HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST STUNT DRIVER

CAREY LOFTIN WAS THE KING OF THE SCIENTIFIC WILD-ASS GUESS

- JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN

CAREY LOFTIN hated horses. One kicked him in the stomach when he was 10. And that was enough of that. So, instead, he rode motorcycles, drove cars, and became Hollywood's greatest stunt driver and stunt designer. 

Loftin liked to be called "Old Vapor Lock," Steven Spielberg noted in an interview accompanying a 2004 DVD of his 1971 Peterbilt-as-menace TV film, Duel. "Carey and Dale Van Sickel, who also worked on Duel, were two of the most famous stuntmen in the annals of Hollywood history," Spielberg said. "Dale drove the car, and Carey drove the truck, and that was kind of the way it was.... He was a brilliant truck driver, because I couldn't have gotten any of these shots if it weren't for how safely Carey drove that truck and yet made it look dangerous and frightening and deadly."