* * * Click photos below for larger images.
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The Early Years
Prior to
becoming a professional Stuntman, Rod Woodruff was first and foremost an
athlete. English Schools Finalist in the Steeplechase an cross country
specialist. Rod’s father had taken up the marathon late in life and at
the age of 46 achieved a personal best of 2 hours 32 minutes 32 seconds.
An excellent time today for any athlete; but in 1967 (and for a veteran
athlete) it was truly remarkable and ranked him on the world stage.
Don
Woodruff at Alport Heights Derby.
Inspired
very much by his father at the tender age of thirteen, Rod was averaging
some 45 miles a week running and ran 4 minutes 25 seconds for 1500 meters
around the age of 12. A proud entry in an Athletics Weekly magazine ranked
him second in the world for the under 13 age range with this time.
A Great
Britain Ranked Pole Vaulter and decathlete; he spent many years at Thames
Valley and Haringey Stadiums training alongside Daley Thompson and
Lindford Christie.
The
greatest all round athletes are the decathletes. Strength, stamina, speed
and specific skills; intensive training and total dedication and
commitment took Rod to 4m 80cm in training and 4m 50cm in competition.
Rod
training for and competing in the pole vault at Birmingham.
Life,
was a financial struggle as Rod had left Borough Road College (now Brunel
University) to teach PE and English, then quit this to write his first
novel.
In his
teaching practice years; one important teaching practice at Stowe Public
school laid a seed in Rod’s heart.
1981:
" I
remembered how nervous I was as I drove across the beautiful bridge over
the lake and along the line of trees; then suddenly the school loomed up
over to my right. Something frightening, exciting and potentially life
changing raced through my heart"
 "So
you went from teaching brats to teaching shits"
(A line from CLOCKWORK MICE)
Scene from CLOCKWORK MICE
" I
had been teaching children with speech defects, language learning problems
from a variety of disturbed, sexually and violently abused backgrounds,
with Mum sometimes on the game and Dad in the nick. Suddenly I was in a
different world". I remember being embarrassed about my car and I hid
it around one corner of the school as all the parents turned up in their
Rollers and Bentleys. I said to myself; just think; if I ever have a son;
whatever happens to me in my life, he just will never come to a place like
this"
Rod’s
father’s last words to his family from a hospital bed on a scrap of
paper were: 
Be kind to one another and never let a tender heart betray you
into an untruth. Be bold and aim high. In September of 2004 Blake Woodruff
won a place at Stowe Public School.
Blake
Woodruff.
Rod’s
closest connection to the world of film: His mother was an usherette and
his Uncle Brian a projectionist. As a child, the early Super 8 Films that
his Uncle made inspired a real life Cinema Pardiso and Super 8 footage
remains his favourite.
First Work
Opera and
Theatre
Rod’s
first ever job was a spear carrier at Saddlers Wells from which he won an
audition to work with the English National Opera. As juggler and actor in
The Barber Of Seville to a Squirrel in Cunning Little Vixen.
Getting made up for
'Cunning Little Vixen'. 
Rod - 2nd
squirrel stage left.
The
world of Opera fascinated and intrigued Rod; a world which he would return
to some 20 years later as his daughter, Montana doubled the leading lady
in the English/Russian tour of Tosca with the Kent National Opera Society.
" I
remember going into one rehearsal room at Saddlers Wells and thinking; Wow
they are some serious speakers. As I opened the door there was this little
Fat man singing….and no sign of even a microphone."
A
favourite haunt still today is the pub by the stage door at the English
National Opera where Rod saw many a singer getting drunk on Port and
rationalising that it was good for the throat.
The work
that had led to his Equity card came in the form of the great Johnny
Hutch: a world famous acrobat who Rod struck up a friendship with. It was
from this tour that Rod also began his friendship with the comedian Bobby
Davro.
Film
His
first break in the movie world came in the form of a trailer for the 1984
Olympics; shot the previous year in Athens. A big time movie from Colombia
Pictures starring Virginnia McKenna and Omar Sharif.
The film
makers were looking for athletes and came to Haringey track looking for
talent. With Rod’s all round athletic and acting background; he won the
audition.
" I
remember suddenly being on an ocean going liner, (on a day off the set)
sat with all the stars of the show eating this giant lobster, drinking
champagne and starting to laugh. My mate got embarrassed and asked me what
the hell was a matter".
"What’s
a matter, I replied. Look at us Cliff, we’re in the middle of the Aegean
Sea with English and Hollywood film stars on an ocean going liner that we
have chartered eating a lobster bigger than a pig….. yesterday I was in
a laundrette in Hounslow and had to take my clothes home wet because I
didn’t have 50p for the dryer.
The
movie changed everything. Looking down the film camera for the first time
reminded Rod of his first ever collide-scope.
"There
was a long lens on the camera and I couldn’t believe the picture.
Those
early pioneers of film must have had the very same feeling of excitement
and the potential that came to me now. What an art format and it moves and
it breathes. We can shoot and cut and paste and edit and add music. My God
the potential is limitless. What a wonderful art format. It can inspire.
It can change lives ……. I’m in".
Stuntman or Madman?
It was
on the movie "First Modern Olympics" when the early thoughts
about being a stuntman materialised in a rather unorthodox manner.
" I
had drunk a bottle of Oozo and mixed it with Metaxa Brandy, I think. I was
hanging out the window of our Five Star Hotel in Athens trying to line up
a drop into the swimming pool; when Jason Connery pulled me in and asked
me if I had ever thought about being a stuntman. Another very young actor;
now star of Miami Vice endorsed Jason’s observations".
Rod did
the specialist training and got onto the British stunt register. He was so
excited that he wanted to do his first action shot. He got a mate to take
pictures on the bank and another to race him away as both local authority
and police had refused the stunt.
"I
didn’t care, I just wanted the shot".
First
action stunt - Leaping from xxx bridge.
Things
went slightly wrong when a man thought Rod was committing suicide and
tried to stop him from jumping. The boat was in the wrong position and Rod
came very close to going straight through it as the picture reveals.
A
paramount attention to safety and designing risk assessments was not on
the agenda yet. Rod just wanted to have fun, to break every stunt that
anyone could do without any care or concern for the consequences.
"My
father had died and I was at an all time low. It was a dangerous time for
anyone to employ me, because, in truth there wasn’t a gag that I wouldn’t
just have a go at. Not exactly the right profession to begin a career in
when you are just a total loose cannon.
The
feeling went around the Stunt Coordinator’s: He’s not safe. He’s a
liability. He’s like Jacky Chan on acid. Subsequently, Rod went
unemployed for eighteen months; longer than any other stuntman in the
profession. He was disillusioned and angry at seeing talent less people
all around him and was close to packing the whole stupid idea in.
It was
then, that he met Alf Joint.
Alf Joint
Rod owes
his entire career to Alf Joint who was also the mentor to the now highly
acclaimed Vic Armstrong. On the early days of London’s Burning they
teamed up together to perform some of the most innovative and imaginative
action sequences.
As a
former Olympic diver, Alf recognised the ‘potential’ in Rod and the
legacy that was created between them and on that show with Producer Paul
Knight of action sequences is for others to look back on, to admire and to
learn from.
"Alf,
was like my Dad in many aspects; he too was a visionary. Breaking new
ground through action sequences and pushing and pressing the boundaries of
what was possible in action. Every day on set with Alf was magical.
It was
through Alf that Rod learnt that the camera was more powerful than the
stunt. The camera dictated and achieved the best action."
"Don’t
be like all the others he told me; think camera; then think stunts. Think
out the box all of the time; think laterally, think beyond everyone’s
thinking and always break new ground and if you don’t do that in
everything you do, then don’t call yourself a film maker".
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Waiting to go on a fire explosion down a corridor .Stunt Coordinator and
stuntman: relaxed and happy. |
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Sat between takes after a major fire stunt. |
"He
was my mentor and my friend in life. I miss him more than anyone will
every know."
Alf
Joint was intrinsic in designing the action sequences of the early
Superman Films, doubled both Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton on Eagles
and performed the original Milk Tray dive: 163 feet high; breaking his
back on the second take.
Rod
still visits his wife Daphanie at their home close to Elstree Studios and
they remain close friends.
Photos through the years
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The Bill: the first fire stunt. |
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Rod’s first fire stunt with Alf
Joint watching on. |
| To date
Rod Woodruff has performed over 200 fire stunts that have been some of the
most innovative and spectacular ever seen within action cinematography and
on live stunt shows. |
It’s a
strange transition of both photography and film. At first I used to take
so many Pictures and record everything I did. As the years go by you watch
it and don’t bother recording it. After a while your family shout you to
see something you did on a movie you did on the TV and you wonder in and
now; they don’t bother shouting because they know I probably wont come.
It’s all history; it’s all been done; it’s all been captured
already. I want to know what hasn’t been.
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