Top 96 Quotes & Sayings by Hal Needham
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American director Hal Needham.
Last updated on April 18, 2025.
I was always pushing the limits, going as far as I could. I would do all kinds of crazy things.
I hope to be remembered for mentoring the future generation of stuntmen and fighting for the rights and respect that stuntmen and stuntwomen deserve for their contribution to the world of moviemaking.
The song 'Eastbound and Down' by Jerry Reed is, of course, a personal favorite.
While prepping 'Smokey,' I saw a picture in a magazine of a Pontiac Trans Am that gave me a product placement idea. I could picture Burt Reynolds behind the wheel with Jackie Gleason on the chase. I called Pontiac and asked if they would like to have the car in the movie.
Here's the thing that I think really pushed me, was my versatility. Because when I came in to the movie business, all the stunt men were specialists. If you did horse work, that's all you did. If you did cars and motorcycles, you did that. But when I came in, I taught myself how to do everything.
I'm the one that brought airbags into the stunt world.
Is there fear? No, there isn't. Now, I've made mistakes. I've broken 56 bones in my body, and each one was a mistake. But when we do stunts, there's just no room for fear.
The $25,000 stunt was a demonstration of the automobile air bag system for an Allstate Insurance television commercial. I drove a car into a concrete obstacle at 25 m.p.h.
Coaching a football player is the same as directing an actor. The guy has to follow orders and be able to perform skillfully.
When people say Evel's a stuntmen I want to throw up. He's nothing but a daredevil idiot. The only reason he's famous is because he wrecks his motorcycle every time he rides.
I've done stunts when I was hurting so bad I couldn't hardly breathe and yet I would go ahead and do it.
I loved acting and wanted to be a leading man. But I decided I'd rather be a big fish in the stuntman pond than a little acting fish. I guess I must have made the right decision.
As far as I know, there is only one other director who was a stuntman - guy named Chuck Bail who directed 'Gumball Rally.' Doing stunts isn't exactly a common path to directing.
I love horses, and when the SPCA tells me off I get real mad because I know more about horses than they do. They say you can't rear a horse up backwards, but I do it so they fall into foam rubber and don't get hurt at all.
I went to an acting class for 3 years. But then I figured out that, since there were already 26,000 actors in SAG (Screen Actors Guild), I could make a better living as a stunt man.
I've broken fifty-six bones, broke my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth.
Some stuntmen become actors, but Hollywood is a caste-oriented society. Most of the time you just don't have the opportunity to get out of your field if you're a grip, an electrician, stuntman, set designer, director or actor.
Guys like O.J. Simpson and Tony Dorsett can take the ball and run through the line, but I defy them to follow me over a 70-foot cliff or let a horse drag them a few hundred feet. Nobody can beat a stunt man for overall athletic ability.
My ego would be fed tremendously when I'd go on a set and get in a car and tear it to pieces. I'd get out and everyone on the set would applaud.
I was the highest-paid stuntman in the world.
There's no more fun. All that digital stuff - we used to do that crap for real! I hate that stuff. Young kids who play video games seem to like it, but I don't.
I have a country-boy sense of humor. I come from a poor family, and I have no education. But I am Middle America, and what makes me laugh is what makes them laugh.
Anyone who thinks stuntmen are crazy is dead wrong. These guys are calculating. They rig things, they think about different ways of doing it... they're not afraid.
I don't cry unless it's personal.
A man can abuse his body a lot more than a woman can. And that's a fact.
My first job was as a treetopper, and I was so damn good at it they called me 'Squirrel.' And then I joined the military and became a paratrooper. And later on in life I raced motorcycles and cars.
I can go back and fall on my head any time.
When I came in, Westerns were the big thing, so I did horse falls, transfers, bulldogs, big fights. That's where you could really shine if you were really good at it. But then all the Westerns stopped, and I was capable of doing car stunts, motorcycle stunts and high falls. I could do it all.
I know one thing; I'll never win an Academy Award.
Hell, if I didn't do stunts, I'd have had to be a bartender, or something else that didn't pay well.
The first movie I worked was called 'The Spirit of St. Louis.' It was the story of Charles Lindberg's life.
I don't think I've had a better friend than Burt Reynolds. I could ask him for almost anything, and he would have said O.K.
The worst was practicing a stunt for John Wayne in 'McQ.' I lost two teeth, broke six ribs, cracked a vertebra and punctured a lung. I spent 12 days in the hospital.
Stuntmen bring a lot to the film industry, especially in action films, but if you start trying to give an Oscar for a stuntman, say he doubled a star, I think that takes away from the star's value.
I was doing stunts for money, not for fame.
I didn't want to limit my income so I decided to master all aspects of stunting.
I thought, 'Wow. Look at all of the money I made. I think I will change jobs.' And that's how I decided to be a stuntman instead of a tree-topper.
It was bad for a stuntman to have a reputation for being hurt, and worse yet to report it.
No, Hal Needham without Burt Reynolds has not done well. 'Megaforce' went right in the toilet.
It's true I don't play by the rules all the time.
The night before we began shooting 'Hooper,' I threw a $7,000 bash for the whole crew. I told them, 'Get as drunk as you want tonight, because for the next month and a half you're going to be working your tails off.' And it worked.
Trying to get it together with me as a director was impossible. No one wanted to work with me.
Of course when you toss a stick of dynamite at a cartoon character, he can come back to life again in the next frame. Getting the same effect with actors is going to be a lot tougher.
There's no such thing as a great stunt if there's no danger involved.
I'm too old and too rich to do any more stunts.
When 'Smokey' was released and became a blockbuster, Trans Am sales went through the roof. If you wanted a black Trans Am, you had to wait a minimum of six months. By the time we were ready to shoot 'Smokey II,' I was on a first-name basis with Pontiac.
After the success of 'Smokey,' my profit participation only went up on future movies I directed.
I've got more money than I know what to do with.
I don't even consider directing Burt. I just say, 'Hey, Burt, the camera's here. Read the joke and let's get onto the next shot.'
I never saw a movie until I was 10.
Out of a year, a half-dozen stunts are pretty tough. The rest are kinda routine. To go out and slide cars around and lay a motorcycle down hell, you do that without even thinking. But on the tough things, you put an awful lot of planning into it.
They started saying stuff like 'Should we cut the movie? Is it too this, too that?' It got drastic. It got heated. I said, 'Wait a minute, folks. I didn't make 'Smokey' for big-city audiences. I made it for the South, the Midwest and Northwest. Those are my people.'
The critics gave me bad reviews on every movie I made.
I'm not a big fan of CGI. When I look at it, I go: 'Wait a minute. That's not possible.' And I think other people see the same thing. The movies I worked on, we did stunts for real. And I think it shows.
If you read books forever and ever, they will never replace what really counts - that's practical experience.
I worked every day. I never turned down a stunt.
You work a lot when you're hurt when you're a good stuntman, because you're going to be hurt quite a bit. And you can't let a sore leg or a bruise or something stop you, so you just take a Percodan and go to work.
All stunt men and women are as competitive as I am. They're just not as talented.
I worked as a stuntman on the 'Star Trek' TV series pilot.
Can I tell you what I really believe is the reason everybody wants to work with us? I believe they sign on because they're almost assured that it's going to be a very commercial film. A Burt Reynolds film is a guarantee of exposure... And also, we have a lot of fun.
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