A local daredevil who spent 13 years taking hits for Arnold Schwarzenegger on popular action films like The Terminator, Last Action Hero and True Lies was recently inducted into the Hollywood Stuntman's Hall of Fame.
And although Peter H. Kent is finished with putting his life on the line, he still bares the scars marking his wild work, which includes 14 Schwarzenegger films.
The 52-year-old, who grew up in North Vancouver and moved to Squamish from Los Angeles three years ago, broke a lot of bones over his impressive career. In the 1996 action film Eraser alone, he broke his collarbone, scapula and top three ribs when he was hit by an overseas shipping container.
"I got injured pretty much on all of them in some way," said Kent. "You get a beating every day and you just got to get back up and keep doing it."
During 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Kent put in more hours on set as the muscular machine than Schwarzenegger did, he said, adding that he was the first in the industry to wear a particular kind of latex mask which gave him the appearance of the film star.
But wearing the mask proved nearly as demanding as the stunts, which included the famous motorcycle chase scene where the Terminator launches his machine off a huge drop.
It took between three and five hours to apply the mask, and he had to wear it for about 12 hours a day while performing arduous stunts, also known as "gags." During the final fight scene in the steel mill, Kent had to stop partway through to cut a section off the mask to drain a sloshing build-up of blinding sweat.
"You've got to work under those conditions and you're exhausted. I remember [director James Cameron] waking me up after passing out from exhaustion," said Kent. "He was like, 'You know, I've s***-kicked a lot of stuntmen in lots of movies but I've never beaten on anybody like I've beaten on you the last three days.'"
Besides coffee and willpower, a strong sense of duty helped Kent through long days on set. He was committed to believability and efficiency, always trying to nail stunts on the first take no matter the difficulty.
"There's a certain pride in it. I was proud of the fact that I always tried to get it in one take because I know the crew is waiting on me and the actors are waiting on me. I always wanted to test myself," he said.
Kent's source of pride has shifted dramatically since becoming a parent, with his wife Marcia, of month-old twin boys Hunter and Ryder. However, he's still involved in the entertainment industry as a writer, actor, screenwriter, producer and stunt director.
In 2006, he co-created and hosted Stuntdawgs, a documentary mini-series exploring the ins and outs of pulling off spectacular stunts. It was on this show that he attempted his last major stunt, recreating a bigger, badder version of the motorcycle chase scene from Terminator 2.
But the stunt went terribly wrong when the support cables holding the bike high over a quarry quickly slackened, sending him into the face of a cliff. Kent reached up at the last second and snatched the support cable, preventing him from plummeting to the rocky ground below.
"I love the adrenaline rush, that's for sure, but my wife was not pleased to hear how that gag went down with the motorcycle," said Kent. "I just figured maybe it wasn't the best time to be doing that stuff anymore."
