Kitty O’Neil: who was American stunt woman, what movies was she in - why is Google Doodle celebrating her

The American performer appeared as a stunt double in a variety of films and TV shows, including in an episode of Wonder Woman for Lynda Carter
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Today, 24 March, the iconic Google Doodle pays tribute to Kitty O’Neil, a deaf American stunt performer and daredevil who was crowned “the fastest woman in the world”.

Today’s date is significant for O’Neil as it would have been her 77th birthday.

This is everything you need to know.

Who was Kitty O’Neil?

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O’Neil was an American stunt performer who was deaf since childhood. She was born on 24 March 1946 in Texas and, when she was just a few months old, she contracted a number of childhood diseases that left her deaf.

Speaking to Washington Post in 1979, O’Neil said: “When I was four months old, I got measles and smallpox. My fever was so high, it killed the nerve. My mother packed me in ice to save my life.”

Her parents didn’t realise that she had lost her hearing until she was two, which is when her mother started to teach her lip-reading and how to speak. Her mother, Pasty Compton O’Neil, a native Cherokee, went on to become a speech therapist and co-founded a school for students with hearing impairments.

Childhood illnesses left Kitty O’Neil deaf when she was only a few months old (Photo: Ky Michaelson)Childhood illnesses left Kitty O’Neil deaf when she was only a few months old (Photo: Ky Michaelson)
Childhood illnesses left Kitty O’Neil deaf when she was only a few months old (Photo: Ky Michaelson)

O’Neil started out as a competitive diver, however her Olympic aspirations were struck short when she broke her wrist and contracted spinal meningitis prior to the 1964 Olympic trials. The spinal meningitis threatened her ability to walk and it was whilst she was in recovery that she lost interest in diving, instead turning to activities that would get the adrenaline pumping.

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She told Midco Sports Network: “I got sick, so I had to start all over again, and I got bored. I wanted to do something fast. Speed. Motorcycle. Water skiing. Boat. Anything.”

O’Neil took up high-speed sports like water skiing and motorcycle racing and, in the late 1970s, she broke onto the big screen as the stunt double for films and TV shows, including for The Bionic Woman, The Blues Brothers and Smokey and the Bandit II. She was hired to perform a high difficulty stunt for a 1979 episode of Wonder Woman for Jeannie Epper, Lynda Carter’s usual stunt double. In undertaking the stunt, O’Neil set a women’s high-fall record of 127ft - she would later break her own record when a 180ft fall from a helicopter.

She was the first woman to join Stunts Unlimited, an organisation for Hollywood’s top stunt performers, and in 1976 she was crowned “the fastest woman alive” after she broke the women’s land speed record driving a rocket powered car called the Motivator across the Alvord Desert at 512.76 miles per hour. After breaking the women’s record, it became clear that she would likely beat the men’s record as well - however, she was prevented from doing so by her sponsors.

 Kitty O’Neil takes a 127-foot plunge from atop the Valley Hilton in Sherman Oaks into an inflatable air bag while filming a scene for the “Wonder Woman” TV show, 12 February 1979 (Photo: R.L. Oliver / Los Angeles Times) Kitty O’Neil takes a 127-foot plunge from atop the Valley Hilton in Sherman Oaks into an inflatable air bag while filming a scene for the “Wonder Woman” TV show, 12 February 1979 (Photo: R.L. Oliver / Los Angeles Times)
Kitty O’Neil takes a 127-foot plunge from atop the Valley Hilton in Sherman Oaks into an inflatable air bag while filming a scene for the “Wonder Woman” TV show, 12 February 1979 (Photo: R.L. Oliver / Los Angeles Times)

At the time it was Hal Needham who was signed up to break the men’s record, with Needham’s sponsor, a toy company called Marvin Glass and Associates, preparing to launch an action figure of Needham after breaking the record. O’Neil attempted to take legal action to allow her to attempt the record, but she was unsuccessful. Needham never did set the record, or even drive the car, and following the negative publicity that O’Neil’s sponsors received as a result of not allowing her to take on the record, the Needham action figures were never marketed.

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Over the course of her career, O’Neil broke a huge number of records and, at the time of her retirement, she had set 22 speed records on land and water.

In 1979, a biopic about O’Neil’s life, called Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story, was released, and starred Stockard Channing (Grease, Practical Magic) as O’Neil. According to O’Neil, only about half of the movie was accurate.

O’Neil eventually retired from stunt and speed work in 1982 after some of her stunt colleagues were killed whilst performing. She moved to Minneapolis before eventually settling in Eureka, South Dakota, where she remained until her death.

When did she die?

O’Neil died on 2 November 2018 in Eureka, South Dakota, at the age of 72. Her death was confirmed by Lisa Carlsen, director of Carlsen Funeral Home in Eureka, with her friend and fellow stunt performer Ky Michaelson stating that her cause of death was pneumonia.

The following year, in 2019, the Oscars In Memoriam segment included a tribute to O’Neil.

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