Lightning Bear

Lightning Bear was born in Houston, Texas in 1947 and from there moved to California. He has always had an interest in the entertainment Industry. It all started in his childhood in the first grade singing in a choir with a solo for Christmas. In Junior High School there was a talent show in which he did a comedy song with a friend and it was probably the beginning of or was the first lip sink to a song. It was great and in the end when he got shot and took the microphone and stand to the floor with him (his first stunt) the Vice-principal almost had a heart attack. He then went into theater in high school in acting, set making, and lighting. His first work in film was with a production company doing commercials and travel logs for the Mexican government. They spent 6 months traveling through Mexico, him working as an actor, precision driver, diver and boat handler. In 1965 after leaving the company, a Scottish friend and him, decided to go to Hollywood to visit a friend they had met in Mexico. They decided to stay and he got his first job there, working at the Playboy Club parking cars. This was also during the time of the riots at Pandora's Box on Sunset Blvd. He did not have a car, so he had to hitchhike across Laurel Canyon Blvd., which was not easy, since he lived in studio city. He quit the club and got a job in a gas station working pumping gas and as a mechanic. It was here that he met the people who gave him his first break. While he was working one night, a man came in whose car had broken down. They had to take the car back to the station. His friend that was with him asked if he could give him a ride home. Since it was time for him to get off he did. He lived in the hills over looking Universal Studios. This was, as he was going to find out, Spanky McFarland who was on the "Little Rascals". He was producing and directing at Universal Studios at the time. They talked that night and Spanky asked if he was interested in the film industry. Lightning Bear told him of his work in Mexico and that he loves the industry and Spanky offered to help him. His friend that owned the car was Carl Ambrosia who was a Casting Director. In those days it was not easy to get into SAG. You needed to be in SAG to work in a film and you had to have worked in a film to get into SAG. They got Lightning Bear into central casting and then used his credits in Mexico to get him into SAG. Spanky had the idea of making a star out of Lightning Bear, but he was there to actually go to school. Besides as all knows, you can go to a party 7 days a week in Hollywood, which he did for a time to meet the right people. But when you leave a party at 2 or 3 am and you have a 6 o'clock call and have to get straight, it has a tendency to be a bit hard. So Lightning Bear told him that he just wanted to work and go to school and being famous was not that important to him. Spanky said that the best position for this was in stunts. In those days there were no schools for stunts and everything was OJT. Spanky got him his first show, which was the Virginian. Here Lightning Bear met Dick Shane who was the Stunt Coordinator for the show who started to train him. Also during the filming he met Hal Needham who started the first Stunt Association in Hollywood called Stunts Unlimited. After returning from Vietnam in the 70s he had the chance to work with Richard Harris on the film "A Man Called Horse" which later helped get him on Star Wars. It was during preproduction and production of the "Return of a Man Called Horse" that he traveled to England and heard about Star Wars. His blood brother who is from England was working as a model maker on Star Wars at Elstree Studios. He took Lightning Bear with him and helped get him work as a Stormtrooper. Later Lightning Bear was fortunate to work on the other films as both a Stormtrooper and Biker Scout. One of the highlights of his life was being able to meet and work with the late great Peter Diamond. Lightning Bear also had a company in film and television doing work as the Executive Production Co-coordinator. They had done shows for Home Box Office. He produced a show for the Tropicana Hotel called "After Midnight" and Lightning Bear's partner was responsible for the development of the colorization process used in the industry today. Since that time, Lightning Bear went more for the behind camera work as a Stunt Co-coordinator and 2nd Unit Director. Lightning Bear also did acting in summer stock, one of which was "West Side Story", playing one of the Sharks. During the 70s Lightning Bear was able to work with Sean Connery on "Diamond are Forever" in Las Vegas. Lightning Bear took a break from the industry as he was also teaching and it got busy. He decided after doing "Black Rain", to only teach for a while. After moving to Germany in 1997, he started to meet people in the industry there and decided then to go back into it. In 2005, Lightning Bear got his first chance at Directing an Independent Film called "Bad Blood". It was not until this time that Lightning Bear was asked to attend his first Star Wars convention. The greatest honor and highlight in his life was being asked to speak at the Memorial Tribute that was done for Richard Harris in London. Lightning Bear says he has been very lucky in his life as the industry is and always has been his first love. He likes the way it is always changing with new methods and technology, never having exactly the same circumstance or conditions and the ability to travel and see different countries, cultures, people and locations. This is especially true of the Star Wars and other Conventions, as he loves to meet the fans and talk with them.