AMAZING STORY
Hollywood Stuntman Falls Flat on His Face
By Rod Thomas
The 700 Club
CBN.com - Veteran Hollywood stuntman Will Harper has always had a need for speed!
"There's just an excitement to it," he says. "Maybe for some people they would just get terrified or the adrenalin would make them almost sick. But the way I'm wired, it just feels good. It's exhilarating."
As a teenager he started racing motocross. "By the time I was 18 I had actually won a pro championship locally here in Southern California. I felt like I was on my way and a lot of people said, 'Man, you're going to be world champ. You got it.' It was a sense of accomplishment. I wanted to do it better than anybody else. I wanted to be somebody"
Racing took a toll on his body and injuries forced him to retire from racing at the age of 25. "I was angry at God. 'This isn't fair. It's not right.' I'd tried so hard, and I had so much promise and it was just dashed on the rocks."
Around this time, a friend offered him work doing motorcycle stunts in movies and television.
"I still had good skills and I didn't have to win a race. All I had to do was ride well enough to get a shot, which I could do that easily. And quickly became a top stunt man in Hollywood. (I worked on) the A-Team TV series, I doubled Sylvester Stallone in Rambo on the first, First Blood movie."
While working on the movie, The River with Mel Gibson, he found out how dangerous stunt work really was.
"I'm beating the windshield out as they're driving about 5 miles an hour and then I jump up to go after Mel and the guy next to him is supposed to throw me off. And six stunt guys were running to catch me and they (actors) got all fired up and they knocked my safety guys out of the way. I bounced off one of them, went right under the truck and I got those dual rears right over my chest and it sounded like dried twigs snapping it was horrible. I knew I was dead."
Amazingly, Will survived; but now, too banged up to do stunts still he needed something to give him purpose so he started racing stock cars. He also married, and he and his wife started a construction business.
"At this point I thought, "Okay, well, maybe if I'm rich, if I make a bunch of money I'll be happy."
He soon found out that money wasn't enough. "A darkness came into my life and my older brother died at 40 years-old. My racing just tanked. It was weird. My first wife and I were involved with the construction but I really didn't like her. I didn't like construction. I didn't like anything."
Searching for answers, he went to a friend to talk things out. His friend smoked crack and after a few beers, Will made a fateful decision.
"I said, 'You know what? Give me that pipe.' And he's like, 'No, you don't want to do this.' I said, 'no, give it to me.' I started smoking crack right then and there, Will remembers. It just took me like a rocket ship to the moon. Unfortunately with that stuff, the next thing you know you're like a free-falling safe going to hell. That drug is like nothing else because in a matter of six months I didn't have a wife, I didn't have two race-cars, a hauler, an ocean racing boat or a house or anything."
For the next ten years, Will used and sold crack. He also married and the two stayed high. He moved his family to Montana to get a fresh start, but soon started using and selling crystal meth - and police took notice.
"I had a premonition that we were going to get busted and I left the house and my wife went back. I told her, 'Don't go back there. I'm telling you, we're getting busted.' She went back and the cops pounced on her and she got arrested and our baby, Will, went into protective custody. I'm hiding out. I don't know what to do. They've got her, they've got my baby and they're looking for me."
While riding in a friend's car, Will says he had a vision. "I could see myself at Woodside market, just like I'm watching a video, and I'm getting arrested. And I'm standing there with all these cops around."
Will knew the vision came from God. "God's the only one that truly knows the future. I remember saying something very strange at that time. I told the girl, 'You know what? Just go to the Woodside market. And if I get arrested how I told you, that's God's answer for me.' The very first car that drove by was the Ravalli County Sheriff. It's just like someone pointed me out, because he looked me right in my eyes and he pulled in there. And the next thing I know I'm handcuffed and all these cops are there and I'm seeing the exact scene that I'd seen in my mind."
Will faced a 100-year prison sentence and by now, he and his wife were divorced. He knew that somehow, God had a purpose in his arrest.
"I said, 'You know, God, I always believed in You, but I never thought You were quite this personal.' I said, 'Just tell me what to do.' You know, those 'Vacancy/No Vacancy' signs that flash? They're little tube fluorescents. I can see that in my head going. 'Read the Bible. Read the Bible.'
For four months, Will studied the Bible, and one day: "I was reading about Jesus on the cross and He had just died and the centurion said, 'This is an innocent man. This is the Son of God.' Right at that moment I just burst into tears and all of a sudden I got born again, saved, right there on the spot. I knew who Jesus really was. It wasn't just words. I had an understanding for the Bible. I went from hating it to loving it."
Will was discipled by a local pastor that worked with inmates. Also, the judge reduced his sentence to only two and a half years.
"It was so overwhelming in so many ways and I felt his love."I felt free for the first time and I truly was free."
He was released on parole, and called his brother Tom, who was also in the film industry. The two hadn't spoken in years. "He said, 'Hey, if you want to, you can come work on Iron Man II, if it's okay with your parole officer.' I asked and they said, 'Yeah, that would be all right. You can get a travel permit.'"
In fact, Will still works on movies with his brother; he's also back to racing motocross. In time, he reconciled with his son. Now the thrills – and his purpose, come from a different source.
"Don't get me wrong. The stunt business is incredible. It's exciting. The motorcycles, it's all exciting; But, it's nothing compared to working for God. Working for the Creator of the Universe? I mean, it's a privilege and an honor, and to me it just does something inside my heart. When I got born again and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, up until that point it seemed to me like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong in my life. And now I embrace the day, even the hard days. I am excited about life. What a difference. What a difference a Savior makes!"
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