George Willig

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George Willig (aka "the human fly" or "the spiderman") is a mountain-climber from Queens, New York, United States, who climbed the South Tower (2 WTC) of the World Trade Center on 26 May 1977. At the time, it was the third tallest building in the world (behind 1 WTC and the Sears Tower). It took him 3.5 hours to scale the tower. New York City Mayor Abraham Beame fined him $1.10, one cent for each of the skyscraper's 110 stories.

The stunt paved the way for appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Good Morning America, The Merv Griffin Show, and ABC's Wide World of Sports. He also got jobs as a stuntman on The Six Million Dollar Man, Trauma Center, and Hollywood Beat.

Beginning in 1977, Marvel Comics published 19 issues of a comic book titled The Human Fly which featured the fictional adventures of a costumed stuntman allegedly based on another stuntman, Rick Rojatt.

In 1979, he published a book called Going It Alone (ISBN 0-385-14726-0).

During the 1990s, Willig lived in the San Fernando Valley of California, working as a remodeler of commercial buildings.

After the 9/11 attacks that destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center, Mr. Willig publicly said he regretted climbing the towers, as his actions may have brought them to the attention of terrorists. But he later told CNN that that was just an initial, emotional reaction and that he was still glad to have climbed the towers. [1]