Villain of the Month: Paul Stader
Many stunt men became known among serial fans for their acting in serials as well as doubling the main actors, Tom Steele, Dale Van Sickel and Dave Sharpe come readily to mind. Paul Stader is one who is not so well known, most likely due to his acting career was never as prolific as his stunting. His stunting career started at MGM on the Tarzan films, starting with Tarzan Finds a Son (1939), and followed the series over to RKO, doubling star Johnny Weissmuller. When Weissmuller went to Columbia to be Jungle Jim, Stader went with him.
This was also the time he did two serials for Sam Katzman. Stader did double duty on Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), doubling star Kirk Alyn as well as playing minor henchmen as Paul Strader. After Weismuller ended the Jungle Jim movie series he did one season of a TV version with Stader as his stunt double.
When that ended, Stader continued working in both film and TV shows, stunting on both film and TV versions of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, as well as the films Charade (1963), The Great Race (1965) and Our Man Flint (1966), and the TV shows Star Trek and Lost In Space. In the late sixties he moved from stunting to stunt coordinating, though he would slip in a few stunts of his own on films like Blazing Saddles (1974) and Black Sunday (1977).
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