Frank Beddor
Frank Beddor (July 31, 1958) is an American former world champion freestyle skier, film producer, actor, stuntman, and author. He worked as a producer on "There's Something About Mary" and "Wicked", and wrote the book "The Looking Glass Wars". Life and career. Beddor grew up in Excelsior in Minnesota. His parents often traveled and by age 12 Beddor already knew how to barefoot-ski. After winning nationals Beddor was invited to join the Olympic ski team. He went on tour in Europe for competitive skiing. Beddor was World Champion freestyler skier in 1981 and 1982. He seemed  to be following in his father’s footsteps, as his father had also been a well-known skier and had set a world record by skiing the length of Mississippi river. In 1985 Beddor played John Cusack's skiing stunt double in "Better Off Dead". Beddor moved to Los Angeles during this period and studied with acting coach Stella Adler. Part of Adler's method was encouraging her students to write the scene the character is in before stepping onstage. Beddor became began to try producing. His worked as a producer on the 1998 film "There's Something About Mary  starring Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller. Beddor then turned to writing, spending five years writing The Looking Glass Wars". The book was rejected by every major publisher in the US, and ultimately published by Egmont Books in the UK. "The Looking Glass Wars" became popular and was on "The New York Times" week list in 2006. The books are a re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice in Wonderland". The premise of the novels is that the character of Alice in "Alice in Wonderland" is real, as is the world of Wonderland, but that Carroll rewrote the events and  made Wonderland seem childlike and did not reflect the reality of Wonderland. Beddor has written two more books in The Looking Glass Wars series, "Seeing Redd" and "ArchEnemy". A spin-off comic book called "Hatter Madigan", was written by Beddor and Liz Cavalier, with artwork by Ben Templesmith. The spin-off focuses on Hatter Madigan, a character in "The Looking Glass Wars". Beddor was involved in the development of two video games, Card Soldiers Wars in 2008, a free MMORG and The Looking Glass Wars Card Game in 2009.