George Leech (6 December 1921 – 17 June 2012) was a British film actor and stunt performer who was notable for his work on eleven James Bond films.

Biography

Leech was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and left school at 14. He was a boxer who won the ABA National Championships when he was 15 as a

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

and he joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

in 1943.

Film career

His first job in movies was performing a stunt involving falling down steps doubling for James Mason in ''

Odd Man Out ''Odd Man Out'' is a 1947 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, and starring James Mason, Robert Newton, Cyril Cusack, and Kathleen Ryan. Set in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it follows a wounded Nationalist leader who attempts to evade polic ...

'' (1947). He was notable for his contributions to James Bond films from 1962 to 1985 as a stunt performer and in small acting roles (usually as a henchman) including: '' Dr. No'' (1962), '' Goldfinger'' (1964), '' Thunderball'' (1965), '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' (1969), where he was promoted to stunt arranger when Bob Simmons was working on another film, '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), and ''

A View to a Kill ''A View to a Kill'' is a 1985 spy film and the fourteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and is the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted ...

'' (1985). He also worked on '' The Guns of Navarone, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,

Kelly's Heroes ''Kelly's Heroes'' is a 1970 World War II comedy-drama heist film, directed by Brian G. Hutton, about a motley crew of American GIs who go AWOL in order to rob a French bank, located behind German lines, of its stored Nazi gold bars. The film ...

, The Eagle Has Landed and Revenge of the Pink Panther''.

Personal life

He married in 1952. One of his two daughters Wendy Leech became one of the first female stunt performers and married the stuntman

Vic Armstrong Victor Monroe Armstrong (born 5 October 1946) is a British film director, stunt coordinator, second unit director, and stunt double—the world's most prolific, according to the '' Guinness Book of Records''. Career The Armstrong doubled for ...

. Leech died at age 90 in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

.George Leech Stuntman and actor obituary in The Independent
Retrieved 1 January 2014George Leech Obituary at Herald Scotland
Retrieved 1 January 2014

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leech, George English stunt performers 1921 births 2012 deaths Royal Navy personnel of World War II