Bud Ekins

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Bud Ekins
Born May 11, 1930
Hollywood, California
Died October 6, 2007
Los Angeles, California

Bud Ekins (May 11, 1930 – October 6, 2007) was one of the foremost stuntmen of his generation. Born in Hollywood, California, he is known to most as the actor who jumped the fence in The Great Escape, and who drove the Ford Mustang 390 GT in Bullitt. He also co-ordinated the stunts for the popular 1970s motorcycle cop show CHiPs.

Ekins regularly contributed to documentaries and biographies on Steve McQueen with some authority, given their close friendship until the actor's death in 1980.

For years, movie fans believed the big barbed-wire fence jump at the finale of The Great Escape to be McQueen, although this is Ekins, with McQueen undertaking the rest of the bike work himself, the film's producers too nervous to allow him to make the iconic jump in person.

Five years later, McQueen was annoyed at being given a late call to the Bullitt set one day, to find Ekins with his hair sprayed blond performing the most dangerous stunts around the streets of San Francisco, causing him to shout "you did it to me again!" referring to the scene-stealing from The Great Escape.

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[edit] Honors and competition success

Ekins Won 4 Gold Medals and a Silver at the International Six Day Trials during the 1960s.

He rode a 650cc Triumph TR6 Trophy as did Steve McQueen in the USA International Six Day Trials team for 1964 held in East Germany. The team also including his brother Dave Ekins who rode a 500cc Triumph T100 Tiger.

He received a gold medal at the 1962 International Six Days Trials, and was part of the US ISDT team of 1964 with John Steen, Cliff Coleman, Dave Ekins, and Steve McQueen. In 1965, McQueen was replaced by Ed Kretz, Jr.

Other race success includes winning the Big Bear Endurance Run three times, the Catalina Grand Prix, and winning the Southern California's District Number One Plate seven times.

In addition to motorcycle racing, Ekins was active in Off-Road truck racing. He participated in most of the early off-road racing events including the Mint 400 and Stardust 7-11 in Las Vegas. He notably raced Vic Hickey's prototype "Baja Bug" in the first Baja 500 in 1973.

He was a member of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Offroad Hall of Fame.

[edit] Filmography and television stunt work

[edit] Subsequent career

Previously a Triumph Motorcycles dealer, Ekins occasionally restored old British motorbikes for movie stars. He cited becoming a Honda dealer as the one thing he would change from his past.

Throughout the 1990s Ekins was on screen in movies and TV as a character actor, and can be seen in films such as Pacific Heights, Mac and Me, The Karate Kid series, The Specialist (1994), and Vegas Vacation (1997).

[edit] External links