Episode 089 - Legendary Actor. Filmmaker, Stuntwoman, Singer, Songwriter and Author Marneen Fields

The Viewfinder Podcast with Chris Hadley

This week’s guest is not just an incredibly talented actor, screenwriter, producer, director, stuntwoman, singer, songwriter and author. As you’ll hear shortly, Marneen Fields is also a survivor - in more ways than one. Born in Minot, North Dakota, she survived a childhood diagnosis of emphysema and an enlarged heart, plus the loss of 80% of her hearing in her left ear.

Despite those physical struggles, Fields excelled as both a student and an athlete, dazzling fans with her acrobatics as a member of the Utah State University women’s gymnastics team. In 1976, her agility caught the eye of famed movie and TV stunt performer Paul Stader, who prepared her for the next chapter of her remarkable life: Hollywood.

Fields broke the proverbial glass ceiling for female stunt actors while taking the leaps, hits and falls for some of Hollywood’s greatest stars on the big screen in The Swarm, The Howling, The Concorde: Airport '79, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, and Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet. She made her mark on the small screen, too, in made-for-TV movies such as High Midnight and The Coven and shows like Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Murder, She Wrote, The Fall Guy, Dynasty and Matlock.

Simultaneously, Fields also came into her own as a speaking performer with appearances alongside Eastwood in The Gauntlet, James Garner on The Rockford Files, Bruce Boxleitner on Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Jeff Goldblum in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Olivia de Havilland and Fred Macmurray in Irwin Allen’s 1978 disaster movie The Swarm, and Dick Van Dyke in director Stanley Kramer’s 1979 religious drama The Runner Stumbles.

In 1985 Fields became the first stunt performer-turned speaking actor to become a prominent part of a motion picture’s ensemble cast when she co-starred in the chilling medical thriller Hellhole, but when a calamitous car crash almost ended her life and career, she began a physically painful but spiritually rejuvenating journey that led to the second act of her storybook show business story: being a prolific, award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, vocalist, songwriter and published author.

Fields has written two books: the biographical Cartwheels and Halos: The True Marneen Fields Story, published by Trilogy Publishing (a division of religious cable network TBN), and The Illusive Craft of Acting: An Actor's Preparation Process, her acclaimed instructional guide for aspiring on-camera performers. Her screenplays have won or been nominated for numerous awards.

She’s also written and performed original songs, such as “I’m Gonna Be A Hollywood Stuntman” (based on her screenplay Johnny Hawk A.K.A Hard Nuts), “I’ll Never Kiss His Lips Again”, “Release My Love” and “I’ve Never Ever Stopped Loving You”, just to name a few.

On this edition of the Viewfinder Podcast, Marneen talks to me about not just her extraordinary experiences as an actor and stuntwoman but also two upcoming projects that chronicle the public and private sides of her fascinating history. First, there’s the feature-length film Who's Gonna Take Care Of Me?, written, produced and directed by Fields and starring the actor in the emotionally challenging role of her late, schizophrenia-afflicted mother.

Then, we discuss the soon-to-be published book Rollin' With The Punches. Co-authored by Fields and prolific film historian John Harrison, the volume is a comprehensive compendium of both her outstanding stunt career and her memories of life as “Hollywood’s Original Fall Girl”. I’m honored and delighted to have Marneen join me now on the Viewfinder Podcast.

Check out Marneen's IMDB page for a full list of credits:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0276312/

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Music by Audionautix.com