Lexington history: Stuntman dies while filming movie downtown in 1978
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history — some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
A number of television shows and movies have filmed in Lexington and Central Kentucky — but one movie filmed in 1978 would prove to be fatal for a stuntman determined to break a world record.
Hollywood legend and Kentuckian Lee Majors starred in the movie “Steel,” which was filmed in Lexington. Majors was born Harvey Lee Yeary in Wyandotte, Michigan, but when both of his parents were killed in separate accidents, his aunt and uncle in Middlesboro adopted him.
Majors grew up in Kentucky, played sports at Middlesboro High School and graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 1962. After graduation, he left the state for Hollywood to become a star.
He’s most known for his work as “The Six Million Dollar Man,” but before that, he was a Hollywood stuntman.
In 1978, Majors came to Lexington to film “Steel.” Majors plays a building foreman leading a ragtag crew to construct a steel skyscraper before it defaults back to a greedy tycoon. Posters for the movie included the tagline, “They reached for an impossible dream and built a miracle.”
Filming took place at the Kincaid Towers, which were at that time under construction. At one point in the movie, stuntman A.J. Bakunas, doubling for George Kennedy, falls from the tower.
Bakunas was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and quit his job as a gym teacher for a shot at stardo. His first stunt work appeared in the film “Dog Day Afternoon” with Al Pacino, before going on to do stunt work in “The Warriors,” “The Bees” and “Return to Witch Mountain,” among others.
He quickly made a name for himself falling from great heights.
In 1978, Bakunas set a world record for a stunt fall — 230 feet — after falling from a helicopter for the movie “Hooper.” The record didn’t last long, though, and was broken later that year by another fall of 286 feet.
On Sept. 22, 1978, filming for “Steel” was wrapping up. Bakunas, wanting to break the record again, asked Majors if he could perform the stunt from the top of Kincaid Towers.
The scene had already been filmed from a lower floor, but Bakunas wanted to do it from more than 315 feet to regain his title. Majors agreed, and before a crowd of more than a thousand people, Bakunas made his way up to the top of the towers, intent on jumping and landing safely on the Life Pack Air Safety pad below.
Majors may have agreed to the stunt, but others objected. Local doctor Jud Chalkley said it was too dangerous. John Scurlock, a Life Pack executive, objected too. He said the air pads were intended for firefighting crews rescuing people from burning buildings and were only approved for falls just over 100 feet.
In order to appease the men, Bakunas doubled the pads to make it safer.
With cameras rolling, Bakunas jumped off the top of Kincaid Towers. Officials estimate that he was going more than 115 miles per hour when he hit the safety pad.
Instead of breaking his fall safely, it collapsed on impact. It softened the impact a little, but not enough. With extensive injuries to his hips, shoulder blades and lungs, Bakunas was rushed to the hospital.
Bakunas died the next day, the damage to his lungs proving to be too much to recover from.
“Steel” was released in 1979 and dedicated to Bakunas’ memory. During the premiere of the film in Louisville, a scholarship fund was created in his honor, according to Variety.
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