- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlbert Paul Mantz
- American aviator who became the most renowned stunt flyer in movies of
the mid-twentieth century. The son of a school principal, he grew up
Redwood City, California and developed a fascination with flying as a
boy. He joined the Air Corps as a cadet and was a brilliant student
pilot, but he was discharged after buzzing a train full of high-level
officers. After a brief period of commercial flying, Mantz took up the
more lucrative career of stunt flying for the film industry. He quickly
proved himself willing and capable of tackling stunts considered by
other pilots to be too dangerous. He formed United Air Services, Ltd.,
providing planes and pilots for aerial stunts and photography for all
the studios. He also formed a flying school and racing partnership with
Amelia Earhart and was technical adviser on her ill- fated
round-the-world flight. During the Second World War, Mantz served as
commanding officer of the Army Air Corps' First Motion Picture Unit,
delivering hundreds of training films and documentaries on the air war.
He developed a number of camera and aeronautical innovations to improve
aerial photography, and continued as a stunt flyer, a director of
aerial photography, and a supplier of aircraft and pilots for the
movies for two decades after the war. In 1965, he came out of
retirement to fly a plane for The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and was killed in a crash.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- SpousesTerry Mac Minor(August 19, 1937 - July 8, 1965) (his death, 1 child)Myrtle L. Harvey(May 2, 1932 - July 27, 1936) (divorced)
- In 1946, Mantz purchased 475 surplus bombers and fighters for $55,000, anticipating a postwar boom in war movies. He converted one of these, a B-25 bomber he christened "The Smasher", into a state of the art flying camera platform that he would use for the next 20 years.
- Pallbearers at his funeral included his friend James Stewart, General James Doolittle, director John Ford, and test pilot Chuck Yeager.
- According to Bob Fish of the Associated Airtanker Pilots, Danville California: Mantz installed a rubber bladder in the bomb bay of his WWII TBM Avenger and filled it with water. Thus becoming the first to demonstrate the incredible value of aerial technology in wildfire suppression.
- He was the technical adviser to Amelia Earhart on her first around-the-world flight attempt, but was dismissed before her second, fatal attempt. Earhart was name co-respondent in Mantz's 1936 divorce.
- First pilot to perform the stunt of flying an airplane through an open hangar in Air Mail (1932).
- I'm not a stunt pilot. I'm a precision pilot.
- Twelve O'Clock High (1950) - $4,500
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