Ronnie Rondell Jr., a longtime Hollywood stuntman who was famously set on fire for a Pink Floyd album cover art, has died at 88.
His family announced the news, saying that he died Tuesday at a senior living facility in Osage Beach, Missouri. No cause of death was provided.
Rondell spent decades performing stunts in films like “How the West Was Won” (1962), “Lethal Weapon” (1987), and “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003), according to Billboard. To music fans, he’s mostly remembered for the iconic image of him set ablaze on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1975 album “Wish You Were Here.”
The image, taken on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, California, captured Rondell partially engulfed in flames while shaking hands with fellow stuntman Danny Rogers, both clad in business suits.
Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell created the shot, which proved challenging to capture, taking around 15 attempts because of wind and other obstacles. At one point, the flames singed off part of Rondell’s eyebrow and mustache.
“We repeated the process 14 times, took the shot, and then on the 15th a gust of wind blew up and wrapped the fire around his face and burnt him,” Powell told The Guardian in 2020. “He threw himself to the ground and his whole team piled on blankets to put him out.”
Powell added that they knew they had “a special picture.”
“It took a long time to persuade Ronnie to stand exactly as I wanted, but in the end he was very brave and it was a perfect composition.”
Rondell’s career in film and TV included many other stunts in “Diamonds Are Forever,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Speed,” and “The Crow.” He also served as a stunt coordinator on popular Aaron Spelling TV shows, including “Charlie’s Angels,” “Fantasy Island,” and “Dynasty.”
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