Bud Ekins (b. May 11, 1930, Hollywood, California) is one of the foremost stuntmen of his generation. He is known to most as the actor who jumped the fence in The Great Escape, and who drove the Ford Mustang 390 GT in Bullitt. He also co-ordinated the stunts for the popular 1970's motorcycle cop show CHiPs. May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... The Great Escape, written by James Clavell and W.R. Burnett and directed by John Sturges is a popular 1963 World War II film, based on a true story about Allied prisoners of war with a record for escaping from prisoner-of-war camps. ... Bullitt is a 1968 Warner Bros. ... CHiPs was a US television series through MGM Studios running on NBC from September 15, 1977 to July 17, 1983. ...

Ekins regularly contributes to documentaries and biographies on Steve McQueen with some authority, given their close friendship until the actor's death in 1980. Steve McQueen in The Great Escape Steve McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was an American movie actor, nicknamed The King of Cool. He was considered one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s due to a captivating on-screen persona. ...

For years, movie fans believed the big barbed-wire fence jump at the finale of The Great Escape to be McQueen, although this is Ekins, with McQueen undertaking the rest of the bike work himself, the film's producers too nervous to allow him to make the iconic jump in person.

Five years later, McQueen was annoyed at being given a late call to the Bullitt set one day, to find Ekins with his hair sprayed blond performing the most dangerous stunts around the streets of San Francisco, causing him to shout "you did it to me again!" referring to the scene-stealing from The Great Escape.

Honors and competition success

Ekins Won 4 Gold Medals and a Silver at the International Six Day Trials during the 1960's.

He rode a 650cc Triumph TR6 Trophy as did Steve McQueen in the USA International Six Day Trials team for 1964 held in East Germany. The team also including his brother Dave Ekins who rode a 500cc Triumph T100 Tiger. A slightly customized 1967 Triumph Tr6C 650 twin Triumph Motorcycles is a famous manufacturer of motorcycles based in Hinckley in England. ... GDR redirects here. ...

He received a gold medal at the 1962 International Six Days Trials, and was part of the US ISDT team of 1964 with John Steen, Cliff Coleman, Dave Ekins, and Steve McQueen. In 1965, McQueen was replaced by Ed Kretz, Jr.

Other race success includes winning the Big Bear Endurance Run three times, the Catalina Grand Prix, and winning the Southern California's District Number One Plate seven times.

In the early 1960's he founded the Baja 1000 off-road motorcycle race and recorded several record runs.

He was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999. The Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum is located just off I-70 in the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Pickerington, OH. The Motorcycle Hall of Fame recognizes those who have made significant contributions to all aspects of motorcycling, including those who have excelled in motorcycle business, history, design and engineering, in...

Selected filmography and television stunt work

• The Ransom of Red Chief (1998)
• Extreme Justice (1993)
• Black Moon Rising (1986)
• City Heat (1984)
• Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again (1982)
• Megaforce (1982)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• 1941 (1979)
• Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider (1979)
• Movie Movie (1978)
• Animal House (1978)
• Return from Witch Mountain (1978)
• Sorcerer (1977)
• Scorchy (1976)
• Dixie Dynamite (1976)
• Death Scream (1975)
• Race with the Devil (1975)
• The Front Page (1974)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Earthquake (1974) (stunts)
• Electra Glide in Blue (1973)
• The Thing with Two Heads (1972)
• Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
• Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)
• Flap (1970)
• Bullitt (1968)
• Speedway (1968)
• The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
• The Great Escape (1963)

Black Moon prototype as seen in Black Moon Rising, 1986 Black Moon Rising, (1986) is an action film directed by Harley Cokliss, written by John Carpenter and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton and Robert Vaughn. ... City Heat is the title of a 1984 action-comedy starring Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. ... For the cracking and demo group, see Megaforce (group). ... The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical/comedy film, directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, The Blues Brothers, and their supporting band. ... 1941 is a movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starred John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. ... The Deltas in front of their house Movie poster of Animal House National Lampoons Animal House (also called Animal House) is a 1978 comedy film in which a misfit group of Delta fraternity boys takes on the system at their college. ... Return from Witch Mountain released in (1978) is the sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain (1975). ... Sorcerer is a 1977 film produced and directed by William Friedkin, starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou. ... Race with the Devil is a 1975 occult thriller. ... The Towering Inferno is a 1974 disaster movie directed by John Guillermin adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. ... Earthquake is the title of a blockbuster 1974 film that was among several successful so-called disaster films of the 1970s that places an all-star cast in life and death situations. ... Electra Glide in Blue is a 1973 film starring Robert Blake as a motorcycle cop in Arizona. ... DVD cover. ... A 2002 Penguin Books paperback edition Diamonds Are Forever, published in 1956, is the fourth James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming. ... Speedway is a 1968 action film starring Elvis Presley as a racecar driver. ... The Cincinnati Kid is a 1965 movie directed by Norman Jewison. ...

Subsequent career

Previously a Triumph Motorcycles dealer, Ekins now occasionally restores old British motorbikes for movie stars. He cites becoming a Honda dealer as the one thing he would change from his past. Honda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Throughout the 1990's Ekins was on screen in movies and TV as a character actor, and can be seen in films such as Pacific Heights, Mac and Me, The Karate Kid series, The Specialist (1994), and Vegas Vacation (1997). Pacific Heights is a 1990 thriller film starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, and Michael Keaton. ... Mac and Me was a 1988 movie based largely on the success of E.T. (1982). ... The Karate Kid is a 1984 John G. Avildsen film starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. ... The Specialist was a 1994 drama, action film from Warner Brothers Pictures. ... Vegas Vacation is part of the National Lampoon series centering around the Griswold family. ...

External links

Bud Ekins at the Internet Movie Database The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, video games and production crew personnel. ...