Ronnie Rondell Jr.

Ronald Reid Rondell Jr. (February 10, 1937 – August 12, 2025) was an American actor, director, stuntman, and stunt coordinator known for his work in numerous television shows and more than 100 feature films, including How the West Was Won, Blazing Saddles (1974), Lethal Weapon (1987), and The Crow (1994), as well as appearing on the cover of the Pink Floyd album Wish You Were Here.

In 2004, Rondell was honored for lifetime achievement at the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

Early life Born in Hollywood, California, on February 10, 1937, His father, born in Naples, Italy, acted in silent films and later served as an assistant film director for TV and film. His mother was employed as a motion picture secretary when she married Rondell Sr. in 1937. As a boy, Rondell Jr. often accompanied his father to movie sets, where he was eventually cast in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair in 1952. and diving, before enlisting in the Navy. In 1970, Rondell co-founded Stunts Unlimited, an organization of top-rated stunt performers, with fellow daredevils Hal Needham and Glenn Wilder. The photograph was taken at Warner Bros. Studios in California, known at the time as The Burbank Studios. While the first fourteen takes were successful, Rondell suffered minor burns when the wind changed direction on the fifteenth, singeing his moustache He recounted the event in the 2012 documentary The Story of Wish You Were Here.

In 1985, Rondell's 22-year-old son, Reid Rondell, was killed in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles while working as a stunt double for actor Jan-Michael Vincent on the TV series Airwolf.

Rondell performed stunts for some of the top action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Lethal Weapon, Thelma & Louise and Speed. During that period, he also directed his first and only action film, No Safe Haven, starring Wings Hauser, and served as a second unit director on such films as The Two Jakes, The Mighty Ducks and Captain Ron. In 2003, he came out of retirement to appear in a complex car chase scene in The Matrix Reloaded, teaming up with his son, Ronald A. Rondell, the film's stunt coordinator.

Death Rondell died on August 12, 2025, at the age of 88, at Arrowhead Senior Living, an assisted living facility, in Osage Beach, Missouri. He was survived by his wife Mary and son Ronald.