Terry James Leonard (born 1941) is an American stuntman, second unit director, film director, and stunt coordinator. He is most well known for his work as stunt coordinator and second unit director, including several collaborations with John Milius, Andrew Davis, and Robert Zemeckis.

Life and career

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Leonard is a frequent collaborator of John Milius, serving as second unit director on the Milius-directed Big Wednesday, Conan the Barbarian, and Flight of the Intruder, as well as Used Cars, which Milius served as executive producer.

Leonard served as second unit director on the 1993 Andrew Davis film The Futigive, for which he staged the train crash sequence with Davis. According to an interview he did with Los Angeles Times in 2015, Leonard said "Andy Davis turned me loose. You are under a lot of pressure on making it go right. You use everything in your playbook that you have learned before to try and outsmart the gremlins."[1]

In 1987, Leonard made his directorial debut with Death Before Dishonor, which is so far the only film he has directed.

Other films he has directed second unit on include Rush Hour, Romancing The Stone, The Expendables, Maverick, Tombstone, Cowboys & Aliens, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

Filmography

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Second unit director/Stunts

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Year Title Stunts Second unit director Director
1978 Big Wednesday Yes Yes John Milius
1979 Apocalypse Now Yes No Francis Ford Coppola
1980 Used Cars Yes Yes Robert Zemeckis
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark Yes No Steven Spielberg
1982 Conan the Barbarian Yes Yes John Milius
1983 Blue Thunder Yes Yes John Badham
1984 Romancing the Stone Yes Yes Robert Zemeckis
1989 The Package Yes Yes Andrew Davis
1990 Downtown Yes Yes Richard Benjamin
1991 Flight of the Intruder Yes Yes John Milius
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze No Yes Michael Pressman
Delirious Yes Yes Tom Mankiewicz
Backdraft Yes No Ron Howard
Showdown in Little Tokyo Yes Yes Mark L. Lester
1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer Yes Yes Fran Rubel Kuzui
Far and Away Yes No Ron Howard
1993 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III No Additional Stuart Beattie
The Fugitive Yes Yes Andrew Davis
Tombstone Yes Yes George P. Cosmatos
1994 Maverick No Yes Richard Donner
1995 The Quick and The Dead Yes Yes Sam Raimi
Die Hard With a Vengeance Yes Yes John McTiernan
Money Train No Yes Joseph Ruben
1996 Eraser No Yes Chuck Russell
1998 Rush Hour Yes Yes Brett Ratner
The Horse Whisperer No Yes Robert Redford
Mighty Joe Young Yes Yes Ron Underwood
1999 Wild Wild West Yes Yes Barry Sonnenfeld
2001 Planet of the Apes Yes No Tim Burton
American Outlaws No Yes Les Mayfield
Impostor Yes No Gary Fleder
Joy Ride Yes Yes John Dahl
2002 The Sum Of All Fears Yes No Phil Alden Robinson
2003 2 Fast 2 Furious Yes Yes John Singleton
Agent Cody Banks No Yes Harald Zwart
2004 The Forgotten Yes Yes Joseph Ruben
2006 The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Yes Yes Justin Lin
Date Movie Yes Yes Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Yes No Jake Kasdan
2008 Soul Men Yes No Malcolm D. Lee
2009 Fast and Furious Yes Yes Justin Lin
2010 The Expendables Yes Yes Sylvester Stallone
Inception Yes No Christopher Nolan
Due Date Yes No Todd Phillips
2011 Cowboys & Aliens No Yes Jon Favreau
The Green Hornet Yes No Michel Gondry
Bad Teacher Yes No Jake Kasdan
2012 Django Unchained Yes No Quentin Tarantino
2013 Gangster Squad Yes Yes Ruben Fleischer
2014 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Yes No Marc Webb
2015 Furious 7 Yes No James Wan
Hot Pursuit Yes No Anne Fletcher
2016 Jason Bourne Yes No Paul Greengrass
2017 CHiPs Yes No Dax Shepard
2020 The Call of the Wild Yes No Chris Sanders
2023 Outlaw Johnny Black Yes No Michael Jai White

Director

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Year Title Notes
1987 Death Before Dishonor Directorial debut[2]

References

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  1. ^ King, Susan (May 16, 2015). "Classic Hollywood: Stuntman Terry Leonard's career grew by leaps and bounds in Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-09-29.
  2. ^ "Death Before Dishonor". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2024-09-29.