Frank G. Tallman

Frank Gifford Tallmam (April 17, 1919 &mdash; April 15, 1978) was an American-born stunt pilot in Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, with legendary pilot Paul Mantz, he formed Tallmantz Aviation based at Orange County Airport (now John Wayne Airport) in Southern California. Their company would provide pilots, camera planes and a small fleet of antique and historic aircraft for movie and television productions. Mantz was killed in 1965 while flying a cobbled-together airplane which was suppose to resemble a rebuilt Fairchild C-82 Packet reconstructed by oil explorers downed in the North African desert in The Flight of the Phoenix. He was thrown from the aircraft, after one of the skids had hit a sand dune.

Tallman did the stunt flying in the 1963 chase film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and contributed to the The Carpetbaggers (1964), as well as the Dean Martin "Matt Helm" spy film The Wrecking Crew and The Thousand Plane Raid, both released in 1969. He acted as the flying supervisor for Catch-22 in 1970 with Tallmantz Aviation involved in the rounding up of the eighteen or so flyable B-25s that appeared in the film. He himself performed the vertigo-inducing night shots of the Milo Minderbinder Air Force B-25 bombing its own base just over the heads of actorsd Jon Voight and Martin Sheen.

In 1971 Tallman flew a Grumman Duck amphibian in Murphy's War and two years later flew for the cameras in Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies and piloted a Stearman cropduster in Charley Varrick, as well as doing the television pilot, Death Race. He was aerial supervisior for The Great Waldo Pepper and flew in Lucky Lady, both in 1975. He also served as aerial coordinator and pilot for Baa Baa Black Sheep and flew in Amelia Earhart, both television projects in 1976.

His last film projects were Capricorn One and The Cat from Outer Space, both in 1978 and 1941 in 1979 after his death in a plane crash accident.

His accident occurred as he was ferrying a Piper PA-23 from Santa Monica, California to Phoenix, Arizona under visual flight rules. In deteriorating weather, his plane struck the side of Santiago Peak in the Santa Ana Mountains near Trabuco Canyon.

After his death his historic collection of movie warplanes and camera planes were sold off.

Miscellaneous Crew

 * 1941 (1979) (pilot) (uncredited)
 * The Cat From Outer Space (1978) (pilot)
 * Capricorn One (1978) (aerial coordinator) (pilot:Stearman)
 * Amelia Earhart (1976) (TV) (aerial sequences)
 * Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976) (TV) (aerial coordinator) (pilot)
 * Lucky Lady (1975) (pilot)
 * The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) (air sequences supervisor) (air work)
 * Death Race (1973) (TV) (pilot)
 * Charley Varrick (1973) (flying sequences)
 * Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) (aerial sequences)
 * Family Flight (1972) (TV) (aerial sequences)
 * Murphy's War (1971) (aerial sequences) (aircraft pilot)
 * Catch-22 (1970) (flying supervisor)
 * The Thousand Plane Raid (1969) (pilot:B-25)
 * The Wrecking Crew (1969) (pilot:helicopter sequences)
 * The Carpetbaggers (1964) (pilot:Fairchild KR-21)
 * It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) (aerial supervisor)

Stunts

 * Capricorn One (1978) (stunts:aerial) (uncredited)
 * The Day the Earth Moved (1974) (TV) (stunt pilot)
 * Charley Varrick (1973) (flying stunt double:Walter Matthau) (uncredited)
 * Catch-22 (1970) (stunt pilot) (uncredited)
 * It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) (stunt pilot) (uncredited)

Actor

 * Lucky Lady (1975)
 * Slaughter's Big Rip Off (1975)
 * This is Your Life (1971) playing "Himself" in episode: "Cliff Robertson" 12 December 1971
 * Hogan's Heroes (as Frank G. Tallman) playing "Lieutenant Harris" in episode: "The Flight of the Valkyrie" (episode # 1.5) 15 October 1965