'Mad Max' Legend Dies in Car Accident: Grant Page Was 85

In addition to 'Mad Max,' Page also performed stunts in 'The Man From Hong Kong,' 'Mad Dog Morgan' and many more.

By Allison Schonter

Grant Page, the Australian stuntman best known for his work in the Mad Max films, has died. Page passed away on Thursday, March 14 when the car he was driving near his home in Kendall, New South Wales hit a tree, his son, Leroy Page, told Daily Mail Australia. Page was 85. Leroy said his father died "very happy," sharing that Page "died in very high spirits and he was very motivated."

Born in Adelaide in 1939, Page spent years training with the Australian Commandos, a special forces unit, after graduating from the University of Adelaide. According to The Hollywood Reporter, during his time with the Commandos, Page developed skills like rappelling and parachuting, which he would later use in the movies. He went on to launch his career in the mid-1970s, entering filmmaking after teaming with director Brian Trenchard-Smith. The pair worked together on The Stuntmen (1973), Kung Fu Killers (1974), and The Man From Hong Kong (1973), in which he doubled for James Bond actor George Lazenby. The latter film highlighted the "daredevil sport" of hang-gliding, with one scene showing Page flying over Hong Kong.

In Mad Dog Morgan (1976), Page jumped off an 80-foot cliff while on fire, a stunt he became known for. He was also well-known for a trick known as the "transfer," in which he would climb out the window of one car into another car traveling side by side at high speed.

Page, however, was perhaps best known for his work within the Mad Max franchise. The stuntman collaborated with director George Miller, first performing and serving as stunt coordinator on the 1979 action classic Mad Max. In the film, Page, who broke his leg on a motorbike early in filming, notably crashed a car through a caravan. He returned to the franchise for its 1985 second sequel Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which also starred Tina Turner, and also worked on the upcoming prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

"Grant Page was Australia's pioneer stunt performer and my friend for fifty-two years. I will miss him terribly. He was an inspiring man, who lived uncompromisingly," Trenchard-Smith wrote Thursday in a blog post. "Most people accept that age weighs upon us, gravity holds us down, death awaits us if we dare too much. Not necessarily, said Grant, as he successfully tampered with the laws of physics and probability."

Page's other credits include the 1978 mockumentary Stunt Rock, the 2008 documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Untold Story of Ozploitation!, and Dangerfreaks, among others. He is survived by his four sons, Gulliver and Leroy, who are also performers, and Adrian and Jeremy.

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