In 1985 Marneen Lynne Fields was coined “Hollywood’s Original Fall Girl” and awarded a Fall Girl license plate from famous stunt coordinator J.P. Bill Catching and the Stuntman’s Association. Then, in 2018 she won the Legendary Stunt Woman of the Year from the International Action of Film Festival’s Legendary Stunt Awards in Las Vegas, a lifetime achievement award for my contributions in over 100 films and primetime TV shows as a stunt woman, a stunt actress, and an actress.
You were a child prodigy. Share your backstory.
I was a sickly child born with emphysema and an enlarged heart who wasn’t expected to live to be five years old. I wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with other children because of coughing/choking fits so my mom gave me tons of books to look at and taught me to read. By age nine I had grown into my heart and was an avid reader and student. You could always find me with study books testing myself way beyond my years. I was offered the chance to skip both 2nd and 4th grade, but my dad wouldn’t let me because I would then be ahead of my one-year older brother Bobby. Somehow, in the second grade, I got tested for math skills and they realized that I understood advanced algebra. I got picked up as somewhat of a child prodigy in math and placed in algebra classes with high school age young adults each morning before elementary school. While on my way walking to the high school all I cared to do was climb across the monkey bar rings before making my way to the very serious algebra classes. As a composer today and other pursuits my knowledge and understanding of math has been beneficial to me.
Share a few of your challenges. How did you become Hollywood’s Stunt Woman?
In 1973 I graduated from Royal High School in Simi Valley with honors as one of three women in the United States to receive an athletic scholarship in gymnastics to Utah State University because of my ability to perform some moves on floor exercise and balance beam made famous by Olympic Gold Medalist Olga Korbut. I was the #1, class one, advanced all-around, most valuable gymnast for Utah State from 1973-1976. I was ranked third in the entire state, 3rd on floor exercise, and 5th on the balance beam in intercollegiate national competition. I’d like to also mention that in 1972 I won Most Talented Cheerleader at the Southern California Cheerleader Camp in Santa Barbara, CA. beating out thousands of other teenage cheerleaders. I was already a champion gymnast and award-winning cheerleader before I was discovered in 1976 by famous Hollywood stuntman Paul Stader (Cary Grant’s stunt double), and owner of Paul Stader’s Stunt School. I was home from college and back in Ventura, CA. due to a gymnastics injury and recovering from an ankle reconstruction surgery where a calf’s tendon had been inserted into my right ankle in place of badly torn ligaments. My brother Bobby Fields was invited down to Paul’s stunt school and when he saw the students performing high falls off ladders and catwalks and fight scenes with jump kicks and flips he said, “My sister is perfect for this.” Bobby introduced me to Paul, who recognized the champion athlete in me and took me under his wing. The great Paul Stader discovered me and single-handedly launched my amazing early stunt career in feature films and on prime-time TV shows. I was minoring in theater arts in college so entering the film industry was right in line with my goals to be an actress. I kept my day job as a stunt woman and stunt actress for fifteen years until 1992 because it kept my foot in the door for auditions to land acting roles no matter what size, and like Angelina Jolie perform my own stunts in roles I would land that required me to perform my own stunts.
One of my early challenges was, I told myself I’d give myself six months for this Hollywood stunt woman career to pan out, if I hadn’t landed my Screen Actors Guild card within six months, I’d return to school and complete my last year of college at USU where I was majoring in health education and minoring in theater arts. Within six months to the day I had landed not only a big stunt doing a backward high fall from the top of a hanging, dangling, slippery rope in a gymnasium onto my back, but also a three lines speaking role on the movie-of-the-week The Spell starring Lee Grant and Helen Hunt. The job enabled me to get my SAG card under the Taft Hartley law that specifies, “No one in the Screen Actors Guild was available to perform the dangerous stunt so I was cast.” Within weeks, thanks to Paul Stader, I was one of the most famous stuntwomen in the world. Wikipedia listing me as one of the most prominent stuntwomen of the 70s and 80s.
My second challenge for the next two years was, I had just had major ankle reconstruction surgery and I had to pretend with all my might that the pain and limitations of that operation didn’t exist as I performed highly dangerous high falls off bridges and out of helicopters, and high jumps to my feet off moving objects like trains, airplanes, and tall buildings. Throughout my stunt career, I became very adept at exercising mind over matter when it came to physical limitations from injuries I had sustained by completely ignoring they existed.
You have over 40-years in the entertainment industry. What have you enjoyed the most?
My ever-evolving career has truly been a wonder to behold, thanks be to God. I suffered a near-fatal car accident and a series of life-threatening abdominal operations thirteen years into my stunt woman career and had to reinvent myself. I was injured so badly in the accident that I never thought I’d get back onto my feet to perform or do anything again. I lived in heights of excruciating pain for twelve years as I fought for my life undergoing operation after operation. I lost my stunt career, my stunt acting career, and the gymnastics talent I had worked decades to achieve. All I had ever wanted to do as a small child was sing so I got serious about doing what I had always wanted to do since I could no longer perform the types of difficult stunts I had become famous for. I went back to school and re-educated myself as a scriptwriter, a singer, a piano player, a pop song composer, and a nonfiction author. I enjoy singing and performing in music videos the most.
What changes have you seen over the years as a professional stunt woman?
I was a pioneering stunt woman in the 70s and 80s. When I did stunts there were no jerk-off cables, my power tumbler legs gave me amplitude. When I was a gymnast there were no springboard mats, I learned to tumble and taught myself backward flip flops on the hard-wood gymnasium floors at school and thick gray wrestler mats. All of my high falls, high jumps, pratfalls, and fight scenes on film were performed going into small mattresses, a pile of blankets, boxes, falling onto breakaway wooden tables, or hitting concrete, dirt, gravel, grass, or sand. One time in my career I got to perform a 3-story high fall off the balcony of a house in Malibu into an airbag for the MOW Death Ray 2000 starring Robert Logan. The first thing I learned when I became a stunt woman was the mats from gymnastics and the stunt school were taken away and I was now expected to fall onto the real hard surface of things like I listed above wearing only a small boy’s padded football girdle and a pair of knee pads and elbow pads. Safety and sexual harassment laws were also just coming on the scene, and today they are exercised to the full extent of the law with committees governing the practices on each production. Many of the mind-blowing stunts you see today are filmed using computer-generated imagery (CGI). In my stunt day flying from a cable like Sally Field did in the Flying Nun was a big deal. All of my stunts that should have had me in a harness and a cable I performed without a cable. For Quincy the “Depth of Beauty” episode shot at night where I played a suicide victim who jumps off the First Interstate Bank building (73 stories high). In my scene, I ran across the roof wearing fluffy toeless half slippers with a little golden heel and a sheer flowing pink negligee and robe. I walked along the ledge in the heels and jumped feet-first off the top of the building without a cable, at the time it was the highest building in downtown Los Angeles. My jump was 20 feet high and had me landing feet-first into boxes in a small electrical area down from the roof. The special effects team wrapped the boxes too tightly that I was supposed to land in and they didn’t collapse when my feet hit them as they were supposed. This caused me to bounce, and I was really frightened as I used all my might to keep myself from bouncing off the roof. My gymnastic experience on trampolines came in handy that evening as I threw myself into a drop seat, my legs flew up and snapped my neck due to the speed of jumping from 20 feet. I walked away with my life and only a whiplash, but I almost went over the edge of that 73 stories that night.
You were the first woman to come from the pure stunt arena to land the large co-starring role in “Hellhole.” What surprised you the most about the transition?
By the time I landed the role of Curry, the insanity victim that received the chemical lobotomy by Mary Woronov in Hellhole in 1985 I had been a serious student of the craft of acting for eight years and had landed about twenty-five smaller acting and stunt acting roles in films, primetime TV shows, and small theater productions in the Los Angeles area, and at Utah State University where I minored in theater arts. I had studied acting extensively with two celebrity acting coaches: Victor French (son-in-law to the great Lee J. Cobb), and co-star on two Emmy winning TV series with Michael Landon, Highway to Heaven, and Little House on the Prairie; and Jeff Corey Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, acting coach to many A-list talents of the day like Paul Newman, Rock Hudson, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, and many others. Victor French discovered me as an actress in 1979 and it was that year that I became serious about becoming a famous actress. I was on the brink of reaching this goal in 1988 having been cast by Stanly Kramer to play the sick nun in the burning fire that Dick Van Dyke rescues in The Runner Stumbles, and landing some guest star roles on primetime TV shows like The Scarecrow and Mrs. King “We’re Off to See the Wizard” episode where I play the real artillery Dorothy Bruce Boxleitner’s, girlfriend. My near-fatal car accident derailed my entire career that I loved so much and had worked so hard to have. I barely walked away with my life. However, my love for acting has remained and I’m still acting today. In 2019 I published the 5-star rated, The Illusive Craft of Acting: An Actor’s Preparation Process that’s available from all the major outlets like Amazon in paperback and eBook. The book is geared towards novice actors and directors, and I share my secrets of what Stanislavski and Chekhov, my celebrity acting coaches, and all the directors I’ve worked for on over 100 films, TV shows, web series, and theatrical productions have taught me about acting for the past forty-four years. I’m extremely proud of this short nonfiction book that also showcases nearly fifty photos of me in acting performances with A-list stars throughout my career. I was a professional SAG stunt woman and a stunt actress from 1976 to 1992, I’ve been a professional SAG actress from 1976 to present.
You are an award-winning pop-blues-soft rock singer. Are there recurring themes to your music?
This is such a fabulous question and one that no one has ever asked me before. Yes, the most recurring theme in my music as an adult contemporary Artist is love with an emphasis on heartbroken love songs, songs about falling in love, inspirational songs, and songs about God. 2020 will see me release two spiritual and Christian themed songs from my highly anticipated A White Dove of Love CD, along with several more of the deep and passionate love songs my fans have come to expect from me. One reviewer of my music calling me the thinking man’s lyricist.
Tell us about your books, “Cartwheels & Halos: The True Marneen Lynne Fields Story” and “Rollin’ with the Punches: An Examination of the Stunt and Acting Careers of Marneen Fields. (40 Years of Surviving Highfalls, Hellholes, and Freddy’s Fingernails). What do you want people to know about Marneen?
Cartwheels & Halos: The True Marneen Lynne Fields Story” is my amazing story of survival. It has a few film and TV features but mainly focuses on how my car accident and the resulting abdominal operations helped me find my true calling within the wake of my childhood dreams of music regardless of the fact that I’m severely hearing impaired. It has a strong theme that when you are on the wrong path in life, God will take drastic actions in your life to make sure you’re on the right one. The book shares my very powerful spiritual and religious awakening where I talk about, when on my last breath after the final abdominal operation in 1999 I was healed by the hand of God.
Rollin’ with the Punches: An Examination of the Stunt and Acting Careers of Marneen Fields is my filmography where I relive in the first person my wonderful experiences on the various films and primetime TV shows I’ve appeared in and all of the sensational A-list actors, directors, and producers I’ve met along the way and worked with.
Thank you for asking this great question Jules. I want people to know that I never gave up no matter what dire circumstances I found myself in. I never let anyone talk me out of living my dreams and striving to reach my goals. I’d like them to know that there is a very powerful, good, and decent force within me. A force that strove to achieve everything with honest hard work, true talent, sheer determination, unbridled inspiration, and a love and excitement about my life. This powerful optimistic perfectionist within myself got me out of bed each day and made me want to train like the greatest champion athletes do regardless of if I was doing gymnastics, stunts, acting, or singing. I was never satisfied with mediocrity within myself, doing just enough to get by. For instance, I wouldn’t do a few walkovers on the balance beam or sing a Barbara Streisand song a couple of times. I had to do thousands upon thousands, and I never tired of the effort it took to make me the best I could be. It’s some kind of inborn positive determination, to prove to myself that I could master whatever task I was up against, competing only with myself, to push myself to become the best I could be with the talent and physical and verbal instrument I’ve had to work with.
With such a diverse background. What is the best piece of advice you can give for young people wanting to break into the entertainment business?
The most sound advice I can give young people wanting to break into the business is each of these disciplines is a craft, and in order to get the upper hand, you need to learn the crafts and then train at those crafts with your entire spirit. Learn from the masters by taking courses. It’s a very hard business, if something doesn’t work out be prepared to reinvent yourself along the way, but always be honest with yourself and others about what you can and can’t do. There is no failure or jealousy when the competition is within yourself and not with others. Spend long hours meditating, setting goals, and creating game plans and strategies for yourself. It’s your life! Always remember, you are number 1.
What is next for you?
I am publishing two books about my life and career are high on my list right now and I’m querying agents and publishers. I’ve become an award-winning scriptwriter and I’m looking forward to selling a couple of the screenplays I’ve written. My mom, Ruby Marie Farris-Fields’ true story, Who’s Gonna Take Care of Me? that chronicles her sudden disappearance and missing for nine years due to a brain lymphoma diagnosed as viral schizophrenia. Ruby lived in shelters battling breast cancer also for nine years not knowing who she was. After nine years she was found by Missing Persons from the original report I filed the week she turned up missing. She was reunited with me. I was able to become her guardian and care for her for thirteen years until her death in 2014. Since Ruby was found, my prayer has been, “Dear God, as you chose me to become a guardian to one, let me become a guardian to millions. Then I will have done the right thing in life.” With the sale of Who’s Gonna Take Care of Me? (Ruby is the co-writer on her script), I hope to cast an Academy award-winning caliber actress to star in the title role of Ruby. My goal is to help the mentally ill who are homeless and their families with her story. I’d love for all of my creative works to help various charities. If it’s meant to be.
Thank you for the wonderful interview Jules. I’m thrilled you’ve chosen my life and career to be featured in Formidable Woman Magazine. Congratulations on your great success as a writer and all of the great publications you’re writing for.
Thank you for the wonderful interview and article Jules Lavalle. I love the photo display you used also.
Sincerely,
Marneen Fields