Ronald R. Rondell

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...as Nicky's henchman

Ronald "Ronnie" R. Rondell, Jr. (born 10 February 1937; age 87) is a stuntman, stunt coordinator and director who worked as stunt coordinator on the 1996 Star Trek film Star Trek: First Contact. He also portrayed the henchman of Nicky the Nose in the film.

Rondell is the son of the late actor and assistant director Ronald R. Rondell whose career spanned forty years. He was also the father of stuntman Reid Rondell who died at the age of 22, filming a helicopter stunt for the television series Airwolf in 1985. [1] Rondell's second son is stuntman and stunt coordinator R.A. Rondell who is married to First Contact stuntwoman Debby Lynn Ross and has a son, Erik Rondell, also a stuntman. Rondell together with Hal Needham and Glenn R. Wilder was also a founding member of the stunt organization Stunts Unlimited in the early 1970s. [2]

With a career of 50 years as a stuntman and stunt coordinator and a career of 40 years as an assistant and 2nd unit director, Rondell is best known to be the stuntman on fire on the 1975 Pink Floyd studio album "Wish You Were Here".

Rondell started his on-screen career in the early 1950s as Dannie Kettle in the comedy film series about the Kettle family, including Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair (1952), Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953), and Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955), the comedy Her Twelve Men (1954, with Ian Wolfe), the action drama The Enemy Below (1957, with Theodore Bikel), the war drama The Naked and the Dead (1958, with William Campbell), and the horror film Monster on the Campus (1958, with Whit Bissell). Also in the '50s Rondell started his career in the stunt industry with performances in the television series Soldiers of Fortune, Mike Hammer, Combat Sergeant (1956), Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and Cimarron City.

Between the '60s and the '90s Rondell worked on over twenty television series such as Laredo, Twen Police (1970-1973), Charlie's Angels (1978-1980), Dynasty (1981), Falcon Crest, T.J. Hooker, Baywatch (1989), and Thunder in Paradise (1994) and on over 100 feature films such as the adventure Spartacus (1960), the action drama The Devil's Brigade (1968), the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971), the action film McQ (1974), the fantasy adventure The Beastmaster (1982), the sport drama The Karate Kid (1984), the fantasy comedy Mannequin (1987, starring Kim Cattrall), the action thriller Lethal Weapon (1987) and its sequel Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), the action comedy Tango & Cash (1989), the thriller The Hunt for Red October (1990), the science fiction film Predator 2 (1990), the crime drama Thelma & Louise (1991), the science fiction film Demolition Man (1993), the fantasy film The Crow (1994), the action thriller Speed (1994), the science fiction adventure Waterworld (1995), and the action drama Twister (1996).

Following his work on Star Trek: First Contact, Rondell worked as stunt coordinator on the Russian unit of the action thriller The Saint (1997), as supervising stunt coordinator on the comic adaptation Batman & Robin (1997), and as stunt coordinator on the science fiction thriller Sphere (1998) and Deep Blue Sea (1999). Stunt work during these years includes the action film Vanishing Point (1997), the crime comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997, with Eddy Donno, Billy Hank Hooker, and Buddy Joe Hooker), the comedy Gone Fishin' (1997), the action sequel Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), the mystery thriller Stigmata (1999), the fantasy action film End of Days (1999), the thriller The Contender (2000, with Dan Barringer, Doug Coleman, and Hubie Kerns), and the western American Outlaws (2001).

Following his retirement in 2001, Rondell received a Lifetime Achievement Taurus World Stunt Award in 2004. [3]

External link

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