Gary Kent, the stuntman who inspired Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’, has died aged 89
The director and stuntman Gary Kent, who inspired the making of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, has died aged 89.
Gary’s son, Chris Kent, reported that the stuntman died on Thursday, May 25th, in Austin, Texas. Interviewing Kent when he was penning the script for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Tarantino was inspired by the creator and used him as inspiration for Brad Pitt’s character Cliff Booth, who was an eccentric stunt double for Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton in the movie.
Kent moved to Hollywood in 1959 where he would work for a host of iconic filmmakers, including Monte Hellman, Don Jones, Peter Bogdanovich, and Brian De Palma. The actor worked as a stunt double for Jack Nicholson in the films Hells Angels on Wheels and Psych-Out.
Booth was one of the finest characters in Tarantino’s 2019 masterpiece, with Pitt playing the character alongside other actors, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino and Kurt Russell.
Analysing the character in our rundown of the greatest Quentin Tarantino characters of all time, we said: “Mysterious and completely fascinating, Booth encapsulates both Tarantino’s aptitude for writing deeply intriguing, complex characters, as well as for unabashed badasses, taking the plot into his own hands for the film’s thrilling climax”.
Take a look at a tribute from Alamo Drafthouse below.
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