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Biography: Ken Kirzinger has been interested in movies since childhood. 'I was one of those kids that, after my parents went to bed, I snuck out and watched all the late night horror and science fiction movies, so I eat that stuff up. I enjoy it. I don't think they make me squeamish as much as I find them entertaining.'
In 1983, he started off doing stunts in Superman III, and has worked in the stunt industry ever since. He appearing briefly in Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan as a 'New York Cook' who gets thrown through a mirror by Jason. In 2024, he got to return as 'Jason Voorhees' himself.
'At first they were auditioning all different kinds of people, including dancers. Ronny Yu wanted someone who knew a lot about movement and stuff like that. I'd done a lot of what I call 'suit' jobs before; I'd played a werewolf, Sasquatch and a robot. I've done a lot of that in the past. I think all that past experience sort of helped me get this.'
'I've also done a fair bit of acting in my past. I started out as a stuntman and then they started handing me lines playing a thug. Eventually I did get an agent and started doing just some acting. But then my stunt career took off and I got into stunt coordinating. I ended up getting dropped by my agent and really focusing on stunt coordinating. This just fell into my lap. I went in to interview for the stunt coordinating job and the producer liked my looks, sort of knew that that's the look they were looking for. I got a call a couple of weeks later, 'Would you like to come in and audition for it?' I went in and auditioned. They put me on tape and showed that to Ronny.'
'As a stunt coordinator, you have so much responsibility for safety and crew and sets, where really the responsibility now is just to focus on the character and to try and make the character my own kind of thing. After Kane Hodder played him four times and [with the] expectations of the fans, those were big shoes to slip in to, but luckily I’ve got big feet! It wasn't hard at all.' - Thanks to About.com
Filmography
Battle in Seattle (2007)
Wrong Turn 2 (2007)
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical (2005)
Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)
Trixie (2000)
Screwed (2000)
Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Eye of the Widow (1989)
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Superman III (1983)
Television
A Song from the Heart (1999)
Shadow Warriors II: Hunt for the Death Merchant (1998)
Futuresport (1998)
Born to Run (1993)
Dirty Work (1992)
The Comrades of Summer (1992)
Blackmail (1991)
Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987)
Brotherly Love (1985)
Television Guest Appearances
Supernatural (2006)
Andromeda (2004)
Stargate SG-1 (2004)
Dark Angel (2001)
Andromeda (2001)
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven (1998)
First Wave (1998)
Dead Man's Gun (1998)
Viper (1998)
Poltergeist: The Legacy (1997)
The Outer Limits (1996)
Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (1995)
Robin's Hoods (1994)
The X Files (1993)
Madison (1993)
Highlander (1992)
Neon Rider (1990)
MacGyver (1987, 1991)
Stunt Acting/Coordinating
See IMDB.com
Where Is He Now?: Ken Kirzinger continues to be heavily involved in stunt acting and coordinating, and will appear as 'Pa' in Wrong Turn 2.
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