They've traded punches in knockdown brawls, crashed biplanes through barns, and raced to the rescue in fast cars. They add suspense and drama to the story, portraying the swimmer stalked by the menacing shark, the heroine dangling twenty feet below a soaring hot air balloon, or the woman leaping nine feet over a wall to escape a dog attack. Only an expert can make such feats of daring look easy, and stuntwomen with the skills to perform―and survive―great moments of action in movies have been hitting their mark in Hollywood since the beginning of film. Here, Mollie Gregory presents the first history of stuntwomen in the film industry from the silent era to the twenty-first century. In the early years of motion pictures, women were highly involved in all aspects of film production, but they were marginalized as movies became popular, and more important, profitable. Capable stuntwomen were replaced by men in wigs, and very few worked between the 1930s and 1960s. As late as the 1990s, men wore wigs and women's clothes to double as actresses, and were even "painted down" for some performances, while men and women of color were regularly denied stunt work. For decades, stuntwomen have faced institutional discrimination, unequal pay, and sexual harassment even as they jumped from speeding trains and raced horse-drawn carriages away from burning buildings. Featuring sixty-five interviews, Stuntwomen showcases the absorbing stories and uncommon courage of women who make their living planning and performing action-packed sequences that keep viewers' hearts racing. "This is a joyous, intense book: Gregory is bracingly up front about the outright sexism that has dogged professional stuntwomen almost from the beginning. But Gregory, who interviewed dozens of stuntwomen of all ages, focuses on much more than injustices and legal battles. What comes through most strongly is the joy these women take from their work."― New York Times "While Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story fits comfortably on the shelf of any film history buff, it also provides essential relevance to those interested in feminism, American social/culture studies, and even contemporary law. Mollie Gregory has done a splendid job."―Mel Neuhaus, film writer, Examiner.com " Stuntwomen , a history of American stuntwomen from silent films up through the movies of the present, is an exhaustively researched, comprehensive volume. Gregory's book fills a void in film history about this interesting, often overlooked, and vital cog in the film industry."―Sheila Benson, former chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times and writer for the National Society of Film Critics "Mollie Gregory clearly knows her subject inside out, and writes about it vividly and excitingly."―Kevin Brownlow, filmmaker and film historian "A highly original, pioneering volume on the under-appreciated role of women in film. Stuntwomen documents the unique and until now untold story of its title subjects from the 1910s through the present. Mollie Gregory brings to her project the same skill, enerfy and vitality that those stuntwomen displayed, 'a come-from-behind, risk-it-all saga,' as she describes it. Much as men took over the role of director from the early women filmmakers, so did stuntmen quite deliberately it seems exclude their female counterparts, and it was not until fairly recent times that women once again proved just how capable they were in this field. The stunts are discussed in detail, along with the political, social, union, and, of course, gender issues involved. And did I mention that Stuntwomen is highly readable and pleasantly jargon-free?"―Anthony Slide, author of "It's the Pictures That Got Small": Charles Bracket on Billy Wilder and Hollywood's Golden Age and Silent Players: A Biographical and Autobiographical Study of 100 Silent Film Actors and Actresses "Studded with absorbing descriptions of the hazardous work of these athletic, unsung heroes, Mollie Gregory's excellent account is a richly detailed and long-overdue history of the daring stuntwomen of the screen."―William M. Drew, author of The Last Silent Picture Show: Silent Films on American Screens in the 1930s "This book aims to uncover just how bad the institutionalised sexism of Hollywood studios was for stuntwomen who were often overlooked in favour of men in wigs."― Wow 247 "Smart, thorough, and well researched. . . . Stuntwomen covers the film industry's most daring ladies and their feats from silent era [to present day]."― Los Angeles Magazine "This chronicle is long overdue and Gregory seems to have found the right people to help tell the tale."―Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy - Holiday Book Roundup "Documentary filmmaker and author Mollie Gregory writes an in-depth account of the stuntwomen who have performed on the big screen and television. . . to give readers a close view of the exciting and dangerous world these women love to face on a daily basis."― Shelf