Last Saturday the man responsible for the most famous motorcycle stunt in movie history died. Bud Ekins was an off-road racer turned Hollywood stuntman who doubled for Steve McQueen in the climactic motorcycle jump in “The Great Escape.”
Ekins was a legend and will be missed. But he’ll never be forgotten — I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels that the first 2 1/2 hours of “The Great Escape” is just an elaborate prologue to a movie about a guy trying to jump a motorcycle into Switzerland.
Bud Ekins was 77.