Did Steve McQueen jump the fence in The Great Escape?

Asked by: Jessica Gonzalez

The enigmatic Mr McQueen took centre stage in the film’s infamous motorcycle chase and jump scene, which is considered one of the greatest movie stunts ever performed. However, in an unearthed interview the Hollywood icon revealed that he did not perform the 60-foot jump.

Who jumped the fence in The Great Escape?

Ekins is best known as the actor who jumped the fence on a motorcycle in the 1963 film The Great Escape, and one of the stuntmen who drove the Ford Mustang 390 GT in the car chase scene in the 1968 film Bullitt.

Did Steve McQueen jump the fence?

Article content. In one of the most widely known secrets in Hollywood, we all know that Steve McQueen didn’t actually jump the fence in The Great Escape. His buddy, mentor and bike builder, Bud Ekins, did – mainly because the studio was worried Steve might hurt himself. Obviously, they hadn’t gone dirt riding with him.

Who did Steve McQueen’s big motorcycle jump stunt in The Great Escape?

Bud Ekins

Bud Ekins, a pioneering champion off-road motorcyclist and a veteran stuntman who doubled for Steve McQueen on the famous motorcycle jump in “The Great Escape,” has died. He was 77.

Why did Steve McQueen walk off the set of The Great Escape?

However, Mr Garner claimed that Mr McQueen caused no end of problems on set and even walked out after taking a dislike to the way he looked in the film’s early shoots.

How much of the film The Great Escape is true?

The film is accurate in showing that only three escapees made home runs, although the people who made them differed from those in the film. The escape of Danny and Willie in the film is based on two Norwegians who escaped by boat to Sweden, Per Bergsland and Jens Müller.

Did Steve McQueen do his own stunts?

As in all of his movies, McQueen is doing his own stunts. “You can’t trick it no more when you do a job, right?” he commented. BESIDES the rigors of the job there is the added matter of working for Henry Hathaway, a director with a reputation for toughness. “Difficulties I don’t mind,” McQueen went on.

Are any actors still alive from The Great Escape?

John Leyton is the only actor still alive of the three men who made good The Great Escape – Birmingham Live.

How much is The Great Escape bike worth?

Experts say that although the Triumph is not the most expensive of McQueen’s bikes to come to auction it is the most iconic. It is expected to fetch $60,000 – around £40,000 – when it is sold on behalf of late American collector Larry Bowman in an auction of classic bikes by Bonhams.

Was The Great Escape based on a true event?

It was a dog-eared, paperback copy of Paul Brickhill’s The Great Escape — the epic true story of the mass breakout by allied airmen from Stalag Luft III, a German prisoner of war camp in World War II.

Did Steve McQueen do his own motorcycle riding in The Great Escape?

Bud Ekins prepared and choreographed the bulk of the chase, and McQueen did most of his own riding. McQueen was a better driver than many of the stuntmen playing Germans, so he put on an SS uniform for some of these scenes and chased himself. As Hilts, he rode a 1962 650cc Triumph TR6R.

Was Harrison Ford an extra in The Great Escape?

Sir John Mills turned down the role of Roger Bartlett. An urban legend persists that Harrison Ford turns up in this movie as an uncredited non-speaking extra, four years before his first credited appearance in a movie or on television.

How many POWS escaped in The Great Escape?

One night in late March 1944, 76 Allied airmen escaped through a tunnel from their prisoner of war camp deep in occupied Poland.

How long did it take to dig the tunnel in The Great Escape?

three months

For three months three prisoners, Lieutenant Michael Codner, Flight Lieutenant Eric Williams and Flight Lieutenant Oliver Philpot, in shifts of one or two diggers at a time, dug over 30 m (100 ft) of tunnel, using bowls as shovels and metal rods to poke through the surface of the ground to create air holes.

What happened to the survivors of The Great Escape?

Sadly, only one British survivor of the Great Escape team is still alive. Ken Rees, who will be 90 next week, was one of the tunnellers who helped burrow an escape route out of the camp – and was also in the elite party of 76 selected for the escape after being recaptured.