Jeannie Epper, who was a stunt double for Lynda Carter in the original “Wonder Woman” TV series and performed stunts in many movies and TV shows, died Sunday evening at her home in Simi Valley, Calif. She was 83.
Born in 1941, Epper went on to perform stunts on over 150 feature films like “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “The Princess Diaries,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 2,” “Flight” and many more.
She was featured in Amanda Micheli’s 2004 documentary film about stuntwomen, “Double Dare.” The movie followed Epper and fellow stuntwoman Zoë Bell over several years of their stunt work.
Epper was a founding member of the Stuntwomen’s Association of Motion Pictures in 1968, became president of the association of 1999 and remained an honorary member. She also received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 from the Taurus World Stunt Awards and was the first woman to be selected for the honor.
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In a 2007 Entertainment Weekly article about Epper and her family of stunt performers, she was regarded as “the greatest stuntwoman who ever lived.”
Both of her parents were professional stunt performers. Her father, John Epper, was a member of the Swiss Cavalry and also a stuntman. He got his start in westerns, which is where Jeannie Epper got her first job at age nine and continued to become one of the first professional child stunt doubles. Her brothers, Gary and Tony Epper, both served as stuntmen as well.
Jeannie Epper continued the family business of stunt performance, as all three of her children, Eurlyne, Richard and Kurtis, served as stuntpeople.