Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983).
Needham in 2011
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
Pyrotechnics stunt exhibition by "Giant Auto Rodéo" in Ciney, Belgium
Circus performers doing an automobile stunt in Delorimier Stadium, Montreal, Canada, in 1946
Harold Lloyd in 1923's Safety Last!, hanging (safely) from the clock tower. Lloyd may have been influenced by the real life stunts of Rodman Law a decade earlier.