Punched off a Train by Clint Eastwood and the Path to Resilience | Stuntwoman Marneen Fields - 80s TV Ladies

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello listeners. You know, Sharon and I went back and
forth and whether we should record something, and we really
didn't know what to say. But at the same time,
I hate to not say anything, So I'm going to
paraphrase some quotes I found online and I hope it's helpful.

(00:25):
In the darkest of times. Hope has the power to
sustain us. Hope is the pathway to resilience when the
world is experiencing great turmoil. Please remember that humanity strength
lies in resilience and our unwavering spirit to overcome. Throughout

(00:48):
the span of history, people have faced unimaginable challenges and
have emerged stronger. Acts of kindness, compassion, and bravery have
shone brightly even in the most despairing moments. In the
face of adversity. Communities must come together, Individuals must rise

(01:10):
to the occasion, and stories of hope must be found.
They are all around. Even when overshadowed by anguish and
feelings of hopelessness, you are not alone. Collective action can
give us purpose and healing in fearful times. Prioritize your
mental and physical health. Be in the world, Look for joy,

(01:35):
share a hug. Together, We look for ways toward healing,
restoring our faith in humanity, and moving forward.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Weirdy Way Media and so pretty through the city.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Welcome to Eighties TV Ladies, where we look back in
order to leap forward. Here are your hosts, Susan Lambert
had Him and Sharon Johnson.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Hello. I'm Susan and I'm Sharon.

Speaker 4 (02:25):
You know, Susan, you missed a lot when you missed
the fortieth anniversary of Scarecrow and Missus King Reunion last October.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes, Sharon, And it's not something I feel bad about
at all, just because you and Melissa met Martha Smith,
Bruce Boxleitner, Eugenie Ross, Lemming, Brad Buckner, and so many
of our fans in person, and I didn't. I'm perfectly
fine with that.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, it was for a good cause in your case.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
I mean, I totally understand, totally totally understand your feeling.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
But we also had the opportunity to meet an amazing
lady that we're going to be talking about today. Would
she be an amazing eighties TV lady? Bye Goodness? Yes,
she is absolutely I love that. Who is it, Sharon?

Speaker 4 (03:18):
Her name is Marnine Fields and she's an award winning
actress singer and stunt woman. She started working in television
in nineteen seventy six and went on to appear in
over one hundred and fifty films, TV series, music videos,
and worked with actors and producers like Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kramer,
Priscilla Presley, Tom Jones, James Garner.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Shirley Jones, Michael Kaine, Jeff Goldbloom, Dick Van Dijk, and
of course, Bruce Boxleitner. She was a stunt woman on
shows like Scarecromisus King, Lou Grant, Party Boys, and Nancy
Drew Mysteries, The Man from Atlantis, The Fall Guy Murder.
She wrote Dynasty and a ton of films, including Clintiswood's

(04:02):
The Gauntlet.

Speaker 4 (04:03):
This Field is also a screenwriter, songwriter, composer, singer and author.
Her story is a fascinating one of talent and resilience.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
We are thrilled to welcome Marning Fields to eighties TV ladies.
Thank you for joining us.

Speaker 5 (04:20):
Thank you very much for having me. I'm so thrilled.

Speaker 4 (04:23):
We're so happy to finally have the chance to talk
with you and hear all about your life and various careers. Yes,
because you've done so many things. You're a singer, a songwriter,
you're a filmmaker, you're an actress, and you've been a
stunt woman, so many different things. Funny chance, do you
have a favorite or any of those at the top

(04:43):
of your list of things that you do well?

Speaker 5 (04:47):
Anything to do with music.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
Singing is my passion and it's where it's most challenging
for me, and it's what I always wanted to do
since I was a little girl. I wanted to be
a famous singer since first grade and I learned my
first song, but I didn't think I could make it.
And while I was in college on a gymnastics scholarship,

(05:10):
I would go past the music room and I always
wanted to be in there. Instead of going to the
gym to do the gymnastics, I wanted to be the
girl at the piano doing all the scales. So it
took a long time, and after a bad car accident
that ended my stunt career and derailed my acting career temporarily,

(05:31):
I got in touch with my childhood dream of becoming
a singer.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
That's amazing.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Do you remember what it was when you were a
child that made you think, oh my gosh, I'd love
to be a singer.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I'd love to do this. Well.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
In first grade, they passed out instruments and I was
late that day. And I don't know why I was late,
but I was late to school. And when I got there,
all they had left was and I'm little, you know,
and all they had was a giant string bass, and
so that was my instrument, and I took it back

(06:04):
and forth to school, and kids in the neighborhood in
Culver City they still remember me dragging that bass back
and forth to school every day in the little red wagon.
And I was playing keyboards in my room, and I
was also taking clarinet lessons, so everything. My dad was
a square dance caller and a country western singer, and

(06:26):
he had the first national TV show in the fifties
based out of mine, not North Dakota, and so he
said it two years old. I used to tap him
on the foot and say, no, Daddy, it goes like this.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
I'd listen to him practice.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
And both my parents had beautiful voices, and my brothers too,
real talented as singers and actors and speakers, and one
of my brothers is a comedian, and so it was
always in the family. But it was that day in
school and it was roro row your boat, and they
passed out the music and we did it in around

(07:02):
half did.

Speaker 5 (07:02):
Row row row your ro ro and we went.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Around and it was just nothing else touched my heart
as much. Growing up, every song was my favorite song.
And I had not lost my hearing yet. I didn't
lose the left ear of my hearing till eighteen, and
then I didn't lose half of the ride ear until

(07:27):
the two thousands. I remember I was in there. I
was sweeping the garage one day and what came on
was I love you more today than yesterday, and I
was just I went crazy. And so I knew at
that moment sweeping the garage and spinning around with the

(07:48):
broom and that I was a musical performing artist. And
I still love rock opera, and I hope I've got
a lot of songs coming forward, and I hope, you know,
the world gets to hear more of what I've composed,
and you know, I still do a lot of other things,
but that's my favorite.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
And no stage fright.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
As a kid, I know, for me, that was always
a big deal performing in front of people or getting
up in front of people, always gave me pause.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Oh well that, you know, that is such a great
question because nobody's asked me that. But there was, you know,
I was like in Girl Scouts and Brownies. I think
this was in Brownies, and they chose me to do
the color guards progression and they're going to take the
stage and all this, and so I got out on
the stage and I said, I was supposed to say

(08:40):
color Guards advance, and everyone was going to and instead
I came out on this stage. And this is typical
of me still to today. I can make these kind
of airs. I say color guards dismissed, nobody advanced, and
so that was really frightening for me. I don't have

(09:04):
any stage fright now because of the years that have
gone into all of this from the gymnastics, but that
memory always sticks with me that I'm going to get
up there and I'm going to end it.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Before it begins. But you didn't let it stop you witch, clearly.
So that's great. Oh yeah, I didn't let it stop me.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
But oh oh my god, I still remember that day
if I think about it, and the embarrassment.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
I'm curious. I want to go back to you lost
your hearing, you were a stuntwoman without hearing, Like, does
that affect your balance and just really your ability to work.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
Yeah, that's very true.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Well, I lost all the hearing in the left ear
at eighteen years old, and it took eighty decibels just
leaving a fraction without entering the equilibrium nerves. Had it
killed the equilibrium nerves, I would not be morning fields
because I was a champion college gymnast on balance beam.

Speaker 5 (10:10):
Then also floor exercise.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
What got me to be the number one gymnast at
Utah State University was I was able to perform moves
similar to Oga Corbett if you remember her, those back
layouts to the straddle, and I practiced real hard for it.
I would have been better as a swimmer. I probably
could have made the Olympics. But yeah, it affected. I

(10:34):
was on a show and I remember that I went
the wrong way, so I got really worried that had
that been explosions and I went the wrong way or
I didn't hear. But then shortly after that I had
the car accident. In my stunt career was ended overnight

(10:56):
as quickly as it had begun. My stunt career and
stunt acting that's like a wonder to behold, which you
guys know, you know, it's like, oh my God. And
my phone rang off the hook for fifteen years.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Can you do this? Can you? Are you available? Can
you do this? Can you do this?

Speaker 3 (11:20):
And it was so exciting and all the stars. And
then as I had the car accident, the career ended
as suddenly overnight and the phone didn't ring again for
twelve years as I went through horrific abdominal operations fighting
for my life. And that's when I crawled to the

(11:42):
microphone and sat on my bed and learned one hundred
and fifty songs and I said, if I ever get
back on my feet, I'm going to sing.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
And I never thought I'd get back on my feet.
But in nineteen ninety nine, I met a doctor who
saved my life, performed the final operation. And this was
five major abdominal operations, losing everything internally. UCLA would not
do the surgery, they said it was too dangerous, and

(12:13):
he did it. I survived and I was healed by
Jesus and I got stronger and I've been pain free
and got back on my feet, got baptized, and it's
just a miracle. But it's been very difficult.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, how do you like? That's a lot. You seem
like a very persistent person. I'm always curious about how
strong stunt women are and how much they risk in
terms of injury and then recovery and what you go
through in healing from stuff. Is you always have that

(12:54):
sort of the dark night of the soul. Right in
the times that I've been injured or sick, were not well,
you really have to push through. How do you do that?
What works for you?

Speaker 5 (13:05):
Well?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
I love that term dark knight of the soul? Wow,
Because I was the fall girl. Something always went wrong,
but I wasn't badly injured.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
I would recover.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
There were lots of whiplashes, There were lots of bruises,
Like I fought with Freddy Krueger and his steel fingernails,
and they always put the woman and they had me
in a pair of shorts and we did this fight
scene and so I got home my massive bruises.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
But you know all that mattered that day?

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Was it?

Speaker 3 (13:39):
After we did that fight so many times, I felt
like a champion. I was like, you know, wow, But
the car accident which I was.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
It was not It was not a film. You had
a just a car.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
I was just driving home one day and an uninsured
motorist in a big white truck ran a red light
in the rain and I was second car through the light,
and it just so happens. It was on Violand at
moor Park and Studio City and there was a dip.
I'd probably be dead, but he came. He took the

(14:13):
He hit me right here. I looked up. I said,
oh my god, he's gonna hit me, and I went
I felt an angel in the car, first of all.
I felt a very powerful force in that car, and
I turned my back.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
All I could think it was to turn my.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Back, like as if it was a high fall, and
give him, give my bag. And I was a strong,
little champion. I was solid, but I was real tiny.
I had the little popeye muscles, one hundred and fifteen pounds.
And I turned my back. But as he came through
the front door, and he took the whole left side
of the car off, and I got shoved somehow into

(14:51):
the gear shift and my seat snapped and the seat
belt locked me in, and he then I hit to dip,
so he then slid in the back door, and the
whole back door sliced the back seat, so if anyone
would have been sitting there, they'd be dead completely. But

(15:12):
then it spun the car, so there was this horrible
vertigo and it took me a block, like a whole block,
and I ended up somewhere and the next thing I
remember the bluest eyes, Are you okay? These gorgeous blue eyes,
And he got me cut out of the seat belt,

(15:34):
and the ambulance came. They transferred me hospitals. I was
in and out of consciousness for like five days. I
don't remember being transferred from hospitals. And that's that's when
things were really bad. And I laid in neck and
pelvic traction for ten months in the hospital. I didn't

(15:59):
know what And I got out of that and it
took me a year to hang laundry again because my
arms were on the steering wheel. But I started to
get stronger, and about two years into it, I went
back to work, and so I would get on stage
to do my theater stuff. I couldn't remember the lines.

(16:20):
So I went on large doses of vitamins and coleen
and anocetol to get my brain functioning back.

Speaker 5 (16:26):
And I'll still mess up.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
I still get you know, I went back to work
at you know, on fall Guy, and didn't do real
hard stuff. But then I got called to play a murder.
She wrote doubling Linda Hamilton from the terminator as a
tennis pro. So I was real good at tennis, and
I was like almost a pro from high school. And
so I got out there and I'm the tennis pro

(16:51):
and at one point I go up for the ball
and I just kind of fall back. Well, I hit
my bottom and I'm there on the set and I
went into the most excruciating pain, and I.

Speaker 5 (17:04):
Didn't dare tell anyone.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
So I got into the bathtub that night and my
stomach now had blown up the size of a watermelon,
and I'm like, oh no, something's really wrong. So we
called the ambulance and there was a tumor where that
tissue tried to regrow that was ripped those several years prior,

(17:26):
and it was attaching to the bladder, and if a
tumor attaches to the bladder, you're dead in seconds. So
they were in the Motion Picture hospital and they rushed
me in to emergency surgery. And for twelve years I
had a bleeding disorder and stood in the doorway, screaming
in heights of excruciating pain.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
And so I lived on.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
My residuals and I took work as a spiritual advisor,
laying on my bed, sitting on my bed and still
trying to bring money in, just losing everything.

Speaker 5 (18:04):
I no one will ever know. And when I.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
Moved, I would have to get down on the floor
and push the boxes with my legs. I was too
weak to stand up. When you lay for twelve years
and you have your stomach cut open, and you're open
there and the lower you know, there's a lot.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
That goes on that's between life and.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Death, and so I have a lot to say about
different things. And when you go through twelve years of that,
you come out of it very peaceful. And you come
out of it. I was never violent to begin with.
But you don't have a lot of the negative emotions
that other people are running around with because you've barely

(18:49):
made you know. It's a miracle, but.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
It would be really I think understandable if having gone
through all of that you did, there were still caring
number of negative emotions. I think it's remarkable that you're not,
and how much better that makes things for you.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
On a day to day basis.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
So that's how I then became a songwriter because during
all this and crawling to the microphone and learning, and
I sang Barber streisand every day because I thought, if
I try hard on it, one day, I'll sound like her.
But you know what, I'll never say, I don't have
the instrument. I'm alto soprano. I do sing a few

(19:32):
of her songs, but not either. You don't hear Barbara
Streisand but I was like, I will become the best
singer I can be, which is the same with gymnastics.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
I didn't do one hand standard flip club. I did
thousands upon thousands.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
And you know, it sounds like you were able to
use that resilience to really focus on what you love
and get better and better at it it and sort
of that constant seeking for stuff. I mean, it's just
incredibly impressive. I'm incredibly you know. My sister and I

(20:07):
were talking about female stunt women and she's like, well,
there are bades and I'm we're going to have to
bleep that because we don't have.

Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, I'm not your average stunt woman because I was
so gentle and peaceful and I had the gymnastics talent.
You know, I wasn't a motorcycle girl. I didn't grow
up with horses. I had the swimming and the gymnastics
and dance. But what's interesting is when you mentioned resilience.

(20:36):
I created a short documentary about my life that I'm
expanding into a full documentary and it's the resilience of
Marnine Fields.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
That's amazing. Well, so I have lots of questions about
the shows that you were on as a stunt woman.
And I got to tell you might be tiny and
very filled with love, which I love, but you threw
yourself around a little.

Speaker 5 (21:03):
It's unbelievable what I got called to do.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
You know? I did the feet first jump off the
first Interstate Bank building in a neglichet and little fluffy
slippers with a little heel, and that was seventy six
stories high at night?

Speaker 1 (21:19):
Was that the Quincy one?

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (21:21):
The Quincy depth of Beauty?

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Quincy depth of Beauty? Okay, how do you do that?

Speaker 5 (21:27):
Well, mainly it's like how did I get that job?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I was?

Speaker 3 (21:31):
I was walking through the halls of Universal Studio, And
what's so interesting is it sometimes I get stopped and
people would say, you.

Speaker 5 (21:40):
Know, are you Marne Field?

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (21:43):
And then one day I was stopped and this girl says,
what's your name and I said marnying In Fields and
she said, oh, you're in payroll every week and I,
you know, I worked all the time. So I was
walking through the hall and a guy bolts out of
the production office and he says, Martin Fields, come here.

(22:06):
He says, are you available Friday night? And I said
I thought about yes, And he says, are you able
to do a high fall or high jump?

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Sure? Of course. I didn't think it was going to be.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Seventy six stories high on the edge of the building. Now,
the jump itself was only twenty or thirty feet and
they brought in. It was in the gutter and the
building has since burned down, but it was the highest building.
And just being on the ledge and there's one photo
up on my IMDb where I do three clips of
that job and I have an arrow going to me

(22:39):
way up there, and I'm like such a tiny spick
And I was on that ledge and when I hit
those boxes, they're supposed to collapse. Well, I hit the
boxes and I started to balance because I was so
little and I'm in those heels. Luckily I was a
gymnast because I thought to sit in my bottom down.

(23:00):
Otherwise I'd be dead. I would have went right off
that edge. But many of my things were like that,
and it was really frightening, and I was like kind
of glancing down.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
I do want to back up and start with where
you started. So you were a gymnast, and what made
you decide to go into stunts.

Speaker 3 (23:22):
Well, I was home from college on an ankle reconstruction
surgery before any of this stunts took place. Somehow, I
did not ever say to myself, this can't be done.
You've had that ankle surgery. This can't be done. You
have this hearing impairment, this can't be done. It's just crazy,

(23:43):
you know when you think about it now. But being
a pioneering stunt woman, they didn't have things worked out
back then, all of us, we all took it hard.
You know, we didn't have the air bag. I went
into an air bag once. As a gymnast, I had
a spring floor once. I got to tumble one day

(24:04):
on a spring floor.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Whoa.

Speaker 5 (24:07):
You know the rest of it was.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
All my legs and I got beat up by a
Wonder Woman on a show where I had to act
like she had thrown me no jerk off cables back
then for use on me.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
I did high falls.

Speaker 3 (24:23):
I did a high fall from the boiler room swinging
catwalk of the Queen Mary into only some blankets blankets
because they couldn't get even a small twin mattress through
the door. Well, here's some blankets to fall on twenty feet.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
What was that for?

Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, that was for Goliath Awaits. So I had this
horrible ankle surgery, which ended my last year of college
at Utah State. My dad insisted that I come home
to Ventura and my older brother, Bobby Fields, he went
down to his stunt school, Paul Stater Stunt School, and
he says, I can't do this stuff, my sister can.

(25:01):
And so I went down and Paul stayed to recognize
a champion athlete and gymnast in me. Took me under
his wing and he discovered me, Paul Stater, and he
discovered a lot of us, a lot of your most
famous stuntmen, a few women, but mainly stunt men who
became the top coordinators of the day. They came out

(25:23):
of Paul's school and I was twenty one and Paul
was already sixty five or sixty seven, and Paul did
we did a double person high dive with him over
me where we both go off the bridge at the
same time on Man from Atlanta. And he was like

(25:43):
sixty seven or something when he did that dive with me,
and just an amazing man. And he got me into
the screen actors Skilled on a movie of the week
called The Spell. I landed the acting role of one
of the mischievous school mates, and then I also climbed
the rope without my legs. But then I also had

(26:04):
to do the high backward high fall from the dangling
rope onto a little mattress. And that's my first job
in the industry. And that then words started to spread,
and that's why I was. I had so much work.
I'm so thrilled I did because I missed that gymnastics.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
I don't miss the stunts. Then you worked on Wonder Woman,
And did you work with Linda Carter?

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Yes, she was the main person in the scene with me,
and she beat me up and threw me all over
her apartment and I had to fly over the couches
onto my back on the hardwood floor, you know, but
I was chained on how to do all of this.

Speaker 5 (26:47):
The gymnastics. Very few women.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
I think I was the only real champion gymnast doing stunts.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
So years, the early years.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
Now there's lots of them, but back then, you know,
when I got my scholarship in gymnastics, there were only
three in the whole United States that received that. They
didn't give athletics scholarships, so went back then. That's what's
remarkable is like, okay, I didn't have a gymnastics coach

(27:18):
learning back flip flops. I went into the gymnasium on
the hardwood floor and I started with backwalkover.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Both legs, backwalk.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Over there, and one day I said, you know, I
think I'm going to try that flip flop.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
And same with balance beam.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
I remember practicing on the balance being and doing front walkovers,
which is a blind trick in the man's storage. And
I learned to tumble on old gray wrestler match and
I would walk on my hands. The same year I
was playing that bass and the Culver City kids remember this.
They count to see how far I could go. They

(27:58):
gather around, Okay, walk on your you know, walk on
my hands. While they walked on their feet, and that's
a real sick How.

Speaker 5 (28:06):
Far can she go?

Speaker 3 (28:08):
And I'm back and I'm stronger today than ever now
with my productions, and I want to prove I can
go further.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
After that first job doing stunts, did you make kind
of a decision at that point that that was the
direction you really wanted to focus on.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
I wanted to act, and I kept doing stunts because
I got these stunt acting jobs, this small role and
then the stunt or a scream or just a couple
of lines of dialogue. And that hall stater discovered me
in summer of seventy six. By December of seventy six

(28:47):
and early seventy seven, I was one of the top stunt.

Speaker 5 (28:51):
Women in the world those years.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Then in nineteen seventy nine, I met Victor French of
Highway to Heaven and Little House on Prairie, and he
was everything that my mind understood as an actor. And
so I became real serious about being a famous actress.
And I was just on the brink when I had

(29:16):
the car accident. I had landed some guest star roles,
I had landed a big role and hit the film Hellhole,
and I was doing theater. I had just finished The
Tenth Man on Stage and a lot of fifteen plays
in the Los Angeles area. You guys met me on

(29:36):
the Scarecrow Missus King, and it was at that time
I was ready to break as an actress in James Fargo,
and they cast me right there to play Dorothy.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
So you played Dorothy in Scarecromess kse yes, you broke
Lee Stetson's heart before Kate Jackson. That's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 (29:55):
And that was such a big day. And then that
was nineteen eighty five. And so you asked me earlier,
you know, how did I keep going on the darkest night?
And had I not had this huge success? And what's
so amazing is today it's all coming back. I'm winning

(30:15):
awards and things for all of that that I did
in the seventies and eighties. And there were powerful men
that believed in me and told me keep going, keep punching,
stay in there, you can do it. My mom was very,
very disabled, and she came to some gymnastics meeting and

(30:36):
she was there the day we filmed the Dorothy things.
But she was severely disabled. And then my dad very
very abusive, so I was never allowed even to talk
about any of what I did. I look at it
now and I'm like, whoa, you know, it was really something.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Yeah, I mean the man from Atlanta stuff is pretty amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:06):
Yeah, And I was a regular on that.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Yeah, and like you were clearly a swimmer. Did you
study scuba diving or yeah?

Speaker 5 (31:14):
I'm then advanced certified scuba diver.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
Paul took me out one day to be on the
Poseidon Adventure to double Shirley.

Speaker 5 (31:22):
Jones, and he made me fill.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
Bags of oysters that he would grabbed the oyster pud
till it was so heavy you could hardly swim. And
then I took the Advanced Diver program, and I just
want to say.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
I was the worst in the class.

Speaker 5 (31:40):
It was really hard.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
I took the Basic first, then I took the Intermediate,
then I took the Advance and the Advanced Tadlight night dives.
They drop you in the middle of the ocean and
down at the bottom with your compass. You got to
find a little on the ocean floor, so no air.

(32:03):
You got to take one deep breath and you got
to go down, down, down and look for this bag.
And then you got to blow the bag till its
surfaces till its surfaces, and that's one of the tests,
and then you got.

Speaker 5 (32:21):
To come up.

Speaker 1 (32:22):
So wow, no, thank you. It's very impressive. Oh my goodness.
I imagine you were one of the few women on
these sets, and it sounds like there were a lot
of guys that were incredibly supportive. But did it feel weird?
Did you ever feel like what am I doing here? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (32:43):
I worked.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
I mean so many days I was the only woman
out on something with the group of stunt guys. So
you know, in your life where you're at, you usually
meet guys to date, and so I dated a couple
stunt guys because that's what you know. I was young

(33:07):
just before the accident, and they broke my heart.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Of course, two of them broke.

Speaker 3 (33:12):
My heart, and I wanted to get married, and you know,
but then I had the accident, couldn't have children, so whatever,
that's life, that's what all the people say. But I
wouldn't have become the broken hearted songwriter. I was meant
to go through all this to be able.

Speaker 5 (33:32):
To I don't know, who knows.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
When you were doing those swimming stuff, so much of
it looked like it was really out on real water
and not just in pols.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
Yeah, we're out on Catalina Island and we weren't in
tanks or anything.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
We're the real McCoy there.

Speaker 3 (33:52):
And I did an underwater fight scene with him, and
I'm the first woman that was photographed, if not maybe
possible with the only woman doing the Man from Atlanta's swim.
I play that alien that dives off the bridge. But
then I also did everything for Belinda Montgomery on this series,
and I am the one who dove out of the

(34:12):
helicopter to give him mouth to mouth necessitation to pull
him out. And he is so nice and oh my god,
he was just so handsome back then. I hear he's
going to remake Man from Atlantis.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Oh, Patrick Duffy, I like that.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
I did a lot of scuba stuff.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
I did a project Ufo and Beyond the Poseidon for
Shirley Jones, and.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Then you worked for Shirley Jones again on her show,
her Shirley Show, which she.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
Asked for me after the Beyond the Poseidon And if
you look at my face, I mean I look so
much like her, and she was the most classy and
sophisticated and the carriage and to stand next to her,
and I think in the late seventies early eighties she
was driving like a Bentley or something that said Missus

(35:04):
Angeles was a license played. I believe it was gold
if I remember. But she was so great and it
was quite an honor.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
That's amazing. And then you know you wanted to be
an actress, so you're actually also when you're doubling someone,
it's so important that you act like them, right, yes,
And when you're doing the doubling, you know, how would
you prepare for basically being able to do that stunt
as the role?

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Well, one of the things as a stunt woman is
you always keep your face away from camera so that
you know you can't really be seen. But as an
actress and as a stunt person, one of the things
Paul stayed at an amazing wife and she taught us study them,
study their mannerisms.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
And I looked.

Speaker 5 (35:54):
It was so weird because someone yesterday told me you.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
Look like this person, this actress, and I looked like
so many of the actresses, Like I doubled Kim Cattrell
on Hardy Boy Nancy Drew's back then, and we were
the same age or she was a year older than me,
or some brown hair, and I looked like just much
like hers. I looked like June Lockhart, and also as

(36:18):
much as I looked like Jane Seymour. And when I
was a Jane Seymour, you know, they put me in
the long wig and everybody the hoots and hollers and
oh wow, you know, so there's something about her magical hair.
But I looked like I looked so much like so
many of them, Linda Peurle. I doubled her and still

(36:39):
look quite a bit like her. So I don't know
what it was. I just guess it was just looked
like a lot of different people.

Speaker 1 (36:47):
Then they put you in the wig and the outfit
and there you are, Yes on, Lou Grant, you actually
got to play a gymnast.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Yes, you've really studied what I did. I love it,
Lou Grant. I got called in to play, I got
cast as a famous Belgium gymnas Olga, and I got
to do some flip flops and they didn't film it right.
And I have this complain about a lot of different things.

(37:17):
I mean, they should have done those flip flops from
this angle rather than me.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Come. I mean, you see me.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
But they're flawless flip flops, and I would have liked
to have seen them, and I wanted to add a flipper,
a twist or something. But I was so happy to
get that.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
But you didn't get to work with at Asner, no matter.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
No, just the other photographer and news reporter.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
Well, that's interesting that you were talking about how you
might have shot your flip flops from a different angle.
Perhaps even then sort of the beginnings of thinking like
a director was kind of there.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
Well, Paul Schater taught us early in my career where
to put the camera to get the best shot. And
if you wanted a high fall, look higher, you place
it low angle. Yeah, and what did you do on
Battlestar Galactica. These are all my favorite shows, right, so
I grew up on these shows. Well, Battlestar Galactica, I

(38:12):
doubled Jane Seymour and I did several episodes for her.
Do you remember when they were in like the Egyptian
Tomb and there was the earthquake and it fell on them. Well,
I was her and all that stuff fell on me
and crashing, and I was a fighter pilot and I
was one of the girls that was a fighter pilot,

(38:35):
no dialogue, but I was in the console room where
there was we got hit by other spaceship and I
went over the rail and different falling into different things.
And then also during a lot of explosion stuff where
I'd be running through the camp and the girl you
see in the air in the explosions getting blown up,

(38:58):
that was me.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
In one of those.

Speaker 5 (39:01):
I split my pants because I had the.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Little gird ale on under the pants, and I was
so embarrassed that I ran and did this and booth,
there went the pants. My big stunt on Battlestar Galacta
was the camel scene. There's a fight scene on camel
instead of horseback, and I come out the door and

(39:26):
I'm shooting, and imagine this, okay, I with one arm.
He scoops me up onto the back of the camel,
but I don't get to sit in the hump. I'm
on the butt of the camel and I've got one
arm and we're dodging in and out and all these
bullets and everything, and I'm.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Pulling on for dear life.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
And right before I went to do that stunt that day,
I got artificial nails for the first time.

Speaker 5 (39:54):
And of course they ripped right office.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
But I was little back then and able to get
hooped up onto the back butt of a camel that high.
I had to clear it, and we did it.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
Good night again night.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Now I'm trying to figure out which episode involved a cow.
Now I have to do a Battlestar glastico very visit.
Why don't we take a little break?

Speaker 3 (40:22):
Okay, Well, I could listen to you all day. Your
voice is so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Oh thank you. All right, little break and then we
come back and talk about the movies and a little
more TV. Okay, we're back.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
I mean, this is really exciting to be recognized as
one of the eighties TV ladies, you know, coming from stunts.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
It's just really great.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And that's been really a great joy for us to
be able to talk to you and to all the
women that were so vital to this time. And women
were just coming stunt women, right, you were on the
beginning of things, and that is a really exciting time.
It's also really tough time, right to be the first

(41:10):
one through the door, the first one doing stuff, because
there's not a lot of models to follow, right, You're
not like, oh, I know what my career is going
to look.

Speaker 5 (41:18):
For, especially the type of stunts I did.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
I mean they had the horse girls, and they had
the cars and motorcycles, but big stunts on the small screen.
And that's exactly what I did. I did big stunts
because I did more TV and movies of the week
than I did in the feature films. Like you'll look
at some stunt women, like someone like Debbie Evans who's

(41:44):
done a lot of motorcycles and cars, and she's done
more film.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
But I was just TV.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
So I really am, you know.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
An eighties TV lady, Eighties TV lady.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
I was going to ask you about other stunt women
that you either met or were like, oh I'm always
going up against her, or just were mentors, or I
mean what it was to meet other stunt women at
that time.

Speaker 3 (42:10):
Well, I didn't meet very many. I didn't work with
very many, that's for sure. I had a friend, Paula
Moody Meyer. We came out of the stunt school together
and she died very tragically in a horse riding accident
in her backyard. And she was my one friend that

(42:32):
was also a stunt woman. But we would go years
I didn't see her and she was very small. I
was small also, but she was much smaller than me.
And she doubled Sissy's Basic and Morgan Fairchild, and I
got called one day to double Morgan Fairchild.

Speaker 5 (42:54):
Paula wasn't available on.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
Time Express and it was the Vincent Pride short lived series.

Speaker 5 (43:02):
I had to ride on the back.

Speaker 3 (43:03):
Seat of a bicycle built for two, and we have
a bicycle accident with another bike colliding into us on
the bridge at Columbia Ranch, and it throws us.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
And the bike into the water.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
But keep in mind, now I'm in the trapped I'm
in the back seat of the bicycle built for two.
It's blind. I can't see when he's gonna hit us.
And I got to clear that bike so it doesn't
break my legs so I can. And it's shallow water.
I was always going into shallow water. The double dive
with paul had like six feet. But that bicycle built

(43:43):
for two trick was probably one of the slipperiest potential
for broken legs that you could ever.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
You should see it. You got thrown off of a
lot of things, like Jim Garner threw you off of
a plane and.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
All James Garner he threw me out of a jet
features at Night on Rock Fury. I did two extremely
difficult stunts for James Garner, and I've been hugged by him.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
And what does that feel like to be hugged by jam.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
When you when the star is directing him, Clint Eastwood,
Irwin Allen, when these incredibly brilliant, gracious, powerful, These men
don't have a bad attitude. These men aren't small. They
don't belittle you, you know, and Bruce box Lightner, you know,

(44:37):
and they come running up and they hug you and
they tell you how great and how.

Speaker 5 (44:42):
Did you do it?

Speaker 1 (44:43):
It's like no tomorrow.

Speaker 5 (44:45):
So James Garner, it's at night.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
Of course, you had to do everything at night in
the dark. Backwards.

Speaker 5 (44:53):
So my seat catches on fire in the airplane.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
So I have that little battle first and we races
me to the door and then he pushes me out
with like no more.

Speaker 5 (45:05):
And I don't even have blankets on this one.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
I don't have an airbag, I don't have a mat
on anything except the runway. What and it said night? Wait, yeah,
it said night, And I'm in the jet, so I
gotta go out and I got to hit that runway
and you know, and roll across it. Bang bang bang,
and so this is really you just aren't going to

(45:30):
believe this. We finish it and they bring the actors
in and they bring a little block about this big,
and they put her on the block.

Speaker 5 (45:38):
They say, Okay, you're going to jump off the.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
Block, and you're going to act like you've jumped into
the scene. She jumps off the block and breaks her
ankle and it was so devastating. I felt so bad
for her and I had just I mean, that was
a good twenty five thirty foot feet first.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
That's insane.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
So then the other stunt on Rockford Files another really
just unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
I'm on the back of a.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Motorcycle as a rape victim, and he drives in. He
spins around, and he says, what do we do with her?
And he says, we get rid of it. Now, keep
in mind, I'm on the back of a motorcycle again
easy for broken legs, and he reaches around. It goes
like this throws me off the motorcycle. I got to

(46:31):
clear that motorcycle with both legs up and over and
land on my stomach. Just an angel on my shoulder
and God's protection because I don't know how I cleared
that motorcycle. But my big break came on the feature
film The Gauntlet, where I got cast opposite Clint Eastwood

(46:53):
and I got to beat him up and he punches
me backwards with a half twist off the moving train.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
Off a moving train, like a real life moving train.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
Yeah, a real life moving train, and only into some sand.
Props brought a little wheelbarrow and they threw the sand
in front of the train where I was going to jump,
and then they threw.

Speaker 5 (47:17):
In some tumbleweeds.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
But the main thing about the stunt off the train
and the Gauntlet is it I had to go backward
out the door with the half twist, and the train
is moving, and you have to position your body so
you're going the same direction the train's going or you'll
get sucked back under the wheels and crushed to death.
So I had to battle, and I can't describe to

(47:42):
anyone what that was like, battling that train to keep
my body going in that direction so I didn't get
sucked back under. And then once the train leaves, the
gravitational force leaves and you just drop like a sack
of potatoes. And then you're hitting the ground owned at
the weight and speed you were traveling, so you're really

(48:05):
hitting that ground and flying. But he loved it, and
I've talked to him since, and they gave me all
the still photos. That was one of the most difficult
stunts a woman did on film that year, if not
the most difficult a young girl, and it launched my
career overnight.

Speaker 5 (48:23):
They had me in my stunt in all the papers.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
They put a black and white of Clint and Sondra
on the lobby cart and my.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Stunt under him. It's very impressive. It's very, very impressive,
And that's a very kind of classic Clin Eastwood scene
because before that stunt is you're fighting with Cline went
on the train and then he sort of gets the
upper hand and she's like, you wouldn't punch a woman,
would you write?

Speaker 3 (48:51):
That's exactly it? And then yeah, Samantha Done was who
I was doubling there. But I beat him up when
he was tied against the wall there, and I don't know,
might be one of the only women who ever got
to beat him up.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
But I just love him and I love his work.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
And I always say, and I always tell this, he
was so dropped dead, gorgeous and handsome. I couldn't take
my eyes off him. I've never seen anyone as handsome
as he was that year. I was like, you know, here,
I am twenty one. I've just have you honestly ever
seen anyone as handsome as he was when he was young?

Speaker 1 (49:31):
Yeah? Young Paul Newman, I mean you know.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Yeah, oh yeah, a young Paul Newman. Yeah, a young
well Paul Newman at any age?

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Yes, Well, what was your favorite memory from that time?
What's your favorite stunt?

Speaker 3 (49:46):
Well, that would have to be the scarecrow, missus King.
I would say that, just everything about that job. And
do you remember Dorsy died there with all the roses, with.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
All the ras, and that's why he can't stand roses.
Oh I know, Oh I know.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
And I got to my dressing room and my mom
was there that day and there's a knock on the
door and it's Bruce and he's got a dozen roses
for me. Were you there to hear the panel at
the restaurant the evening of the forty year?

Speaker 1 (50:22):
I was there, but Susan unfortunately was not.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
You saw how we talked about it, and I was like,
oh my God the handsome. He was so handsome, and
he gave me a dozen roses, and I kept the
roses for years till finally I kept just one rose. Then,
as a silly young girl, I put it in a
piece of wax paper and I wrote, with love Bruce

(50:51):
or something. I forget, but it's in my book. And
then he married Melissa Gilbert after that, and I was heartbroke,
and you were heartbroke.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
And I have to ask you about Riptide. My husband's
big fan of Riptide.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Well, you know what's interesting is I was just going
to tell you something about Riptide because I did an
acting role on Riptide, playing the broken hearted waitress Pauline,
and I cry, so here's a Riptide And I had
to run with spike heels down a cobblestone street and

(51:26):
it's so slippery, and you're running at full speed down
that cobblestone streep, and I've got a manuscript in my arm.
I've got the secret manuscript. So then I come to
a bob wire fence, a flimsy bob wire fence, and

(51:47):
it's so flimsy, and I've got the spike keels on.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
They're high for me. So I've got to go up
to this fence.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Manuscript in one hand, and I got a scale this
bob wire fence, get over the top of it and
it's got the spike, you know, and get over and
drop and escape. So I run up to this dang
bob wire fence. And this is like the only time
in my career I had to do something a couple

(52:17):
of times because I'd always get it on one tank.
But as I tried to climb that fence, those heels
would fall off my heels and trap me like a
spider in a whim. I'm trapped now on this bob
wire fence.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
No, it wasn't real barbed wire. It wasn't real.

Speaker 5 (52:35):
Yes it was, Yeah, it was what is happening in
the eighties? What was real bob wire?

Speaker 4 (52:41):
They grew up a seventy six story building for goodness sake.

Speaker 5 (52:46):
So that was the two riptides that I did.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (52:51):
These were all big budget shows.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
They were all prime time, so it wasn't like today
where everything's non union. And I mean, and this was
like cream of the crop, and all the residuals that
have followed, I mean, each of these shows have continued
to pay all these years and those years that I
was disabled, I lived on those residuals and disability and

(53:18):
different things. Then I did other jobs and had other
money coming in, always working.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
I'm curious about the movie that you wrote and directed,
Who's going to take care of Me?

Speaker 5 (53:30):
Well, I'm still working on that now.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
That is my mom's true story.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
She was very disabled and unable to write, so she
kind of told some of what she wanted. She had
a tumor removed from her stomach that was the size
of a grapefruit. She was in eighty five and she
divorced my dad and she had a breakdown and she
ran away. They diagnosed it as a viral schizophrenia. So

(53:57):
she was missing for nine years, and I tried to
bring her home and I found her within a couple
of weeks after my baptism. And one of the promises
of baptism is that your family will be reunited, and
she was my best friend, so I didn't hesitate going

(54:19):
and bringing her home, and I was able to bring
her home to safety and take care of her for
thirteen years. And when she was found, she had a
brain lymphoma now the size of a man's wallet on
her face. She was so cute and so sweet. But
it's a real I only her film right now. I'm

(54:40):
still raising funds and I'm finishing editing part one.

Speaker 5 (54:44):
So it's a story that needs to be told because
it can help. It's not about being homeless, It's about
the disease of schizophrenia.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
I'm fascinating. I was raised by a single mom. I
think it's really fascinating when people talk about working with
their mother or you know, realizing the mother daughter relationship
in different ways, and so portraying your mother, particularly in
something this dramatic, is such an interesting choice and such

(55:13):
an interesting journey.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
It's an amazing story and I've written it and you're
real proud of it.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
That's cool. Yeah. So I was just going to ask
what's up next for you? And it sounds like working
on this and singing. Where can people find you.

Speaker 5 (55:29):
On IMDb, dot me slash Marning Fields.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Are you going to be singing somewhere?

Speaker 3 (55:36):
Yeah, I've got a lot of live performances. I've booked
Las Vegas. I'm just always working. I'm always working. You're
like there's like an energizer bunny element.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Where you just keep going.

Speaker 5 (55:51):
I keep going.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
You've had so much great things.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Yeah, this stuff just keeps coming to me, you know,
like I don't turn down anything. That's how I've got
so far. Thank you so much for sharing all. Thank
you some wonderful stories with us. I know they are
very unique and your journey, Ye, thank you.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
Your story is remarkable on so many levels. And you're
another one of the great eighties TV ladies that we've
had the thank you joy of getting to meet and
getting to know.

Speaker 3 (56:24):
So thank you, thank you, thank you very much for
saying that, because that's what I need to hear so
I can keep going with the stories since inspiring others,
and because.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
It is a unique story. Yeah, your spirit is so amazing.
I'm really glad we got to talk with you.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
Me too, I've had a great time.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
Thanks bye. In today's audioography.

Speaker 4 (56:52):
You can find Marnine's info on Instagram and Facebook at
Heavenly Waterfall per Days.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
And you can find Marnine's acting book on Amazon. Marnine
is crowdfunding for the award winning script she is turning
into a movie about her mother's story. You can help
support her film, Who's Going to take Care of Me
at crowdfunder dot com, Slash who's going to take care
of me? The links will be in our description.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Once again, thank you all for listening. Do you remember
the amazing stunts of nineteen eighties television? Do you have
any favorite stunts or stuntwomen you'd like us to try
and track down. We're also looking for suggestions of any
star trek ladies you want us to talk with. Send
us your messages at our website eightiestv Ladies dot com.

(57:43):
That's eight zero s TV l A d E s
dot com. We so appreciate your feedback. If you like
our show, please leave us a rating and a review.
On Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can mention what shows
or ladies you'd like us to cover her and don't
miss our next episode where we begin our look at

(58:04):
Mama's family. We hope Eighties TV Ladies brings you joy
and laughter and lots of fabulous new and old shows
to watch, all of which lead us forward toward being
amazing ladies of the twenty first century.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
Hand so pretty through the city, treated

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Pull the money in the world.

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Punched off a Train by Clint Eastwood and the Path to Resilience | Stuntwoman Marneen Fields

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