In the world of film and television stunt work, Malibu’s Diane Peterson has done it all over the past few decades, and is still doing it—when filmmakers need someone to drive a sports car into a lake, ride a horse at a gallop, get chased by a helicopter, ride motorcycles, fall through a window, fight, scuba dive, catch fire during an explosion, get run over and any number of other action scenarios, she gets the call.
Peterson, an actress and stuntwoman, has been in 85 feature-length films and 45 different television series. She was the stunt double for Jessica Lange in “King Kong,” and also doubled for actresses Sharon Stone, Diane Keaton, Farrah Fawcett and Rebecca De Mornay, among others, in various films.
On Oct. 18, Peterson returned to her hometown of Elmwood Park, NJ (population just under 20,000), to be inducted into the Elmwood Park Athletic Hall of Fame. At the event, attended by 250 people including many of her old classmates and teachers, she was honored with an award plaque and certificate of congratulations from the mayor.
Early in 2018, Peterson’s book is coming out. “Hollywood Stuntwoman” is “both a memoir and a motivational book about following your dreams and overcoming your fears, punctuated with great stunt stories,” she said. She’s in the enviable position of interviewing several interested publishers, and will choose shortly.
Peterson was a daredevil from very early on while growing up in Elmwood Park—she began riding a pony at the age of three, was jumping horses by the age of seven, and won numerous trophies and ribbons in the years that followed.
Peterson’s father, a trucking company owner, taught her the love of driving. At 17, she got a Corvette and began competing in quarter-mile drag races, winning trophies at three different speedways, while still participating in horse jumping events.
After obtaining a drama degree, Peterson’s first acting job was in New York on the TV series “Kojak.” She watched two stuntmen do a car chase and found her calling.
Peterson said it wasn’t easy starting out as a stuntwoman, because at that time in the ‘70s, nearly all stunts were still being performed by men. “The guys said, ‘Forget it—we put the wigs on and we do it,’” Peterson recalled. She stuck to her guns and they gave her a chance. Her first stunt, getting hit by a car, didn’t go well and she almost gave up.
One of the guys told her, “It’s like falling off a horse—you need to go back and try again.” She did, the stunt went well, and stunts have been her profession ever since.
“The more you can do, the more work you’ll get. A lot of it is working with stunt coordinators and making a leap of faith—you pad up, envision the stunt going perfectly, and you go for it,” Peterson described.
She worked in New York with the East Coast Stuntmen’s Association for two years, then moved to Los Angeles for year-round work. “I started working pretty quickly in LA,” she said. “Even without knowing anyone, it just all fell into place.”
Beginning in the late ‘80s, Peterson said men were no longer allowed to be stunt doubles for women.
“We made a big stink with the union because the guys were taking all our jobs,” she said. Peterson was president of the Stuntwomen’s Association of Motion Pictures for seven years.
For the film “River of Death,” she spent three months in South Africa. One stunt involved her being in an exploding hut and getting blown out into a river at night. “Just before the stunt, I saw a giant snake in the water, and had to yell at the director, who sent two guys out to chase it away in a boat,” Peterson recalled.
On another shoot, she played stunt double for Jessica Lange in “Blue Sky,” galloping a horse across the desert while being chased by a helicopter. The horse got confused by the shadows of the helicopter rotors, and reared up and spun around. Luckily, Peterson did not fall off. This happened after having to demonstrate to star Tommy Lee Jones that she could ride one of his horses at a full gallop.
Peterson also played a first-class passenger in the film “Titanic,” filmed in Rosarita Beach, Mexico, where she was rescued from a lifeboat as it tipped over.
“It’s been wonderful to work all over the world,” Peterson said. “I feel blessed to have found a career I absolutely love.”
