Frank Maher

Francis James Maher, stunt performer and co-ordinator, actor and writer: born London 18 June 1929; four times married (one son, one daughter); died Newport, Isle of Wight 13 July 2007.
As a stunt performer and co-ordinator in swashbuckling feature films and 1960s television adventure series, Frank Maher made his career out of being other people - notably "doubling" for Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster in the cinema and Patrick McGoohan and Roger Moore on the small screen.
In The Crimson Pirate (1952), starring Lancaster in the title role, Maher was seen sliding down a sail and had to endure subsequently reading a newspaper article in which the star laid a £10,000 bet that he did all his own stunts.
His television association with Patrick McGoohan began during the early episodes of Danger Man (1960-67), when he fell down stairs and did other stunts, before getting the job as the actor's double and the programme's stunt co-ordinator. "I was actually a fantastic double for Pat - pure luck, luck of birth, but we were the same height and build," said Maher. "I could interchange his shoes, his hat, everything."
Then, he did the same job for The Prisoner (1967-68), McGoohan's classic, cult series with allegorical stories making a statement about the freedom of the individual. In the opening sequence, it is Maher seen on a beach, running towards the camera. During the series, he had to learn fencing and hang from a helicopter and, when he told the star how much he wanted to write, McGoohan, as executive producer, encouraged him. The result was the Western-style episode "Living in Harmony".
McGoohan's great television rival at the time was Roger Moore and, when Maher worked on The Saint (1962-69), replacing Les Crawford as his double, the star referred to him as "Mrs Maher" because of his meticulous planning of action sequences.
But one of Maher's favourite scenes was with Honor Blackman in the fantasy espionage series The Avengers (1961-69), shot live as the last scene of an episode. "The final punch on the show was from Honor to me to go backwards over a table," he recalled.
Unfortunately, it connected right there [the nose] and blood went everywhere. I literally did go backwards and finished up lying across a table with my head upside down and blood pouring out. There was the camera, a fantastic shot, but I didn't appreciate it very much! She was off camera then because it had panned down on to me. They said, "Cut!" and she flew over and I got the biggest cuddle. How about that? It was worth the blood!
Born in 1929, in Dulwich, south London, the son of Wembley Stadium's head chef, Maher was a gold medal-winning boxer at school, then lied about his age to join the Army's Parachute Regiment at 15 and take part in the Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War. He and a friend were wounded and, on leaving hospital, they were window shopping in Piccadilly Circus when they were spotted by a talent scout who asked if they were interested in entering the film business. They landed walk-on roles as Roman centurions, complete with swords, helmets and skirts, in the £1.2m spectacle Caesar and Cleopatra (starring Claude Rains and Vivien Leigh, 1945). The pair were promised that, if they suffered any cuts, they would be paid £1 for each one, with the result that Maher was earning £11 a day.
This experience and his athleticism and good looks marked out a career as an actor and stunt performer for Maher after another period in the Army. Many of his film roles were as an extra, described by him as a "crowd artist". He had uncredited appearances in Ivanhoe (1952), the South Seas romance Saturday Island (1952), The Devil's Disciple (with Burt Lancaster, 1959) and The Master of Ballantrae (with Errol Flynn, 1953).
His move into television came with The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-59), one of ITV's early adventure series, based on the folk legend, filmed at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey, and starring Richard Greene in the title role. The programme was made by technicians who had a background in the film industry, so it was natural that some of those who had worked with them would be given a chance in the burgeoning new medium. All the fight sequences were carefully planned and written down before they were shot and the close-in, one-on-one sword fights were recreated, with weapons copied from those of the time preserved in museums.
Maher subsequently acted and did stunt work in programmes such as Man in a Suitcase (1968), The Champions (1969), Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (1969), The Persuaders! (with Roger Moore again, 1971) and Space 1999 (1976), before working as stunt co-ordinator on the first two series (1978-79) of the science-fiction serial Blakes 7, created by Terry Nation, who invented the Daleks in Doctor Who. Maher also did some work on the cult heist film The Italian Job (starring Michael Caine, 1969) after a stunt company was fired during shooting.
As he wound down his television and film work, he co-wrote three novels, as Frank J. Maher, with Denis J. Cleary, the thrillers The Capricorn Run (1978, published in 1980 as The Hook), Sahara Strike (1981) and Wipe-out! (1981). Uncredited, he also wrote action sequences for blockbuster films such as Die Hard (starring Bruce Willis, 1988) and in later years he was a frequent guest at Prisoner and Blakes 7 fan conventions.
Maher married and divorced four times, his first marriage being to the actress Dilys Laye.