Kenny Bates

Kenneth W. Bates is an American stuntman, film producer, second unit director, and actor, best known for his work with Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Life and career

Bates was born in southern California and from a young age, Bates was drawn to the world of stunts, setting the stage for a career that would break boundaries and records alike.^[1]

In 1988, Bates served as the stunt double for Alan Rickman in the film Die Hard during the scene where the latter's character, Hans Gruber, falls to his death. Bates then became one of few stuntman to win an Academy Award for such a feat.^[2]

Bates next served as stunt coordinator and second unit director (uncredited) on the 2001 film Training Day for Antoine Fuqua.^[3]

In 2015, Bates founded PFA Prague Film Associates with producer Tomas Rotnagl.^[4]

He is also a frequent collaborator of Michael Bay's, having coordinating the stunts and directed second unit on almost all of his films, beginning with Bay's feature directorial debut Bad Boys and continuing all the way up to 2019 with 6 Underground.^[5] Among the films the two worked on together include the first three Transformers movies, The Rock, Armageddon, The Island, and Pearl Harbor, the latter of which won him a Taurus World Stunt Award for "Best 2nd Unit Director".^[6][7][8]

Other films Bates has directed second unit on include Bad Company, The Italian Job, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Con Air, G-Force, Babylon A.D., and Fast Getaway.^[9]

Filmography

Year	Title	Stunts	Second unit director	Producer	Director
1988	Rambo III	Yes	No	No	Peter MacDonald
	Die Hard	Yes	No	No	John McTiernan
1989	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	Yes	No	No	William Shatner
1990	Another 48 Hrs.	Yes	No	No	Walter Hill
	Die Hard 2	Yes	No	No	Renny Harlin
1991	Fast Getaway	Yes	Yes	No	Spiro Razatos
1992	Lethal Weapon 3	Yes	No	No	Richard Donner
1993	Loaded Weapon 1	Yes	No	No	Gene Quintano
1994	The Crow	Yes	No	No	Alex Proyas
	On Deadly Ground	Yes	No	No	Steven Seagal
	Class of 1999 II: The Substitute	Yes	No	No	Spiro Razatos
	The Shadow	Yes	No	No	Russell Mulcahy
	The Mask	Yes	No	No	Chuck Russell
	Street Fighter	Yes	No	No	Steven E. de Souza
1995	Bad Boys	Yes	Yes	No	Michael Bay
1996	The Rock	Yes	Yes	Associate producer
1997	Con Air	Yes	Yes	Associate producer	Simon West
1998	Armageddon	Yes	Yes	Associate producer	Michael Bay
2001	Pearl Harbor	Yes	Yes	Associate producer
	The Fast and The Furious	Yes	No	No	Rob Cohen
	Training Day	Yes	Yes	No	Antoine Fuqua
2002	Changing Lanes	No	Yes	No	Roger Michell
	Bad Company	Yes	Yes	Associate producer	Joel Schumacher
	The Hours	No	Yes	No	Stephen Daldry
2003	The Italian Job	Yes	Yes	No	F. Gary Gray
	The Movie Hero	Yes	No	No	Brad T. Gottfred
	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre	No	Yes	No	Marcus Nispel
2005	The Island	Yes	Yes	Associate producer	Michael Bay
2006	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning	Yes	No	No	Jonathan Liebesman
2007	Transformers	Yes	Yes	Co-producer	Michael Bay
	Rush Hour 3	Yes	No	No	Brett Ratner
2008	Babylon A.D.	Yes	Yes	No	Mathieu Kassovitz
2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	Yes	Yes	Co-producer	Michael Bay
2010	G-Force	Yes	Yes	No	Hoyt Horatio Yeatman Jr.
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	Yes	Yes	Co-producer	Michael Bay
	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol	Yes	No	No	Brad Bird
2013	Pain and Gain	Yes	Yes	No	Michael Bay
2014	Kingsman: The Secret Service	No	Yes	No	Matthew Vaughn
2016	13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi	No	No	Co-producer	Michael Bay
2018	The Catcher Was a Spy	Yes	Yes	No	Ben Lewin
	2.0	Yes	Yes	No	S. Shankar
2019	Saaho	Yes	Action unit director	Action unit producer	Sujeeth Reddy
	6 Underground	Yes	Yes	No	Michael Bay
2023	Joel D. Wynkoop's 187 Times the Movie	No	No	Yes	Joel D. Wynkoop

References

1. "Kenny Bates Personal Life, Career, Wife, Net Worth, Measurements". 12 July 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
2. "Ken Bates in Die Hard". Retrieved 31 October 2024.
3. "Training Day - Variety". 31 August 2001. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
4. "About us - PFA Prague Film Associates". Retrieved 9 November 2024.
5. "6 Underground: Taking "Bayhem" to the Limit". Retrieved 9 November 2024.
6. "KENNY BATES / STUNT COORDINATOR". Los Angeles Times. 28 June 1998. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
7. "Winners and Nominees 2002 - Taurus World Stunt Awards". 31 January 2002. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
8. "An Oral History of Transformers Director Michael Bay". 27 June 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
9. "Ken Bates - Turner Classic Movies". Retrieved 31 October 2024.