Harvey Parry

Harvey Parry (April 23, 1900 – September 18, 1985) was an American stuntman and actor whose career spanned the silent era and the disaster movie genre of the 1970s.

Born on April 23, 1900, in San Francisco, California, Parry had been an Association of American Universities boxing and diving champion, and had a spell in a circus as an acrobat.

His first film job was as a property man at the studios, before realising that his skills made him ideally suited to perform stunts, an increasingly in-demand feature of early cinema.

In a long career of more than 60 years, Parry doubled for stars including Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, George Raft and even Mary Pickford, as his 5'6" frame made him ideally suited to substitute for women.

[2] Harvey Parry was one of the interviewees for the award-winning Thames Television series Hollywood, in which he spoke at length about how many of the stunts were achieved, often with minimal safety precautions and low pay.