Many people on our Opto 22 team have interesting and amazing hobbies, talents, and accomplishments. But when I talked to John Hyatt our web developer, and Robert Leonard our IT manager, about what they were doing before Opto, I found out they had quite a story to tell. High falls, street fights and getting hit by cars are just a few of the stunts John and Robert performed before they came to Opto 22. John and Robert have been friends since junior high school and found at an early age they had a passion for the extreme. They both began with positions at the popular, Southern California theme park, Knott’s Berry Farm, and again and again, they would watch the extraordinary stunts performed in the Wild West Show. After much time inquiring and meeting the right people, they were able to get into a stunt school which consisted of one teacher and an entire backyard of props, including an old car to practice getting hit.
During their training they landed their first big show as stunt men in a Sting music video! The 1980’s song is called “We’ll be Together” and you can watch it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgA3T1wtBIg.
Next, with stunt school behind them and their newly acquired experience, they were able to accomplish their first goal of being regular stunt men in the Wild West Show. A couple of years later they were ready for bigger and better things and each went their own direction.
John decided to train animals, including elephants, sea lions, and otters at Marine World Africa USA in Vallejo, California. After two and half years, he missed his days performing stunts and moved back down to Los Angeles to continue his stunt work at Knott’s and Universal Studios. John explained to me how he would perform falls from as high as thirty feet (nine meters) onto wood planks, but surprisingly he claims the hardest part of stunt work was the street fights, where he was constantly falling on rough concrete.
Meanwhile, Robert auditioned for a George Lucas traveling stunt show. The show included scenes from throughout George Lucas’ movie career, including Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He explained, “This was the big leagues, we were surrounded by so many famous stunt men.” When the show began touring in Japan, one of the cast members was injured and they called Robert to take his place. It wasn’t until he got there that he realized he would be playing one of the main roles: Darth Vader! The show ran for many months in Japan and was so large they needed almost 60 trailers to move it.
After years doing stunts both John and Robert decided they had had enough and both eventually ended up working together here at Opto 22. Though their years of stunting are in the past they talk about it like it was yesterday, and both miss their crazy days of falling thirty feet and living to do it over and over again!
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