One of Hollywood’s favourite fall guys. As well as his A-Team work, Tony Brubaker is known for Planet of the Apes (2001), Escape from New York (1981) and Predator (1987)
Mr. T may have become one of the defining figures of the decade thanks to the eighties supershow The A-Team, but how many know that, throughout the height of his fame, he had a body-double who also happened to be one of the most decorated stunt men in all of Hollywood?
Enter Tony Brubaker, one of the first African-American “fall guys”, and – now aged 77 – happily retired in Texas but also enthusiastic about sharing his memories of the series to Infinity. And while you may not know Brubaker by name, you almost certainly have familiarity with some of the celebrities that he has taken a beating on behalf of – from Eddie Murphy in 48 Hours (1982) and Carl Weathers in Predator (1987) to Jim Brown in The Running Man (1987) and Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters II (1989). In addition, Brubaker would make something approaching pop culture stardom in his own right when he appeared as the fake B. A. Baracus in the fan-favourite season three episode of The A-Team “Showdown” …
“Ah right, you know that was a pleasure,” laughs Brubaker. “I still get recognised from that episode. I guess because it was one of the most popular ones and back then everybody was watching that show...”
Brubaker, however, got his start in cinema back in the heady days of the blaxploitation era. As well as being awarded with the stunt co-ordinator role (and portraying the “Head Zombie”) for the classic voodoo-thriller Sugar Hill (1974), he would work on the likes of the genre-defining Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), its sequel Come Back Charleston Blue (1972) and Fred Williamson’s iconic western The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973), also playing small oncamera roles in each…
“Well, there were not a lot of African-American stuntmen around when I was starting off,” reflects Brubaker. “But I began just before the blaxploitation films. I actually answered an advertisement in a newspaper. Someone was making a television series that required an African-American to be on a horse. It was a case of ‘right place and right time’ because I was raised with horses. The show was called The Outcasts and I was doubling for the actor Otis Young. It was a fun thing to work on and that was a great deal of fun – I also learned how to do a fight and take some hits. That was my first big break. And the day before I did the job on it, I had no idea what a stunt person even was [laughs].
“But to go back to your original point, during the blaxploitation boom there was a lot of stuff being shot, which was good for every African-American hoping to be in the business. It worked and it got us to where we are today, and that was the period that got us all started – and it was all uphill from there.”