Nick Gillard

Nick Gillard is an English stunt man and coordinator. He is best known as the technical lightsaber choreographer and stunt coordinator of the Star Wars prequels.

Nick Gillard
Born
Brighton, England, United Kingdom
OccupationStunt coordinator
Fight choreographer
Years active1979 – present

Biography

Gillard was born in Brighton, England. At the age of twelve, he ran away from military school to join the circus where he performed as bareback horse rider. Over the next few years Gillard worked with several circus's including Circus Althoff in Germany and Los Muchachos Circus in Spain. Gillard was invited to do stunts on The Thief of Baghdad. He enjoyed it, and later left the circus to perform stunt work in films, including the original Star Wars.[1][2] Gillard was Mark Hamill's first choice as his stunt double for Return of the Jedi.

As a stunt man, Gillard held the world record for longest fire stunt, with a fire burn without air for over two minutes on Alien 3.[3] He also performed a 200-foot power boat jump over two bridges in the film Amsterdamned, and was set on fire over 100 times.[1]

Among Gillard's movie credits are Sleepy Hollow, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He had a cameo appearance in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith[4] and a minor role the accompanying video game as Cin Drallig ("Nic Gillard" spelled backwards)[5]

Filmography

As stunt coordinator, arranger or performer

Film

Television

As actor

Film

Television
  • 1979: Premiere – Angel
  • 1982: The Jim Davidson Show
  • 1985: Mr. Palfrey of Westminster – Alec Thompson
  • 1989: Ticket to Ride – Brother Paul
  • 1989: Streetwise – Heavy
  • 1990: EastEnders – Restaurant Manager
  • 1990: TECX – Luke/Luc
  • 1991: Bottom
  • 1994: Minder – Queen

As director
  • 2017 The Order

References
  1. "Star Wars: Bio – Nick Gillard". Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on 8 August 2003. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  2. "Star Wars: Den of Geek goes Jedi training with Nick Gillard". Den of Geek. 12 September 2011. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  3. Guinness Book of Records
  4. "Interview with stunt co-ordinator Nick Gillard (Mr. Optimism)- March 2004". Desiring Hayden.net. March 2004. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  5. "Creating the Lightsaber Battles in ROTS Game". TheForce.Net. 4 May 2005. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
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