Actor, director, and B-movie stuntman Gary Kent has died at 89. His son Chris Kent told The Hollywood Reporter that the fabled stuntman died Thursday evening at an assisted care facility in Austin. Kent did stuntwork for numerous low-budget films such as The Black Klansman (1966) and The Savage Seven (1968). While working on the latter film, he was run over by an out-of-control motorcycle. Two years prior, he sliced his arm on broken glass during a bar fight scene in Hells Angels on Wheels (1967). Quentin Tarantino interviewed Kent while writing the script for his 2019 hit movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which Brad Pitt played a stuntman.
The Life of Gary Kent: Actor, Director, and Stuntman
Gary Kent was born June 7, 1933, in Walla Walla, Washington. He was raised four hours north in Renton, where he attended Renton High School. Kent went on to study journalism at the University of Washington, where he was a pole vaulter and backup quarterback for the Huskies. He left college to join the U.S. Naval Air Force and was posted at Corpus Christi, Texas. It was there that he began his show business career, handling publicity for the Blue Angels squadron and acting on local stages. Kent moved to Houston and started acting, directing, and writing at the Alley and Playhouse theaters.
Kent’s stuntman career kicked off when he doubled for Jack Nicholson in Ride in the Whirlwind and The Shooting, both from 1966. According to Deadline, he doubled for Bruce Dern in Richard Rush’s 1969 cult classic Psych-Out. Kent went on to work as a stuntman until 2002, when he damaged his leg on the set of  Bubba Ho-Tep (2002). However, he continued to work in the industry as a stunt coordinator. His last project was Sex Terrorist’s on Wheels (2019).
Kent’s credits as an actor include Satan’s Sadists (1969), Body Fever (1969), and Lost (1983).
Kent was assistant director for Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971), in which he also acted. He was the unit production manager on Brian de Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise (1974). Kent directed the new age drama The Pyramid (1976) and was recently included in the book TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films From the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema.
Gary Kent was married four times. Survivors include children Chris, Greg, Colleen, Andrew, Alex, and Michael, and his grandchildren, Ethan, Nicolette, Timothy, and Hannah. The stuntman’s ashes will be scattered into the Pacific Ocean.