Stuntman, director, racer, and wiley son of a bitch Hal Needham is dead. Needham passed away on October 26th at the age of 82 years old. While that may not be a record breaking number, it is fair to say that Needham lived the lives of several men in those 82 years. As a depression era kid, a member of the 82nd Airborne division, a farm worker, a stunt man, a racer who chased the world land speed record, and the director of 19 Hollywood films, we’re pretty shocked that no one has made a film of his life yet! Gearheads have to be eternally grateful for what Needham did for car movies. The man made some of the most iconic in the genre. Smokey and the Bandit are at the top of the list, the Cannonball Run movies are there as well. Roll your eyes if you want, but the Cannonball Run movies were huge financial successes and their ensemble casts include some of the biggest legends in the modern history of Hollywood.

Needham’s career as a stunt man is overlooked by many for the more esteemed work of writing and directing films but that is folly. During his time, Needham was the highest paid stunt man in the world and he appeared in more than 4,500 television show episodes, 310 feature films, all the while developing stuff like the giant air bags used to catch stunt people during high falls, the cannon launch car flip, and a host of other things. More importantly, he forced Hollywood to look at stunt people completely different than they had before. No longer were these just people filled with courage willing to do really dangerous stuff. Instead, they became integral parts of productions, helping to plan stunts, and organize their execution. Needham was really on the vanguard of this.

Away from the screen, Needham was a dude in love with the racing world. He was a forward thinking NASCAR team owner that brought Skoal into the sport and created the whole “Skoal Bandit” promotion to capitalize on the Smokey and the Bandit phenomenon that the world was in love with. He had Harry Gant as a driver and during the early 1980s the team was a force, nearly winning the championship in 1984. One of the things that Needham led the way on was data acquisition and telemetry. After running the Budweiser rocket car for an attempt on the world’s land speed record and using real time telemetry, Needham decided to employ it on his stock car. With permission from Bill France, it was installed in the car for the Talladega race. Every other team in the pits had a fit because they were getting real time updates in the pits from the car on exactly what was going on. It was the only time France allowed it. As expected, Needham owned a raft of fast and cool cars over the years. None were faster than the Budweiser rocket car.

The Bud Rocket was a three wheeled rocket car that looked very much like the famed “Blue Flame” that set the world’s land speed record in the 1970s. This car was built by SMI with power coming from a liquid and solid fuel rocket that was supplemented by a booster from a Sidewinder missile. When the team discovered that the car would not carry a sustained speed long enough to set a new land speed record, they decided to try and break the sound barrier at Edwards Air Force base. No one has ever certified the claimed speed of 739mph. The Air Force issued a written certification of the speed, but the FIA and other racing organizations never saw fit to sign off for a multitude of reasons. Either way, the car absolutely hauled ass. Whether it was 739mph worth or not is anyone’s guess. We just know it was damned fast and Needham was the guy who pulled it all together and got Buidweiser to pay the bill. Genius level stuff.

So Hall Needham, BangShift nation would like to doff our caps in your memory. You were a true Hollywood bad ass that didn’t spare words, had one hell of an ego (that he earned the right to have) and broke about as many bones as Knievel during his career. Here’s to hoping the sun is out and a Pontiac Firebird is flying through the air wherever he is now.