Considered one of the entertainment industry’s busiest stuntmen and 2nd unit directors for over 60 years, Buddy Joe Hooker first began performing as a child actor on successful television shows including Rin Tin Tin and Leave It To Beaver. The son of a stuntman, Buddy Joe also starred in the 1950’s movie produced by his father, The Littlest Hobo, that went on to become a popular Canadian tv series.

Raised as a cowboy who pursued gymnastics in school, Buddy Joe quickly added motorcycles, cars, high falls and fire stunts to his resume skills. In the 1970’s, Buddy Joe’s designation as the premier stunt coordinator for Disney Pictures established his reputation as the go-to stunt coordinator throughout the industry. With innovative car stunts and chases in movies such as To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Tucker: A Man and His Dream (1988), and Jade (1995), Buddy Joe continued to work with his Academy Award-winning mentors Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin, Steven Spielberg and Hal Ashby for decades. His extensive resume as a stunt coordinator and second unit director spans all film genres and includes numerous classics: Harold and Maude (1971), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Rambo (1982), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Outsiders (1983), The Right Stuff (1983), Gardens of Stone (1987), Meet Joe Black (1998) and The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)

In the 1977 Burt Reynolds renowned action film, Hooper (1978), Buddy Joe broke industry records with the first ever rocket-powered car jump while doubling Jan Michael Vincent in the film’s innovative and extreme chase sequence at the end of the movie. He made movie history once again stunt doubling Sylvester Stallone for the iconic 90 ft high fall off the cliff in Rambo: First Blood (1982).

Regarded as a leading “wheel man” for his abilities in both designing thrilling car sequences and performing them, Buddy Joe broke world records with the first motorcycle jump over a landing helicopter and then rolling a truck 17 times down an embankment -- a record that still stands. With 8 different car “cannonrolls” in a short span of 4 years on numerous features that include Quentin Tarantino’s Deathproof (2007). Buddy Joe was a pioneer in the advent of this extreme vehicle stunt that continues to set the bar in action features today.

Having stunt coordinated and appeared in hundreds of television shows and feature films, Buddy Joe most recently stunt-coordinated his 6th motion picture with Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis (2024) and just completed another collaboration with director Jon Avnet, The Last Rodeo.

In recognition of his contribution to the film industry, the prestigious Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences inducted Buddy Joe into its exclusive membership during the very first year it began a limited initiation of motion picture stunt coordinators back in the 1990s.

The internationally renowned energy drink corporation, Red Bull, recognized Buddy Joe’s contribution to the entertainment industry with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

An original member of the elite organization of stunt performers, STUNTS UNLIMITED,
Buddy Joe has served 5 terms as President and was honored by Jackie Chan at his Film Festival in China in 2019 where he represented the United States stunt community amidst an international gathering of action filmmakers.

Often working alongside his wife and twin sons in the stunt business, Buddy Joe is currently writing a memoir to share his extraordinary experience of growing up in Hollywood and working with some of the most iconic actors and filmmakers of our time.