Gil Perkins was an Australian film and television actor.

Early life

As a teenager, Perkins was a trackman and an athlete. He ran away from home at a young age and joined the crew of a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 cargo ship as a deck hand.

Early career

In his early adult life, he left for Hollywood

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

. He modified his Australian accent to be more British-sounding so that he could portray British characters. His first role was as an extra for The Divine Lady

The Divine Lady

The Divine Lady is a 1929 Vitaphone sound film with a synchronized musical score and sound effects. The film, however, featured no spoken dialogue. The film tells the story of the love affair between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It stars Corinne Griffith, Victor Varconi, H.B. Warner, Ian...

in 1929, while his first credited role was as Sgt. Cox in Journey's End

Journey's End

Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...

the following year.

Career peak

Eventually, Perkins became a regular stuntman for William Boyd

William Boyd (actor)

William Lawrence Boyd was an American film actor best known for portraying Hopalong Cassidy.-Biography:...

. He also did stunt work for Bruce Cabot

Bruce Cabot

Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...

 in King Kong

King Kong (1933 film)

King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...

and Spencer Tracy

Spencer Tracy

Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was an American theatrical and film actor, who appeared in 75 films from 1930 to 1967. Tracy was one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, ranking among the top ten box office draws for almost every year from 1938 to 1951...

 in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a 1941 horror film starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner. Rather than being a new film version of the novel, it is a direct remake of the 1931 film of the same name, which differs greatly from the novel. The movie was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's...

. He also worked for Universal Pictures in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, released in 1943, is an American monster horror film produced by Universal Studios starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster. This was the first of a series of "ensemble" monster films combining characters from several film...

. Throughout his career, he acted and did stunts in many feature films and television shows. He also did some special effect

Special effect

The illusions used in the film, television, theatre, or entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called special effects ....

 work, normally for action sequences.

Later works

In 1960, Perkins co-founded the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures

Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures

Founded in 1961, the Stuntmen's Association of Motion Pictures is an honorary society of motion picture stunt coordinators, stuntmen, and second unit directors. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E. The current president is Steve Kelso....

. Four years later, he became the treasurer of the Screen Actors Guild

Screen Actors Guild

The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...

, a position he held for fifteen years. His official retirement was in 1972, though he continued working for some years later. His last acting role was in The Prisoner of Zenda

The Prisoner of Zenda (1979 film)

The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Richard Quine and adapted from the adventure novel by Anthony Hope, first published in 1894...

in 1979, but his last credited role was as a fantasy lover in Odyssey, the Ultimate Trip. He died in Woodland Hills

Woodland Hills

Woodland Hills is the name of various communities in the United States, including:*Woodland Hills, Cleveland, a neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.* Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California...

, Los Angeles, of natural causes.