Gary Connery (born 18 June 1969)[1] is a Britishskydiver,BASE jumper, and professionalstuntman.[2] Connery has performed stunt-work in numerous films. He has also acted as the stunt-double forGary Oldman,Leonardo DiCaprio,Rowan Atkinson, andJohn Hurt.[2] He is acknowledged as the first skydiver to land after awingsuit jump without using aparachute.[1][2][3][4] He made his first parachute jump at age 23, as part of his army training.[2]
He was the stunt-double of theQueen during one of the parts of2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[5] He has performed 880 skydives and 450 BASE jumps.[6] He has jumped from locations such as theEiffel Tower,Nelson's Column, theLondon Eye, London'sTower Bridge, and from inside theMillennium Dome.[2][6]
He was jailed for 18 months in 2022 for causing grievous bodily harm to his girlfriend by pushing her down the stairs in their house.[7]
Connery jumped through the centre of the Eiffel Tower on a rainy day with winds gusting at 25 mph (40 km/h).[8]
On 9 May 2003 Connery jumped offNelson's Column atTrafalgar Square inCentral London in what was described as a "death-defying protest stunt" which was organised byAct For Tibet, in support of theDalai Lama.[9]
He climbed the 170 feet (52 m) monument without asafety harness and jumped from the top, landing using a parachute. At the end of the jump he was arrested along with three other protesters.[9][10] Connery admitted that the jump was "frightening".[10]
Connery was the first person to jump from Nelson's Column because up to that point the height of the monument was viewed as insufficient to allow for a successful jump.[11]
On 23 May 2012 Connery made hiswingsuit jump from a helicopter flying at a height of 2,400 feet (730 m) over Ridge Wood inBuckinghamshire near his hometown ofHenley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Coming back from California (Perris Valley) in 2003, where he did his firstwingsuit flight, he said: "that could be landed!" and he went for a week to do wingsuit flight training atEmpuriabrava on the coast of Spain, thelargest dropzone in Europe.[12] Before the final attempt, he had made two test flights landing with a parachute.[13] He had also trained for weeks in Italy and Switzerland in preparation for the jump.[14] He had to obtain permission from theCivil Aviation Authority for the dive.[15] The flight was filmed byMark Sutton.[15]
Three seconds into his record-setting flight,[16] his wingsuit inflated, itsairflowdynamics enabled controlled gliding, and his speed reached about 80 mph (130 km/h). At approximately 200 feet (61 m) over the landing strip, he changed the configuration of his wingsuit so as to decrease thegliding and vertical (falling) components of his velocity to 50 mph (80 km/h) and 15 mph (24 km/h) respectively.[17]
Just before the final approach, Connery briefly appeared to lose control but quickly recovered.[13] For added safety during landing, Connery wore aneck brace.[1][18]
Connery landed safely on a strip made of approximately 18,600 cardboard boxes.[19] The landing strip area was 350 feet (110 m) long by 45 feet (14 m) wide and its maximum height was 12 feet (3.7 m).[17] The landing strip included separate layers each featuring cardboard boxes with varying dimensions.[20]
It took Connery about thirty seconds to emerge from the cardboard boxes.[2] Connery mentioned that although on the way down he experienced turbulence, the landing was "soft and comfortable".[21]
The landing was attended by about a hundred spectators.[19] The landing rig, also known as thebox rig,[16] was constructed on the outskirts of Henley on Thames.[17]
Landing in a wingsuit without using a parachute had been one ofJeb Corliss's main objectives since 2010.[20] Corliss and other top-level wingsuit jumpers had tried for years to design wingsuits similar to the one which Connery helped design and subsequently used for his record-setting leap.[1][6][22]
In the beginning, Corliss thought that Connery's stunt was an April Fool's joke and that the stunt Connery was attempting was impossible.[20] Corliss added that Connery's landing was "one of the most amazing things" he had seen in his life and called it the "greatest stunt ever performed". He also added that "he bears no ill will toward the man who stole his dream" and that he goes by theSamurai code by giving respect to his opponent.[20] Corliss also expressed surprise that Connery chose to land head-first, risking a neck injury.[1]
The New York Times has compared Connery's jump to a superhero's.[1]Flying Magazine has called the jump a "history-making stunt" and mentioned that Connery had confidence he would succeed because of the "excellent control" he had over his suit. The commentary also added that the risk factors should not be underestimated.[23]
Connery's landing was studied as an extreme example of the effectiveness ofshock absorbing material.[18]Rhett Allain, associate professor ofPhysics atSoutheastern Louisiana University, has analysed Connery's flight inWired magazine's science blogDot Physics to determine the landing velocities which allowed Connery to remain uninjured.[24] Connery received a nomination for theEpic TVAdventurer of The Year Award.[5]
The plot of one of theskits during theopening ceremonies of the2012 London Olympics had the Queen go on a secret mission withJames Bond played byDaniel Craig. During the mission, the Queen was supposed to ride a helicopter with Bond and parachute at the stadium during the Olympic ceremonies. Connery acted as the Queen's stunt double. During the night of the opening ceremonies, the helicopter carrying Connery andMark Sutton, who acted as James Bond's double, was given permission to take-off at 8:50 p.m. local time and was then directed to the stadium where it assumed a position,hovering at a height of 800 feet (240 m).[5]
Connery, wearing a salmon dress similar to the one worn by the Queen during the Olympic ceremonies, along with a silver wig, jumped out of the helicopter as did Sutton. Connery then deployed the parachute at 500 feet (150 m) revealing aUnion Flagcanopy. Shortly after, the real Queen entered London's Olympic stadium to applause. Connery landed at a nearby bridge.[5]
Connery had trained for months for the stunt in the early morning hours to keep it secret.[25] In preparation for the stunt, he met withAngela Kelly, the Queen's dresser so that she could make a replica of the Queen's dress for him and the Queen made her favourite black handbag available to make the stunt look more realistic.[25]
Connery has performed stunts and appeared on television and films such asDie Another Day,The Beach,Batman Begins, andIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.[16]
Connery was married to Vivienne, a café owner in Henley-on-Thames, and they have one child.[2][16]
In July 2022, Connery was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to his then girlfriend Tanya Brass.[26] He had pushed her down the stairs in their home in Satwell, Oxfordshire in October 2020 after an argument about who should turn off the light. She suffered a shattered shoulder and a cut to her head. He was jailed for 18 months in August 2022 for the attack. The sentencing judge said of him: "It is abundantly clear ... that you show absolutely no remorse for what happened and you do not seem to accept any fault."[27][28]
It's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life," Corliss said. "Because of movies, people don't really understand what they witnessed. It's monumental for a human to land at those speeds. It took an enormous amount of courage.
In May, the British stuntman Gary Connery became the first wingsuiter to land without a parachute; normally, the jumper deploys a small chute in the last moments of the descent.
Eiffel Extravaganza Gary Connery is the man (pictured right) jumping through the center of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The weather that day was terrible with 25 mph (40 kmh) winds, rain, and sleet being blown through the tower. The Big Jump ...
A British stuntman became the world's first skydiver to land without a parachute on Wednesday, falling 731 metres (2,400 feet) to drop safely onto a crash-pad of cardboard boxes
During the flight, father-of-two Mr Connery dropped for three seconds before his suit "started to fly".
An extreme example of the effectiveness of impact energy absorbers was provided on May 23, 2012, when Gary Connery landed a wingsuit into a runway of some 18,500 cardboard boxes at Mill End Farm in the United Kingdom, without deploying a parachute, unharmed.
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by none | Highest jump without a parachute (0.730 km) May 23, 2012 – July 30, 2016 | Succeeded by |