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Bronco McLoughlin obituary


Bronco McLoughlin, who has died aged 80, was the stunt performer seen in one of the most powerful cinematic opening sequences of the past half century. He played the Jesuit priest strapped to a giant crucifix who careers over a waterfall to his death at the start of The Mission (1986), the director Roland Joffé’s epic about 18th-century Spanish Jesuits protecting a South American tribe from Portuguese colonialists seeking slaves.

McLoughlin floated along the rapids until he disappeared over the top of Iguazú Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina – by which time a lifelike dummy made by Madame Tussauds had replaced him on the cross. The breathtaking scene – featured on publicity posters – was heightened by Chris Menges’s Oscar-winning photography.

Bronco McLoughlin and Harrison Ford, right



Bronco McLoughlin and Harrison Ford, right

A decade earlier, in another remote location – in Scotland – McLoughlin doubled for Edward Woodward’s puritanical Christian police officer being burned alive in the giant wicker structure for the final scene of the 1973 cult classic The Wicker Man. He was attached by wire to a cherry picker, which pulled him clear when the flames became too intense.

The opening sequence of The Mission

Other highlights in a career spanning almost 50 years included coaching Harrison Ford in how to flick his character’s black bullwhip in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – as well as doubling for Ford in close-up shots of it – and playing the customs officer who catches an exploding head thrown by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall (1990).

The youngest of 11 children, Bronco was born Anthony McLoughlin in Curragh, Co Kildare, to Margaret (nee Molloy) and James McLoughlin, an army officer. His childhood dream was to be a cowboy and, on leaving Rockwell college, County Tipperary, at 16, he moved to Australia, where he found a job on a cattle station in Queensland.

The Wicker Man (1973). Bronco McLoughlin doubled for Edward Woodward’s puritanical Christian police officer being burned alive in the giant wicker structure for the final scene.



The Wicker Man (1973). Bronco McLoughlin doubled for Edward Woodward’s puritanical Christian police officer being burned alive in the giant wicker structure for the final scene. Photograph: Allstar/British Lion Film Corporation/StudioCanal

He learned to break horses and herd cattle, and competed on the rodeo circuit, particularly enjoying saddle bronc competitions where he had to hang on to a bucking horse for 10 seconds. This stood him in good stead – and brought him the nickname Bronco – on his return to Ireland in 1967 after 12 years away. The Hammer Films adventure The Viking Queen (1967) was being shot in Co Wicklow and he landed a job as an extra because of his horse-riding skills.

He followed it with stunts in other films made in Ireland, including the sci-fi comedy Jules Verne’s Rocket to the Moon (1967), the historical drama The Lion in Winter (1968), starring Peter O’Toole as Henry II and Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine, and the romance Ryan’s Daughter (1970), directed by David Lean.

McLoughlin was soon in demand outside his home country, performing stunts and taking small acting parts in box-office hits such as Star Wars (1977, later retitled Episode IV – A New Hope), as a stormtrooper, Superman (1978), Krull (1983), the James Bond films A View to a Kill (1985) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), Willow (1988), Rambo III (1988), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and Troy (2004).

In the horror film Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), McLoughlin stepped in to play the heavily made-up Cenobite reincarnation of Channard, the psychotic psychiatrist, after Kenneth Cranham injured his neck. Later, in Gangs of New York (2002), he was the foiled assassin pulling a revolver from his top hat at a theatre and aiming it at Daniel Day-Lewis’s character, Bill “The Butcher” Cutting.

Bronco McLoughlin, right, with Sylvester Stallone during the making of Rambo III



Bronco McLoughlin, right, with Sylvester Stallone during the making of Rambo III

His rare TV work included The Last Place on Earth (1985), as stunts manager, when he spent several months in the Arctic circle looking after eight horses and 100 dogs.

For the sitcom Father Ted (1995-98), as stunt performer and coordinator, he played a naked holidaymaker clinging on to the Irish priest’s car as he drove off at speed and supervised memorable scenes in which Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn) fell out of a window and Father Jack (Frank Kelly) tumbled down a staircase.

Last year the British Stunt Register presented him with its lifetime achievement award.

In 1969, McLoughlin married Angela Wade; she died in 2003. He is survived by their twin daughters, Fiona and Frances, and by his second wife, Karen Bennett, whom he married in 2013.

Bronco McLoughlin (Anthony Gerard McLoughlin), stunt performer and actor, born 10 August 1938; died 26 March 2019



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