{"product_id":"9780316122856","title":"Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life","description":"Yep that's me, Hal Needham, on the cover doing a fire stunt. When you're on fire you don't dare breathe because if you do, you'll suck those flames right down your throat. I was Hollywood's highest paid stuntman so I should know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI wrecked hundreds of cars, fell from tall buildings, got blown up, was dragged by horses, and along the way broke 56 bones, my back twice, punctured a lung and knocked out a few teeth...I hung upside down by my ankles under a bi-plane in \u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of St. Louis\u003c\/i\u003e, jumped between galloping horses in \u003ci\u003eLittle Big Man\u003c\/i\u003e, set a world record for a boat stunt on \u003ci\u003eGator\u003c\/i\u003e, jumped a rocket powered pick-up truck across a canal for a GM commercial, was the first human to test the car airbag-and taught John Wayne how to \u003ci\u003ereally \u003c\/i\u003ethrow a movie punch.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLife also got exciting outside of the movie business. I had my Ferrari stolen right from under my nose, flew in a twin-engine Cessna with a passed out pilot, rescued the cast and crew from a Russian invasion in Czechoslovakia, and once took six flight attendants on a date. I owned the Skoal-Bandit NASCAR race team, the sound-barrier breaking Budweiser Rocket Car and drove a souped-up, fake ambulance in a \"little\" cross-country race called \u003ci\u003eThe Cannonball Run\u003c\/i\u003e, which became the movie I directed by the same name. Oh yeah, I also directed \u003ci\u003eSmokey and the Bandit\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHooper\u003c\/i\u003e and several other action\/comedy movies that I liked a bunch. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was a sharecropper's son from the hills of Arkansas who became a Hollywood stuntman. That journey was a tough row to hoe. I continually risked my life but that was the career I chose. I was never late to the set and did whatever I had to do to get the job done.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHollywood's not all sunglasses and autographs. Let me tell you a few stories...","brand":"Little, Brown and Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47103731073264,"sku":"9780316122856","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780316122856_p0.jpg?v=1769889089","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780316122856","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}