Bob Yerkes dead aged 92: Star Wars and Back to the Future stuntman has died after glittering 42-year career
STAR WARS and Back to the Future stuntman Bob Yerkes has passed away at the age of 92.
Yerkes died on Tuesday in Northridge, Los Angeles, according to an announcement by Darlene Ava Williams, a fellow stunt performer and former mentee.
Beginning his career in the circus, Yerkes was a skilled trapeze aerialist and tightrope walker.
His notable film stunts included sliding down a clock tower cable for Back to the Future and performing a helicopter-to-roof fall in the 1975 film Breakout.
In a 2017 interview, Bob Yerkes recalled a memorable moment from his career, saying “I was getting ready for the stunt, and the guy said, ‘Break a leg!’ — and I broke them both.”
He also remembered breaking his legs while working on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Her Alibi (1989), though those were the only significant injuries during his eight-decade career.
Yerkes performed as Boba Fett in a pickup shot for Return of the Jedi (1983), filmed in his backyard, where he also taught circus and stunt skills to students, including Brooke Shields and Todd Bridges.
Despite being 5-foot-10 and weighing 170 pounds, Yerkes was frequently called on to double for larger actors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), where he performed a balloon-swinging stunt, and Eli Wallach in Tough Guys (1986), for a scene in which Wallach’s character is thrown off a train.
Brayton Walter Yerkes was born on February 11, 1932, in Los Angeles County.
He began performing acrobatics at Muscle Beach at the age of 11. Following his parents’ divorce, Yerkes left home at 15 to join the DeWayne Bros. Circus and later appeared in the 1948 films Julia Misbehaves and The Three Musketeers.
As he honed his skills, particularly on the teeterboard, Yerkes worked for the Clyde Beatty Circus and performed across venues from Las Vegas to the Catskills.
After serving in the Korean War, he began his stunt career in films like The Silver Chalice (1954), Trapeze (1956), and The Big Circus (1959), where he doubled for actor David Nelson.
He also toured with The Flying Artons as a trapeze catcher and worked with Ringling Bros.
In 1985 alone, Yerkes performed stunts in at least six films, including Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and Back to the Future, with his scenes in the latter reused for the sequels.
He also trained actors like Brooke Shields, Todd Bridges, and Willie Aames for the Circus of the Stars specials, which aired from 1977 to 1994, and worked with athletes on the competition series American Gladiators (1989-1996).
Yerkes’ backyard served as a training ground, equipped with rigs for high falls, mats for flips, and a springboard powered by compressed air. He is credited with inventing the airbag used in stunts.
Stunt performer Darlene Ava Williams praised him for his generosity, noting that his backyard offered free training and even a place to stay for those in need.
A member of the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures since 1973, Yerkes was a Hall of Fame inductee and received a lifetime achievement award from the World Acrobatic Society.
In February, he traveled to Florida to be inducted into the Circus Ring of Fame, stating, “The circus was always my first love… I did a lot of movies and stunt work, too, but the circus was what I really enjoyed.”
Yerkes’ résumé included Airport (1970), Earthquake (1974), The Towering Inferno (1974), Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975), 1941 (1979), Poltergeist (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Big Top Pee-wee (1988), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), Hook (1991), The Sandlot (1993), Batman Forever (1995), Magnolia (1999), Poseidon (2006), Water for Elephants (2011) and Killing Hasselhoff (2017), his final credit.