Daldry 2003 The Italian Job F. Gary Gray The Movie Hero Brad T. Gottfred The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Marcus Nispel 2005 The Island Michael Bay 2006 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning Jonathan Liebesman 2007 Transformers Michael Bay Rush Hour 3 Brett Ratner 2008 Babylon A.D. Mathieu Kassovitz 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Michael Bay 2010 G-Force Hoyt Horatio Yeatman Jr. 2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon Michael Bay Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Brad Bird 2013 Pain and Gain Michael Bay 2014 Kingsman: The Secret Service Matthew Vaughn 2016 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Michael Bay 2018 The Catcher Was a Spy Ben Lewin 2.0 S. Shankar 2019 Saaho Sujeeth Reddy 6 Underground Michael Bay 2023 Joel D. Wynkoop's 187 Times the Movie Joel D. Wynkoop