Buddy Hart

Buddy Hart
Born	Nathaniel Hart California, USA
Occupation	Actor

Nathaniel "Buddy" Hart is an actor, best known for his child-actor role in the sitcom Leave It to Beaver, in which he played "Chester Anderson", a friend of Wally Cleaver. Now known as Buddy Joe Hooker, he is a stunt professional.

Career

Hart began as a child actor on the successful television series The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. His acting career continued in programs such as Gunsmoke, Father Knows Best and The Twilight Zone. Hart also starred in the family feature The Littlest Hobo, produced by his father, stunt performer Hugh Hooker. That role led to a part on Leave It To Beaver as Chester, one of Wally Cleaver’s best friends. He appeared in 12 episodes.

Hart pursued the stunt profession in Rock Hudson’s Tobruk and Shirley MacLaine’s Sweet Charity. Hart's reputation as the go-to coordinator for car chases grew with movies such as To Live and Die in L.A. and Jade. He has worked as a coordinator in all genres and on numerous classic films, including Harold and Maude, The Outsiders, Godfather III, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Meet Joe Black, and The 40 Year Old Virgin. He has worked with directors Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola. William Friedkin and Hal Ashby.

In the 1977 film about the stunt business, Hooper, Hart broke industry records with a rocket-powered car jump and many other stunts doubling Jan Michael Vincent’s character Ski. He was also the stunt double for Sylvester Stallone on the high fall through the trees off the cliff in First Blood.

His career continued with stunts such as the first motorcycle jump over a helicopter as it landed and, then, rolling a truck 17 times down a sand embankment in the 1971 action feature Clay Pigeon.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences inducted Hart into its membership during the first year it began a limited initiation of motion picture stunt coordinators.

External links

• Buddy Hart at IMDb