RIP Terry Richards

One of the UK's top stunt men, Terry Richards, who starred in more than 100 films including Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark has died aged 81.

He was known to hundreds of millions of people the world over as the black clad swordsman felled by Indiana Jones.

 

David Terence Richards - known to all as Terry - was born in south London on November 2, 1932.

He went on to serve with the Welsh Guards, and after leaving the regiment, was working in London as a scaffolder. One of his friends, also an ex-guard, said a film crew needed extras with military training, so Terry gave it a go.

 

After a few successful engagements, he was then asked if he would fall off the scaffold for a riot scene. The stunt paid a few extra pounds – and that was the beginning of his career.

 

Terry Richards joined the film industry proper in 1957, as an extra then soon as a stunt man, working with Kirk Douglas in The Vikings (1958).

 

The Stunt Register, an industry list of accredited performers, was created in 1960 and Terry was one of its founding members.

 

Terry appeared as Sanchez in an episode entitles Kidnapped of the Euro-western TV series The New Adventures of Zorro in 1990.