Simon Crane

Simon Crane (born 1960) is a British stuntman, stunt coordinator, second unit director and film director.

Biography Born in Twickenham, Middlesex, England. Crane was originally a law student, but not liking it, he dropped out after one year and worked as an acrobat in a circus for three years. To fulfill English requirements for stuntmen to achieve instructor level in six sports, Crane became an instructor in gymnastics, parachuting, scuba diving, high diving, karate, and fencing. When he could not obtain a union card as a stuntman fast enough, he became an instructor in three more sports, including hang gliding. His father, Dr. John Crane, was the doctor for Arsenal F.C. and the England national football team.

Career Crane's first major work came in the 1985 Bond film A View to a Kill. In 1987 he became Timothy Dalton's stunt double in The Living Daylights. He also played the character of Che Che in a reenactment of the "gatecrasher" fight scene from On Her Majesty's Secret Service traditionally used to test the fighting skills of actors up for the part of James Bond. Vic Armstrong coordinated the fight. Actors believed to have tested opposite Crane in the screen tests include Mark Greenstreet, Sam Neill and Pierce Brosnan.

After spending five years as the apprentice to an experienced stunt coordinator, Crane was allowed to act as second unit stunt coordinator on Licence to Kill. In 1993, Crane performed the dangerous-looking aerial transfer for the film Cliffhanger, for which he earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for being part of the most expensive stunt ever performed. It cost $1 million to have Simon Crane descending on a rope between two planes at an altitude of 4,572 m (15,000 ft). Sylvester Stallone allotted the amount from his own salary to pay for the stunt.

In 1995 he became the overall stunt coordinator for GoldenEye – the opening bungee jump was voted the greatest film stunt ever in a poll for Sky Movies. After a four-year break from the Bond franchise, during which he coordinated stunts for the Academy Award-winning films Titanic (in which he happened to play fourth officer Joseph Boxhall, and had two lines) and Saving Private Ryan, Crane returned to handle the stunts for The World Is Not Enough, with Vic Armstrong as second unit director.

Crane also took the role of stunt coordinator in Will Smith's Hancock (2008). He was to make his directorial début directing a film adaptation of the popular video game, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men but departed from the project. Crane directed the 3-D supernatural thriller The Peak, which was based on a screenplay from Neal Marshall Stevens and Crane worked with Will Smith again as second unit director and stunt coordinator on Men in Black 3.

Filmography Year Title Stunts Second unit director Director 1990 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Kevin Reynolds 1994 Frankenstein Kenneth Branagh 1995 Braveheart Mel Gibson GoldenEye Martin Campbell 1996 101 Dalmatians Stephen Herek 1997 Titanic James Cameron 1998 Saving Private Ryan Steven Spielberg 1999 The Mummy Stephen Sommers The World Is Not Enough Michael Apted 2000 Vertical Limit Martin Campbell 2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Simon West 2002 Enough Michael Apted 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Jonathan Mostow Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life Jan De Bont Beyond Borders Martin Campbell 2004 Troy Wolfgang Petersen 2005 Mr. & Mrs. Smith Doug Liman 2006 X-Men: The Last Stand Brett Ratner 2007 Stardust Matthew Vaughn 2008 Quantum of Solace Marc Forster Jumper Doug Liman Bedtime Stories Adam Shankman Hancock Peter Berg 2009 Surrogates Jonathan Mostow 2011 Your Highness David Gordon Green In the Land of Blood and Honey Angelina Jolie 2012 Men in Black 3 Barry Sonnenfeld 2013 World War Z Marc Forster 2014 Maleficent Robert Stromberg Edge of Tomorrow Doug Liman 2016 Jason Bourne Paul Greengrass The Huntsman: Winter's War Cedric Nicolas-Troyan Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Gareth Edwards 2018 Robin Hood Otto Bathurst 2019 Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw David Leitch Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Joachim Rønning 2020 Dolittle Stephen Gaghan 2021 Chaos Walking Doug Liman Infinite Antoine Fuqua

Actor: The Living Daylights (1987) – Gibraltar Soldier #1 (uncredited) Blue Ice (1992) – Secret Serviceman (uncredited) GoldenEye (1995) – Lt. François Brouse – Tiger Helicopter Pilot (uncredited) Titanic (1997) – 4th Officer Joseph Boxhall