Glenn Randall

Glenn Randall
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Glenn Randall Jr. is a stuntman, stunt actor and second unit action director, with a career that spans 40+ years in the entertainment industry before his retirement in 2000.

Glenn has become known world-wide by “Star Wars” fans for his involvement in bringing the iconic character of Boba Fett to life in “Return of the Jedi”. Although actor Jeremy Bulloch will always be known as the character, Glenn was the person who donned the Boba Fett helmet and battled Luke Skywalker over the Sarlacc Pitt. It was Glenn’s stunt coordination and actual onset performance in the film that wowed fans in theaters when they finally saw some of the cool weapons and skills the character has like the ability to fly with his jetpack!

Glenn’s career covers so much more than this iconic character, however.

Glenn grew up in the industry. His father was a famous horse trainer for film including the infamous horse of Roy Rogers, Trigger (cool side note, as a small boy Glenn got to ride Trigger). Glenn’s father (Glenn Randall Sr.) is in the Cowboy Hall of Fame! His dad also trained horses in Italy for a year to be ready to perform for the film “Ben Hur”.

When finished in Italy Glenn Sr. brought back the original Charlton Heston/” Ben Hur” horses and recreated the races and chariot wreck scenes that were in the “Ben Hur” film! Glenn Jr. was 19 at the time and he helped his dad with performances for arenas all around the country including Madison Square Garden to Cal Palace, as well as many of the international horse shows on the east coast. Glenn was in the show himself, driving a break-a-way chariot and the horse would continue to run while dragging him behind them, this being his introduction into the world of stunts.

Glenn realized he could not compete with his dad in Hollywood as a horse trainer, so he practiced the craft of stunts for 3 years and promoted himself as a stunt man and got a few breaks from top stunt coordinators to become a “bag carrying stuntman”. He became valuable because he had several abilities like doing high falls, car crashes and more. His ability to do more than one type of stunt secured his stature in the industry and he worked his way up to become a stunt coordinator himself. Some of his early stunts can be seen in TV shows like “Wild Wild West” and “Gun Smoke” as well as movies like John Wayne’s “Cowboys”, Robert Redford’s “Jeramiah Johnson’ James Bonds “Diamonds are Forever” and “Planet of the Apes”. He was the stunt double for Glenn Ford, Charles Bronson, and many others.

As time went on and his reputation grew. The director of the Anthony Quinn epic film “Lion of the Desert” saw Glenn’s potential and offered him the chance to spend a year in Libya as stunt coordinator and a second unit action director of the action epic film.

One specialty Glenn had was the ability to envision, script and fully storyboard out elaborate scenes and then go out and direct them. This made him an asset in the industry and forged his place in Hollywood history. It was director Steven Spielberg who gave Glenn is US directorial debut. Glenn accepted this opportunity with one condition, that Steven allowed him to script and storyboard out the sequence, have Steven review the concept, and only if Steven thought it was acceptable, he would take the job. Well… it worked! And we all know the scene! It’s the famous moment in the film that went down in history as the bike chase where E.T. and his friends take flight in “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”!

His second unit directing credits include films such as “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial”, “The Jewel of the Nile”, “Innerspace”, “Midnight Run”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”, “Beethoven” and many more.

Glenn served as Stunt Coordinator on numerous high-profile projects like “Poltergeist”, “Time Cop”, “Black Stallion”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Double Jeopardy”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Firestarter”, “The Mask of Zorro”, “TimeCop” and many more!

Glenn also had the privilege to appear on screen as an actor in roles such as a Stormtrooper in “Return of the Jedi”, the Flying Wing Mechanic in “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark”, as well as various supporting characters in other films.

Glenn was also hired by the Disney company to write & direct the “Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular” which was a live-action- stunt show at the (then MGM Studios - now The Disney Studios) theme park that park attendees could watch and learn more about how stunts were done.

Glenn has been retired for 20 years. In his retirement he likens himself as a retired samurai warrior who finds solace in growing bonsai trees. Glenn funds his solace in building and working on his horse farm in South Carolina.