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Biography: "Richard Brooker was new in the country, and was a successful trapeze artist. Little did he know that when he answered a trade magazine ad looking for a big man to star in an unnamed horror film, he would end up playing Jason in Friday the 13th Part 3. This surprise provided the 6-foot-3-inch actor and professional trapeze artist with both a job and a chance to test his theory about the previous Friday films.
'Starring as a totally mindless killing machine seemed the perfect opportunity to prove that you don't have to talk to act,' he explains. 'The director, Steve Miner, agreed that Jason should be played in a largely improvisational manner. The only advice he had was not to ask what Jason's motivation was for a particular scene, because Jason has no motivation.'
Predictably, it was the 3-D filming that Brooker found most painstaking. 'The kills were probably the hardest things we had to shoot,' he says, 'because the 3-D process we used necessitated multiple takes on everything. It was not uncommon to do 14 or 15 takes of a simple stabbing sequence; we spent hours and hours on the eyeball squeeze.'
But the 3-D hardships paid off, after a fashion. 'I wasn't a bad Jason.' Brooker laughingly claims, adding that having essayed the masked killer proved to be an ice-breaker with the ladies. 'I was once introduced to a girl in a bar as the guy who played Jason,' he smiles. 'She wanted to know if I slept with a hatchet in my bed.'" - Jason Goes to Hell magazine
Update: "Richard Brooker was initially brought to the USA as a trapeze artist, and was extremely busy working at such notable places as Las Vegas and Reno with some world class flying trapeze acts. He also had his own single trapeze act, which was extremely popular in the USA, before becoming involved in stunt work." - Thanks to Richard Brooker!
Filmography
Deathstalker (1983)
Friday the 13th Part 3: 3D (1982)
Where Is He Now?: Richard Brooker is currently president of Production Access Network, his own website design company. He can be seen often at different horror conventions around the country.
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