David Richard Ellis

David Richard Ellis was a former stuntman and stunt actor who turned into stunt coordinator and director. He served as stunt double for Laurence Luckinbill in . His costume was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. 
Ellis was born in Hollywood, California. He is the brother of stuntwoman Annie Ellis and the father of producer Tawny Ellis. In 2004 he was nominated for a Taurus World Stunt Award for best stunt coordination in The Matrix Reloaded and shared this nomination with R.A. Rondell and Glenn Boswell.
Ellis started his career as an actor in several Disney films in the '70s, including The Strongest Man in the World (1975, with William Schallert and James Gregory). With a background as an experienced surfer, he also started a career as a stuntman and performed in films such as Deathsport (1978, with Richard Lynch and William Smithers), (1980), (1981), in which he doubled actor Tommy Chong, (1982), (1982, with Bob Minor, Tony Brubaker, and Tom Lupo), (1985, with Dean Stockwell), (1987), (1987, with Mitchell Ryan and Lycia Naff), (1989, with Terry O'Quinn, Noble Willingham, and Meg Foster), (1989, with Anthony De Longis and Patricia Tallman), (1990), and (1993, with Zach Galligan).
Beside his stunt performances in films and television series, he also contributed his knowledge as stunt coordinator and was responsible for the action in films, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978, with Leonard Nimoy), (1982, with William Shatner), (1984, with Richard Herd and Andrew Prine) and its sequel V (1984-1985, with Judson Scott), (1987, with Whoopi Goldberg), (1987), Tennessee Nights (1989, with Denise Crosby and Ed Lauter), several episodes of Baywatch (1989-1991, alongside Greg Barnett, and with Branscombe Richmond and Tracee Lee Cocco), (1990, with Graham Jarvis), (1991, with Carel Struycken and Christopher Lloyd), (1992, with Christian Slater), (1993, and (1993, starring Whoopi Goldberg), and The Jungle Book (1994).
Not far away from the position of the stunt coordinator, Ellis also served as second unit director on several productions. Among them are the television film Condor (1986, with Ray Wise and Carolyn Seymour), several episodes of Baywatch (1989-1991), (1991, with Michael Ensign and Brian Thompson), Forever Young (1992, with Nicolas Surovy and Eric Pierpoint), Blank Check (1994, starring Brian Bonsall), (1995), (1998), (1999), (2000, featuring Jeri Ryan), (2000), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), (2003, with Anthony Zerbe), and (2003).
Ellis directed (1996), (2003, with Tony Todd), (2004, with Lenore Kasdorf and stunt coordination by Freddie Hice), (2006), (2007), and (2009, with music by Brian Tyler).
Ellis died on 7 January 2013 while working on the remake of the action film Kinte in Johannesburg, South Africa. No cause of death is known. 
== External links ==
* 
* 
es:David R. Ellis
Category:Stunt performers
Category:Film performers