Today, March 24, 2023, Kitty Linn O’Neil would have turned 77 years old. And because it is, there is already the second Google Doodle with a movie reference in three days – March 22 was the 100th birthday of pantomime and actor Marcel Marceau. Stuntwoman and racer Kitty O’Neil was born in 1946 and passed away in 2018 at the age of 72.
O’Neil was known as “the fastest woman in the world”. and set numerous speed records in her lifetime. However, since she was also active in film and television, there is also a world record that is particularly interesting for and as a film and series site. After losing her hearing as a baby and later having to give up her career as an Olympic swimmer, she turned to world speed records – and a career as a stuntwoman.
For example, she acted as a stunt double for leading lady Lindsay Wagner in The Seven Million Dollar Woman, dangled from a sixth-floor window for an episode of Baretta, was set on fire and starred in films such as The Blues Brothers and The Smart crook is back on the road’ loads of car stunts.
Most famous, however, is her stunt for the “miracle Womanseries starring Lynda Carter. For a 1979 double episode, she jumped off the 115-foot roof of a Los Angeles hotel on a cushion of air on the floor. “If I hadn’t hit the center of the pillow, I probably would have died,” she explained Washington Post almost casually at the time.
In passing, she broke her own record a short time later: from a height of 180 feet (the equivalent of nearly 55 meters), she jumped out of a helicopter onto a cushion of air.
You can stream all three seasons of the “Wonder Woman” series (including Kitty O’Neil’s stunt) on VoD providers like Amazon Prime Video, but unfortunately the 60 episodes that first aired between 1975 and 1979 are currently not available for subscription. Incidentally, there was also a reunion with Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter in “Wonder Woman 1984” with Gal Gadot (see title photo above).