Russian stuntman hopes to stay in N.Z.

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33857, 31 May 1975, Page 16

Russian stuntman hopes to stay in N.Z.

Falling from galloping horses, breaking bricks with his head, and diving into cardboard boxes from 90ft to 120 ft in the air are all part of a day’s work for a young Russian visiting New Zealand.

Jerry Popov is a stuntman, born in Kiev, and for the last 12 years has exposed himself to all kinds of risks in a career which must surely have one of the earliest retirement ages.

His body still carries the scars of two of his most recent escapades. An ugly gash on his left arm stems from an accident he had with a motor-cycle, in which he was severely burnt, and a bandage round his wrist covers an artery cut in another car accident — ah suffered in the line of duty.

Mr Popov’s repertoire includes sticking pins into his body, taming wild horses, and driving a car (at 65 to 75 m.p.h.) into a pile of old cars. This latter is one he says has not been challenged in the last four or so years. Mr Popov says he drives the car into an open furniture van, smashes through its roof, and hurtles 90ft to 100 ft through the air, landing upon a pile of derelict cars.

He would like the chance to do this in New Zealand, and would also like to demonstrate his “taming” act. “In one week, I can break in a horse and have it lying down, kneeling, and putting its front hoofs on my shoulders,” he says. HEALTHY LIVING

How does Mr Popov do it all? Good healthy living, he says. “I don’t drink, I don’t over-smoke, and I live a healthy life.” Mr Popov says he started doing stuntwork in 1965, and trained in the back of filmproduction lots all over Europe. He has worked in Germany. France, England, Canada, and Yugoslavia. Two well-known films he has worked on have been “The

Longest Ship,” with Richard Widmark and Sydney Poitier, and “Black Forest,” with Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo. His speciality? "Anything you can possibly think I could do — high falls, fights, horses, cars, or bikes.” Mr Popov is in his own way something of a philanthropist. One of his greatest desires is to help handicapped children. He is willing to jump from the top of the Christchurch Cathedral into a pile of cardboard' boxes if it will help some of these children, either by entertaining them or providing money for them. “I love children,” he said. “I left my little sister in Russia. She has always had difficulties with her health. I have never had the chance to be with her, and this is .why I do this.” TV ADDITIONS Mr Popov, who has been I in New Zealand four ! months, hopes to remain (here. He wants to marry a I Christchurch girl, of whom jhe is obviously proud — he; ibeams at the ipention of her.' !' He has auditioned for parts in TVI and TV2 productions. 1 'and has written a script in-; solving road safety, which makes use of stuntmen who demonstrate fatal accidents.' and which he hopes one of! the networks will be able to' , use. Mr Popov has also started: a stunt-training school which! he holds on a beach at week-. ends. Here, he will teach the, .basic skills of his profession.: