Stelle es doch gleich mal ein. Wir wissen ja aus der Vergangeheit, dass jeder Link irgendwann mal verschwinden kann. Interessant finde ich die Frage wegen dem Theme von "Fall Guy"...... also den Bezug zu Burt Reynolds... Auch sonst viele geniale Fragen. Halt Fragen von Fans. Eigentlich sollten wir Frage für Frage hier übersetzen und die Antworten dann diskutieren. Es ist viel zu Schade, es einfach so schnell hier einzustellen. Das ist nicht irgendein Interview... hier finden wir mehr interessante Sachen, als in vielen Artikeln zusammen.
Lee Majors: a Storyteller and a Gentleman (Aug 30, 2011)
Lee Majors charms fans at the 2011 Fan Expo in Toronto - photo by Anthony Sin
At the 2011 edition of Fan Expo Canada, TV legend Lee Majors shared thoughts about his career, actors he has worked with, and reality TV.
Lee Majors, best known for his work on The Six Million Dollar Man, spoke with fans at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre this past weekend. Attendees of the veteran actor's 30-minute question and answer session were not disappointed as Majors shared memorable anecdotes and bits of wisdom gleaned from his remarkable career.
Dispelling Myths One of the first questions Majors fielded concerned a bracelet he wore in the first three seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man. Rumour had it that the actor wore the bracelet on his right wrist to help him remember which arm was supposed to be bionic.
After confirming that it was a gold bracelet, Majors explained that he wore it because “it was a gift from my wife at the time—Farrah [Fawcett].”
Another rumour suggested that the theme to The Fall Guy (“Unknown Stuntman”) slighted Burt Reynolds, which upset the Smokey and the Bandit star. Majors explained that he rewrote the lyrics himself to try to make its references more current at the time. He also said that never heard the rumour and that things between he and Reynolds were fine as they are friends.
As for that theme song, Majors confessed that he did not want to sing it because he was not a singer. But he did it because the song was about the character he was playing.
He then quipped that “it was a hit in Germany. So I can always say I had number one hit there, but the Hoff had one, too, so what does that prove?”
Real Life Stunts When asked about the most dangerous stunt he performed, Majors recounted an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man where a cable car got stuck between pillars. “Steve Austin was supposed to climb up to the top,” he explained, “and had to walk the wires to get to the cable car.”
While he did 85% of his own stunts, Majors was supposed to let a stuntman handle this particular stunt. That fellow, though, had a metal plate in his head so being 250 feet off the ground was not a good idea for him.
Another stuntman was supposed to perform the cable car stunt, but that fellow called in sick, leaving Majors to be his own stand-in. With only a wire clipped to his belt and a special set of boots to walk the cables, the star went ahead with the stunt…only to freeze about five feet away from his target.
“Then I looked down,” he went on, “and I saw the stunt guys taking pictures of me. That made me mad, which was good” as it helped him to complete the stunt. “When I got down to the ground, I yelled for wardrobe.”
Resurrecting Old Shows When asked what he considered to be the key ingredients to any possible remake of The Six Million Dollar Man, Majors responded, “Good characters.”
He was quite certain about what he did not want to see: “There are too many explosions [on TV these days], too much violence."
As a man who abhors “violence with blood and guts”, Majors is very proud of how family friendly The Six Million Dollar Man was. “We left no one for dead,” he said, pointing to the show’s lack of fatalities.
Despite fan interest, the veteran actor confessed that talk of feature film versions of The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy is nothing more than just hearsay at this point.
The veteran actor did have some good news for fans of his early work, though. “The Big Valley is close [to being made into a movie].” He said when he met with the producers of the project, he joked, “So I guess you want me to play Heath again.” Majors then admitted that he was asked to play Heath Barkley’s father in the movie.
Fellow Actors With Star Trek legend William Shatner also in attendance at the Fan Expo, Majors offered a few thoughts on his fellow TV icon. “Bill Shatner and I go a long way back,” he told the crowd and recalled that Shatner made appearances on both Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law and The Big Valley.
“He’s had me on his shows,” added The Fall Guy star. “He’s a great guy, a great Canadian.”
In terms of where he is in his career, Majors said, “I’m quite content now. I do some independent films, some TV. I do more comedy now, which I really enjoy.”
With a grin, he added, “No reality TV.”
As an afterthought, he said, “I’m in my 48th year in the business, and I’ve worked very hard. I just wonder where these reality stars are going to be in five years.” After a pause, he ventured, “Red Carpet to Rehab.”
The King of Pranks On the subject of real celebrities, Majors mentioned that early in his career, he had met Elvis Presley. The actor confessed that he loved playing jokes on the King.
“[When he was performing,] Elvis always had a wheelchair off stage so he could be wheeled back to his room. But [one time] I got in the wheelchair before Elvis, and his bodyguards wheeled me away. Elvis had to chase after us.”
Working With Legends The Six Million Dollar Man star also recalled working with screen legend Barbara Stanwyck. “She was OK with me, took me under her wing, and taught me discipline. She was always supportive of me.”
The lessons he learned from Stanwyck were “be on time and know your words. She made me a disciplined actor all my life. [The discipline] made me ten minutes early for everything.”
Another legend he had the good fortune to work with was Roy Rogers. When he was young, Majors explained, “on TV it was all westerns. Good fun entertainment for kids.”
Of The Fall Guy episodes Rogers appeared in, Majors had the fondest of memories. “It was the greatest thing,” he reminisced, “to be riding out of town, chasing bad guys with Roy Rogers.”
Adventures at NASA While the veteran actor also had fond memories of The Six Million Dollar Man, he had to admit that "it was the toughest show [to work on]. It was shot in many places, usually shut-down electrical plants."
Occasionally, he would have the chance to shoot in a fun location. "I had the chance to go to Cape Canaveral and got to put on an actual space suit that [had been used in] space."
He was to film a scene in a real space capsule. "So I got into the capsule," he continued, "lay upside-down, and did the scene. There was supposed to be a fire."
Escape from the capsule involved slipping through "a hole in the wall" that led to a chute. Majors went down the chute and completed the shot with no problems.
"I asked to do it a second time," the actor went on, "and went down with a camera." The footage he took of his descent was used on the show.
With that story, the all-too-brief half hour with Majors came to a close. Even though time with The Fall Guy star was brief, Majors sent fans home with new stories to tell about their hero.
Read more at Suite101: Lee Majors: a Storyteller and a Gentleman | Suite101.com
http://anthonysin.suite101.com/lee-majors-a-storyteller-and-a-gentleman-a386719#ixzz1pHwfO5hZ
