Crashing Cars and Falling from Rooftops: A Stuntwoman's Hollywood Stories
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Cathy Worthington:Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating your third act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Mary Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy Worthington:Everyone has a story, and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started.
Cathy Worthington:Hello. I'm Kathy Worthington welcoming you to an exciting new episode of late boobers. Our special guest today has jumped out of windows and off buildings, fallen from tightwires and down flights of stairs, been burned in fires, held her own in fights with men and women, and driven cars off cliffs just for example. What could that be? She's the stunt lady for the stars, Sandy Gimpel.
Merry Elkins:And I'm Mary Elkins. And not only that, at 85 years old, she's still jumping from buildings. She's won numerous awards for her work as a stunt coordinator and was the first stunt woman to become a second unit director. She's also a producer, an actress and dancer, and a fourth degree taekwondo black belt. And she's the author of the book Falling for the Stars, and soon her cookbook Falling for Food will be published.
Merry Elkins:Welcome, Sandy.
Sandy Gimpel:Thank you for having me.
Merry Elkins:To have you.
Cathy Worthington:Please tell us about your background and how you got into show business and stunt work.
Sandy Gimpel:Oh my gosh. Well, mom started me dancing when I was like three years old to keep me out of trouble. And seriously, she was very good about making sure that my sister and I were very busy so that we, you know, didn't get into anything. Did it work? No.
Sandy Gimpel:It did not work. I mean, I have to come home with black and blue marks and she go, oh my god. What happened to you? And I go, what? What are you talking about?
Sandy Gimpel:Nothing. And anyway, the dancing, you know, I just kept dancing afterwards and she wanted me to go to school and become a teacher. And I actually went to school, got my applied arts degree and certainly didn't want to teach. But what happened was there was an audition for a show out here in California called Pacific Ocean Park. It was a big theme park out at the ocean.
Sandy Gimpel:They were looking for dancers to be Jack and Jill and bring the people into the park. And so I went and auditioned because I knew I had a lot of my friends were dancers. So I went and auditioned for the show and didn't get the job and was very disappointed. And so I signed up to go to school to get my third degree, you know, my third year of school. And a week later I got a phone call from Miriam Nelson who was our choreographer and she said, you still want the job?
Sandy Gimpel:And I said, absolutely. And she said, well, one of our girls is pregnant and she can't do it so she quit. So the job's yours. So I did that show for three years as a dancer. And when the three years was up, I auditioned for The Pleasure of His Company with Fred Astaire and Debbie Reynolds as a dancer and got in in the entertainment business that way because I got picked to, you know, be one of the dancers on the show and never looked back and just went on working as a dancer, ending up doing 15 movies with Elvis Presley.
Sandy Gimpel:I was one of his five And when he decided he wasn't going to do movies anymore and go back to Las Vegas and, you know, do live shows. I was already in the industry and I had been working, doing some background work and doing some acting. I, you know, working with Bill Bixby and a few other people. And I did lost his face. And what happened was Elvis wasn't doing a movie, so they sent me out to audition to stand in, which means when they like lights, set the cameras, you're standing in.
Sandy Gimpel:And they needed a new stand in for Bill Mummy who was 11 years old. And so I auditioned and usually all they care about is how tall you are and if the coloring is correct and that's all they care about. Well, this audition there was like eight or nine guys sitting at a table asking me all these questions about my background and my coordination and all of this. And one guy stood up and said, so have you ever thought about doing stunts? And I swear to you on a bible, I said, what's a stunt?
Sandy Gimpel:Because I had no idea what he was talking about.
Merry Elkins:That's my next question to you. What not everyone in our audience knows what stunt work is or what doubling for an actor involves. So go on and tell us more.
Sandy Gimpel:Well, basically what happened was his name was Paul Stater and he was the stunt coordinator, which means he hires the stunt people. And he said, you can stand in for Bill and stunt double him if you come to the gym three days a week and we will teach you how to do stunts.
Merry Elkins:Wow.
Sandy Gimpel:And I was 22 years old and I said, sounds good to me. And so
Cathy Worthington:I wanted to ask you also who were your mentors. So that was number one then.
Sandy Gimpel:That was my very first mentor. Absolutely. But Uh-huh. Taught me how to do literally, I was going to the gym with five or six or seven stunt guys that were in the stuntman's association and learning how to do fights, learning how to do high falls, learning how to sword fight. Just all basic kind of stuff that you need, you know, to fall down.
Sandy Gimpel:And the wire work came later in my you know, because they were doing a lot of wire work then, everything was more practical.
Cathy Worthington:And
Sandy Gimpel:I ended up on Lots of Space not only doubling Bill, but I ended up doing the voiceovers. I ended up playing monsters on the show. And I never looked back. I mean I just kept working after that and there was really two people that doubled kids in those days. That one was myself and one was oh goodness, I just lost his name.
Sandy Gimpel:Anyway, he
Merry Elkins:He'll come to you.
Sandy Gimpel:You know, it was He was a male. Was a guy. A guy and me. And the funny part was he was littler than I was. He was skinnier.
Sandy Gimpel:And half the time he would double the girl and I would double the boy.
Cathy Worthington:That's That's great.
Sandy Gimpel:But yeah. So I just, you know, I just kept working and I got very I'm very blessed. I no complaints. I absolutely love love love my life.
Cathy Worthington:Well, tell us what it was like working with Elvis. And also tell us about some of the most memorable people and He
Sandy Gimpel:was amazing. He was, you know, just the most gracious person you'd ever meet in your life. And it was really interesting because there were you know, girls were coming and going and dating him and, you know, and everybody kept saying, well, did you date him? Did you date him? And I never did because basically, I had a daughter at the time that was very young.
Sandy Gimpel:You know, she was like two or three years three years old, I guess, when I first started working with him. And I needed to work. I was a single mom and I needed to work. And And I watched the girls that dated him come and go. And I thought, you can't come and go.
Sandy Gimpel:And his guys, his mafia guys, Joe Esposito and Charlie Hague and those guys decided they liked me and they were gonna keep me out of trouble. And so I kinda got connected more with the boys than I did, you know, with him. And I got to go to rehearsals and sit in while they were playing, you know, just working things out musically. I got to go play softball with them when they go play softball with out of Veterans Hospital. Elvis loved to play softball.
Sandy Gimpel:And I'd go to the house in Bel Air and got to play games. And so I got to be in the inner circle and more so than other girls did because I was kind of like one of the boys, which was really
Cathy Worthington:You were very you were very wise for your years.
Merry Elkins:Absolutely. Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:It was You didn't fall into that Hollywood, Charlotte category.
Sandy Gimpel:Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I was Amazing.
Sandy Gimpel:Really lucky. You know? And you don't realize it when things are happening, especially in my business. You know? You just go in and work and you go home and you do your next job and you know, you don't think about it.
Sandy Gimpel:You just realize later on in life.
Cathy Worthington:And then you get to go play softball.
Merry Elkins:I know. Absolutely. That's not a bad gig at all.
Sandy Gimpel:No. I mean It's really fun.
Merry Elkins:And and you did what? How many? 15 movies with Elvis?
Sandy Gimpel:I did 15 movies. That's one of his five dancers that he just wanted back all the time. In fact, they were doing a picture at MGM called it was called Chautauqua at the time. And I think they changed it to Girls, Girls, Girls or it was one of the girls movies. He hadn't done he wasn't he was between movies before they started that.
Sandy Gimpel:So I was doing Coach of Betty's Father with Bill Bixby and doing a little acting part on it and stand standing in on the show. And the funny story is Elvis was coming back from lunch from the commissary and Bill Vicks and I were going to lunch and we met in the middle of, you know, the street on the lot And they're talking. They were really good friends. And they're they're talking like I wasn't even there. And and Elvis looks at me and looks at Bill and looks at me and goes, what are you doing on his show?
Sandy Gimpel:And I went, well, you were busy and you weren't doing anything, so I needed to work. And he looked at Bix and he said, when are you guys rapping? And he said, another week. And he and he goes back, okay. I want you talking to the producer as soon as you wrap and you're back on my show.
Sandy Gimpel:He said, yes. So that was the kind of relationship we had. It was kinda cool. Yeah. Good.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Can you talk more about some of the more memorable people you've worked with or or some of the moments in your career?
Sandy Gimpel:Who I've worked with? That's uncomfortable. You know? Yeah. I you know, I've been very lucky.
Sandy Gimpel:I mean, the Bixby was amazing to work with. I, you know, I absolutely adored him. He was one of one of the good guys. And the ladies I've doubled, you know, I've been you know, you have to double something that's close enough to your height. So I've doubled Debbie Reynolds.
Sandy Gimpel:Doubled Debbie White, Estelle Getty, Klaus Leishman. I mean, you know, the list goes on and on. I mean, it's just been very I've been very lucky, very, very lucky. I can't complain at all.
Merry Elkins:That's so so exciting. Well, in your book, Stomp Lady Falling for the Stars, I know that Bill Mummy and the director Johnny Martin and Beau Bridges wrote forwards to it. Can you talk about your book and working with them?
Sandy Gimpel:Yeah. Beau Bridges turned out to be an incredible friend of mine. He's god, he's like family. And I actually met Beau on Other Side of the Mountain. I when we were doing Other Side of Mountain.
Sandy Gimpel:I'd actually worked with him before, worked with his dad, but never really got to know him until that show. And I got to direct second units for him. I got to coordinate for him. Got to do seven hours of judgment where he directed it and I kind of was his helper, his assistant. We did a show called Sins of My Father that Beau directed and his mom was on the show and his dad, Lloyd was on the show.
Sandy Gimpel:And basically what happens is the father pushes the mother down the stairs and you know tries to get rid of her. And so I ended up doubling Bo's mom which was really great. So that show was really And
Merry Elkins:you had to get pushed down the stairs.
Sandy Gimpel:I had get pushed down the stairs. Yes. I do that a lot.
Merry Elkins:Well, how how do you do that? How do you prepare for that?
Sandy Gimpel:You know, what I basically do is I have, like, a eight inch wetsuit that I wear that I put underneath my clothes so that instead of having to wear pads, stuck elbow pads, knee pads that stick out, I put the wetsuit on and it covers up all the that you could actually get hurt, you know, where where the pads aren't going to be. And so How
Cathy Worthington:did you know that a wet suit would protect you in a fall? Did someone tell you or you discovered that on
Sandy Gimpel:your You know, I didn't. I kind of figured it out myself because I noticed that a lot of times when you just wear your elbow pads, your knee pads, your back pad, you always get nailed someplace or hurt someplace that the pads weren't like on your upper thigh where you can't cover it or your shins. You wear shin guards but then you'd hit them and get hit in the back or somewhere. So I just kind of figured out, you know, if I get everything covered up, I get protected. And it worked.
Sandy Gimpel:It worked perfectly. A lot of stuff we learned Wow. You know, growing up in the business basically, we we learned the hard way. You know, we learned it practical. And so it's kind of frustrating when the kids don't ask questions of the older stud people because we've done things already.
Sandy Gimpel:There's really nothing new.
Cathy Worthington:Did you break a bunch of bones?
Sandy Gimpel:No. I broke my ribs a couple of times. My knees were messed. I mean I've had I feel like the bionic woman. I've had two knee replacements and a hip replacement.
Merry Elkins:That'll take you out for a while.
Sandy Gimpel:No, didn't. I worked three weeks after I had my right knee replaced and drove the car three days later. And you know
Merry Elkins:Well, that's good advice for older people so you don't have to lay there for months.
Sandy Gimpel:I, you know, I don't take a lot of pills. I don't take medicines and stuff like that. You know, you get your hip replaced, your knee replaced, it sends you home with all these drugs. And I think the drugs make you feel worse than you know granted you have to take some pain medicine, but I took Tylenol and it seemed to work for me. Now I do have a high tolerance of pain.
Sandy Gimpel:I can you know ignore it pretty well.
Merry Elkins:But You have to.
Sandy Gimpel:You know, if the the knee replacements with wear and tear, you know, like I'm a fourth degree black belt. And in Taekwondo, you do a lot of kicks, a lot of flying sidekicks, a lot of kicks. You know, all those snapping kicks, you know, are hard on your body, you know, and there's nothing you can do about it. But, you know, thank God in this day and age, you can get it fixed.
Merry Elkins:Yeah. Well, backtrack
Sandy Gimpel:a little bit. Tell
Merry Elkins:us more about your book.
Sandy Gimpel:My book. Well Let me show you my Yeah. Yep. Show us the cover. They'll see it on
Merry Elkins:But the cover, would you describe it, Sandy?
Sandy Gimpel:Has a number that has you on it. It cover has pictures of me being the salt vampire without the hood on. There's a picture of me doubling Bill, mommy on loss of space, and of me doubling Barbara Eden. Me playing old lady which they love a lot these days. And the girl in the center basically I had one of the gentlemen I know is a cartoonist and he drew the cartoon of me.
Sandy Gimpel:So I have that falling and that's my book. And then inside on the back is a picture of me sitting on my car. It's got stories about all the shows I've been most of the shows I've been on. Backstories, what happened on the sets, some of the about the actors I've worked with and my life, basically my life and how I got
Merry Elkins:A charmed life.
Cathy Worthington:Well, we also know you love to cook. So how did your cookbook Falling for Food come about?
Sandy Gimpel:You know, I everybody keeps telling me to make have to write a cookbook or do podcast or do a show and I keep going, yeah, yeah, yeah. But every time I cook and I cook a lot, I put it up on Facebook or something and, you know, kind of write out what I put on, you know, how to make food. Oh, nice. My dad and my mom both cooked. My dad owned a restaurant while I was growing up.
Sandy Gimpel:And I kind of learned to cook from both of them. And the big problem with me writing this cookbook, which is taking so long is I don't measure anything. You know, when you write a book you've got to say half a teaspoon of this and one of that. And I just kind of throw things in and taste just to see if it tastes good and we go, okay, that's good. You know, so I can tell you what I put in something, but the amount is hard.
Cathy Worthington:Do you have to go back and recreate? You have to recreate all the recipes before you
Sandy Gimpel:can put them in everything, and I know what I've put in everything, and I've got a pretty good idea of what, you know, how much I've put in so I can actually sit down and write down, which is what I've been doing, you know, write down. Well, do you have
Merry Elkins:a specialty? Like, are you better at desserts or main meals?
Sandy Gimpel:I'm terrible at desserts because I don't know how to I bake in not really great. My daughter's an amazing baker. But I can cook anything, really. I mean, I I do cook a lot of chicken because I don't eat red meat. So I eat I do I do eat some pork.
Sandy Gimpel:I eat a lot of chicken. I eat fish, a lot of fish, you know, and stuff like that. But and I have old recipes for my mom and dad that we grew up. So it's kind of cool because I have backstories about, you know, her cooking and dad cooking in the restaurant and stuff.
Merry Elkins:Oh, that sounds wonderful. Reminds you of home.
Sandy Gimpel:Uh-huh. And hopefully I can get this done. I mean, I'm working on it.
Merry Elkins:You will. You will. You're known for your work on Star Trek and Lost in Space. You that a little bit, but please talk about that.
Sandy Gimpel:Well, basically what happened was when I was doing Lost in Space, they decided to do the pilot, the cage for Star Trek. And they called Paul Stater and said, do you have anybody that's not allergic to the makeup and stuff that we put on to make, you know, glue on their face and stuff? And he said, oh, yes. I can give you Sandy next week. She's not working because she does monsters on our show all the time.
Sandy Gimpel:So that's how I got Star Trek and I got to do the Telogian because that was all silicone and you know, stuff glued to your face and stuff like that. A lot of people break out from it. So I did that show with Jeffrey Hunter and it needless to say, didn't sell. And a year later, they called Star Trek called me and said, are you available? We want you to come back and do the Salt Vampire on Mantrap.
Sandy Gimpel:So I went back and got to do that show with him. And never thought much about it, you know, just go went in and worked and then went on to do something else and ended up being iconic literally. I mean Yeah. I do a lot of conventions and stuff, Star Trek conventions because of those two shows. It's unbelievable to me.
Merry Elkins:Well tell our audience exactly what you had to do as the salt vampire.
Sandy Gimpel:Well as the salt vampire, vampire, I went in and the first thing they did was they made a plaster cast of my head. And which means they they put a wall cap on you and then they put plaster literally all over you. And you have to breathe through a straw and they let it harden, and then they pop it off and make a mask that fits only you. They take they make the costume for you and all of that, which is fine was fine with me. I
Merry Elkins:Was it eight inches thick so you could do stunts?
Sandy Gimpel:Pardon?
Merry Elkins:Was it eight inches thick like the the wet suit
Sandy Gimpel:or someone could do the stunts? Thick. Yeah. I mean, it's maybe a little thicker than that even. The the plaster, you know, they've gotta have it thick enough that it's not gonna break so that they can put the silicone in and make the, you know, make the mask out of it.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Sandy Gimpel:But the funny part is a lot lot of these guys, which none are they they get claustrophobic, and they can't let it even dry. They start pulling it off. But anyway, they made the costume for me and they put me in the costume and put the head on. They sewed the head onto the, you know, the costume and they took me out on the set. Now there's a girl playing Nancy as, you know, the real girl and me playing the monster.
Sandy Gimpel:They had to do it that way because it took too long to switch back and forth. So they took a plastic and put it in front of the camera. And whenever they took me out or took her out, they would draw us in the camera and then take them out and put the other one in so it matched perfectly. And then take the plastic out and start rolling the camera again. Well, the problem with this costume was the salt suckers that you would I went to kill Schatner with were my fingers stuck here.
Sandy Gimpel:The suckers were out here. So I would walk up to him, and I hit him in the head with my hands because, you know, you reach with your hands. You don't think about the suckers being way out there. And I I no matter what I did, I couldn't figure out how to get it right. And I finally looked at Gene Roddenberry who was literally on the set all the time and said, can you do me a favor and take the hood, take this whole thing off?
Sandy Gimpel:Let me count my steps. Let me figure out where I am. And it's just like a dance suit. You figure out where you are, you know, stepwise. And and and then I can do it.
Sandy Gimpel:And the other problem was I couldn't see under the mask because this if you look at the salt vampire, the snout went way out like this, which takes away all your peripheral vision and your your you can't see the floor. And the eyes were literally slits like that. They were not open enough. So he agreed.
Cathy Worthington:When you do the conventions, do you bring part of the costume
Sandy Gimpel:which you I don't have it. I got pictures, tons of pictures of it, but I don't have Yeah. The costume.
Cathy Worthington:So you're just finding pictures of you as the monster when you go to the conferences. Right?
Sandy Gimpel:Yep. I have it with Beholding the Head, which is on the front of my my book. And then I also have it, you know, all put together with me getting killed. And anyway, they they agreed. And I did everything I needed to do and thank God Shatner didn't get mad because I was panic struck, know, here I am this nobody, you know, and hitting a star in the back of the head constantly.
Sandy Gimpel:They Oh, no. They I can't I figured out where I was and they sewed everything back together again and it worked perfectly.
Merry Elkins:Did you have to do any stunts as the salt monster?
Sandy Gimpel:Yeah. I get killed and I fall against the floor the wall and then to the, you know. So I had I had to fall and do all that stuff in there. And it was a very tight quarters in there, very small.
Cathy Worthington:Well, I wanted to ask you how difficult was it for you to break the glass ceiling and become a director and stunt coordinator?
Sandy Gimpel:That, you know okay. I had been coordinating, which means I've been running the shows as a stunt coordinator, hiring other stunt people, you know, or making suggestions to for them to hire. You technically don't hire. So I've been doing that a lot. I got got lucky enough to do enough shows by myself that I kinda was coordinating myself.
Sandy Gimpel:So I learned how to say, well, can we do it this way? And can we add another camera here? You know? I got to be vocal enough that I was confident enough that I was okay as a stunt coordinator. And then I started coordinating shows.
Sandy Gimpel:And I I did Harbor Valley PTA with Barbara Eden and a bunch of shows at Universal because I was kind of at Universal. And Kate Mulgrew was doing, missus Columbo, Kate Columbo. And I got hired as their stunt coordinator. And what happened was they couldn't finish the show. There was just too many stunts on it.
Sandy Gimpel:They had a seven day shoot, and they just couldn't finish it. So I got called in the office and this my production manager said, k. We're gonna do a second unit, which means we're going to do a unit with only the stunts. And we're gonna hire Bob, whatever his name was, to cord to direct second unit. And we want you since you know the show, we want you on the show.
Sandy Gimpel:Make sure you, you know, you help him. Well, me and my big mouth goes, I don't wanna help him. I wanna direct Second Unit. And they go and they're not gonna let you direct Second Unit. There's no way that you're gonna direct Second Unit.
Sandy Gimpel:And I said, well, I'm not gonna help in that day, so you guys figure out what you wanna do. And it was the end of the day, and I literally left the office, sat in my car, and started crying because I figured I blew the stunt coordinating job too. Only nice thing happened was my production manager adored me and went to the Black Tower as it was called at Universal and talked to them. I don't know what he said, but at 06:00 that night or 07:00 that night, he called me and said, 9AM tomorrow morning, sign your contract. We're buying you your DTA card and your second
Merry Elkins:payment. And
Cathy Worthington:Yay. Bravo for the brave women.
Merry Elkins:Yes. Kudos. Yeah.
Sandy Gimpel:I'm sorry. It turned out really well because I ended up directing Second Unit on every episode after that and went on to direct Second Unit for Bow and, you know, and other shows at Universal. So it it was a a good thing. So I really did break glass The problem was at that time in 1980, they were very afraid to hire a woman to direct or to even stunt coordinate because there was a woman at couple years before that or a year I think it was two years before that at twentieth Century Fox that was stunt coordinating a show. I'm not gonna talk about mention it because you guys know.
Sandy Gimpel:But, anyway, she was coordinating a show, and she got fired. That guys get fired all the time. They go on and get another show. Well, she sued Fox. Yeah.
Sandy Gimpel:And every production company was afraid to hire a woman that they were gonna if she did anything wrong or they had to fire her, she would sue them. So they
Cathy Worthington:Oh, dear.
Sandy Gimpel:You know, they were panic struck.
Cathy Worthington:Mhmm.
Sandy Gimpel:With missus Columbo, with Kate Columbo, I knew the producer that was doing the show. And when I went in to ask if I could coordinate the show, he hemmed and hawed and would look at me, literally, was looking at his desk and would not look at me. And I finally looked at him and said, were you afraid if you fire me, I I'm I'm gonna sue you guys? And he under his breath, he kinda went, yeah. And I said, look.
Sandy Gimpel:I'll tell you what. If I do anything wrong, you can take me by the ear in your office, and I will quit. And he said, let me think about it. And he knew me that I was pretty true to my word. And he called and said, got the show.
Sandy Gimpel:You can do it. So that's kind of how it all came about, you know, and the kept going. God. Right?
Cathy Worthington:You to be
Merry Elkins:And have confidence.
Sandy Gimpel:Yeah. That's little bit of vaccination. So
Merry Elkins:on a totally other note, talk about some of the funniest moments in
Sandy Gimpel:your career. Oh my gosh. Probably the one that sticks out in my mind the most and most everybody has seen it is the BAFTA Awards with Sacha Baron Cohen. It was a few years ago, not that long ago, actually. And if you go on YouTube, it says Sacha Baron Cohen kills presenter.
Sandy Gimpel:And, basically, nobody knew what was gonna happen. And I mean, nobody. And the room was full of every big star you can think of. I mean, George Clooney was literally sitting in front of me. Selma Hyatt wheels me out in a wheelchair, supposed to be a hundred and four years old, the last living person to ever work with Charlie Chaplin.
Sandy Gimpel:And I have a cane, and I present it to Sasha and tell him that he would love to have had it if he was still alive. And he takes the cane and he twirls it and acts like Charlie Chaplin leans on it. It breaks. He hits the wheelchair I'm in and I go flying off the stage into the audience. Well, three and a half hours of makeup later to make me look like I'm a hundred and four years old, and nobody literally knew what happened.
Sandy Gimpel:So we could not put pads on the floor. We couldn't do anything. I mean, the only pads I had, thank God, I had a long sleeve dress on. My center coordinator, Alex Daniels, was amazing. Made sure wardrobe dressed me so I could put a couple pads on.
Sandy Gimpel:I had long sleeves and a big long, you know, sequin gown. And I was able to wear my elbow pads and my knee pads. And I took my shin guards and put them on the back of my legs because I was afraid the wheelchair was gonna hit me because it was coming off the stage with me, which it did not, but I was a little worried about it. That was literally all the pads we had, and and Alex actually sat at one of the tables to make sure that nobody turned their chairs into this little tiny space I had to fall because if they did, I would have fallen on them. And it worked perfectly.
Sandy Gimpel:I mean, if you watch the video, you hear people gasp and then they start laughing because they know it's Sasha. It hadn't, you know, funny, but it was amazing. It was probably the best thing I the funniest thing I've ever done. I mean, I'm laying on the floor and he jumps down, turns me over and tries to get him mouth to mouth, and I'm biting my cheeks not to laugh. You know, so that was that was really funny.
Merry Elkins:I remember that. I saw it and it was, oh my god. What just happened? And and of course you had all this gray hair and you looked really old, makeup and all of So what are some of the most dangerous stunts you performed?
Sandy Gimpel:The what?
Merry Elkins:The the most dangerous stunts you Well,
Sandy Gimpel:the ones you don't think are gonna be dangerous, probably the one that sticks out in my mind the most is Bring them Back Alive with Bruce Bruce Botsleitner, the TV show that he did. And we were out in Indian dunes with the helicopter crash happened on Twilight Zone. And it's in the Indian burial ground, and there's supposedly it's cursed, supposedly. Anyway, there's a cliff, and it's a hundred feet straight up, and they have a motorcycle with sidecar hanging off the edge of the cliff. And the girl is supposed to be in the sidecar, and Bruce Boxfightner swings over on the rappelling line, grabs her.
Sandy Gimpel:They swing back. The bike drops. It explodes. That's the stunt. We get there at six in the morning and get dressed, and I go out on the set, and the stunt double for Bruce wasn't done yet.
Sandy Gimpel:They were still working on him. And they said, okay. You know, we're gonna put you up in the thing and it's all rigged and don't have to worry about it. Well, the one thing I learned growing up with my mentors was check your rigging. There's nobody else on that rigging but you.
Sandy Gimpel:If you're not happy, open your mouth because they're not they're not gonna get hurt. You are. And I've always always always remembered that. And I said, okay. Let me go take a look at the rigging and make sure I'm happy before we do this.
Sandy Gimpel:Oh, no. No. No. You can't do that. We've got we hired a mountain climber.
Sandy Gimpel:It's all safe. Don't worry about it. I said, I'm not getting on it unless I see it. Well, if they could have fired me, they probably would have because that took time. That was twenty minutes to get up on the other side of the mountain to where it was rigged.
Sandy Gimpel:Anyway, they finally agreed because I wasn't gonna get on the rig. And I called you know, they called this guy down, and he went with me. Pulled up to the top of the mountain, and there is an I hook in the ground, huge I hook with the rappelling line attached and the motorcycle attached with the trip on the motorcycle so it'll fall. There's no backup ties on anything. So we had enough rappelling line that we were able to wrap it around a tree that was close enough.
Sandy Gimpel:The water truck that was up there would not let us hook up to him, And we back up tied the rappelling line. That's all we could do. And, went back down. They took the cherry picker, got me up a hundred feet in the air on the sidecar of the bikes. Knives are no rigging on me at all.
Sandy Gimpel:I'm just holding on to the bike. Stunt double gets on the rappelling line. They roll the cameras. He swings over, grabs me, and we're supposed to swing back like this. Right?
Sandy Gimpel:We swing back like that. And the bike drops and explodes. And it's interesting how time slows down when you're doing a stunt. And I remember, and never forget as long as I live, literally, how all I could think was, oh my god, the rappelling line got stuck in the tweeves and you know, you forgot that it was retied. And you're holding onto this, you're trying to hold onto the mountain and think, well, you'll just, you know, climb down 100 feet of mountain and there's shale that's coming off with your hands.
Sandy Gimpel:And this literally probably took seconds and it felt like minutes. Yelled down to the crew, get get us down And I remember looking at the crew, looking down, and they're standing there with their mouth open looking up. And Gary does some double yells, and they moved. Everybody started moving. I mean, like I said, it took seconds.
Sandy Gimpel:It felt like minutes. Got us down. Mhmm. I hope he came out of the ground. Now if we had not tied that backup, we would not be doing this interview today.
Sandy Gimpel:Right. So that's that's what makes things dangerous. That's literally what makes Right.
Cathy Worthington:Right. And also, all during that time, you were a single mom. So was it difficult to be in a business that
Sandy Gimpel:You know, never thought of that.
Cathy Worthington:And inspired you to work?
Sandy Gimpel:I was never really that afraid of things.
Cathy Worthington:You didn't? Those those long hours you were away from
Sandy Gimpel:her and back where you were working. Know? Scary Sister took care of her a lot. I had a girlfriend that was her husband was an assistant director, so he worked he did halt the hulk and things like that. So she and they lived very close, so she would be took care of her a lot too.
Sandy Gimpel:Even you know, I I was very blessed blessed as people, you know, close friends and family, you know, taking care of her. There's not much you can do about the hours. They're long and they're night, a lot of them are night shoots. Night shoots actually better because then she would, you know, be sleeping, but somebody had to pick her up from school and, you know, things like that. But it didn't matter really what you did in our business because when I did Corgiavetti's father, our script supervisor, her son was young and she would have to go pick him up from school every day because she didn't have anybody.
Sandy Gimpel:So I would hold script for her while she was gone for the hour to go get her son to bring him back. So we all kinda go through, you know, different phases of problems and you just figure out how to work them out. Yeah.
Cathy Worthington:You had such a strong community around you, it sounds like, and you've lived such a rich and exciting life. And what would you like our audience to have as a takeaway today? Do you have any special advice?
Sandy Gimpel:I gotta tell you. Dave, everybody says, what are you gonna do when you grow up? Well, first of all, I'm never gonna grow up. I don't wanna grow up. But if you don't stop, you know, I've just seen too many people retire and then sit on the couch and do don't do anything and they get old within a year.
Sandy Gimpel:It's just unbelievable to me what happens to them. I mean, if I'm not working, which you know, there's times in our business it's rough and you don't work all the time. I go to the gym four or five days a week and make sure I'm working out all the time because I've got to keep my body in good condition. And, you know, you drag yourself to the gym, but once you're there, you feel pretty darn good. You know.
Sandy Gimpel:And it keeps you vital, you know. It just if you don't stop, even if you have if you can't go to the gym and you go out and walk, you know, walk and walk and walk and keep your body moving, it's gonna keep you younger. And and I eat as healthy as I can. We all screw around and splurge, of course. Yeah.
Sandy Gimpel:But as a general rule, I mean, I eat pretty healthy vegetables and, you know, fish and chicken and salads and stuff like that. But I don't eat fast food. I don't drink Cokes and Diet Cokes or any of that stuff. I I haven't had any of that in years. It's just, you know
Merry Elkins:Keep moving.
Sandy Gimpel:Keep moving.
Cathy Worthington:Keep moving is the best Yeah.
Merry Elkins:It's great. Keep on keeping on. I love it, Dan. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Merry Elkins:You've got some really great advice for all of us out there at every age, really, not just people who are older. Our guest today on Late Boomers has been Sandy Gimpel, stunt lady for the stars, author, producer, stunt coordinator, and director. You can learn more about Sandy through her website, sandragimpel.com. And that's s a n d r a g I m p e l dot com. And you can meet her at her Star Trek tours throughout The United States.
Merry Elkins:There's so much more that I could ask you that I'm sure our audience would love to know. So hopefully you'll come back and do another podcast with us.
Sandy Gimpel:Thank you. Thank you so much.
Cathy Worthington:And tune in turning next week when we'll be meeting another exciting guest, Rhonda Britton, who will share some great tips. Please subscribe to our late bloomers podcast on YouTube and take us along in the car and on walks on your favorite audio platform. Let us know what gets you inspired. We're on Instagram at I am Kathy Worthington and at I am Mary Elkins and at late boomers. Please tell your friends all about us.
Cathy Worthington:Thanks again,
Sandy Gimpel:so much. I appreciate you having me.
Merry Elkins:Great.
Cathy Worthington:It was a pleasure.
Cathy Worthington:Thank you for joining us on late boomers, the podcast that is your guide to creating a third act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at late boomers dot biz. If you would to listen to or download other episodes of late boomers, go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.
Merry Elkins:This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
