OMTimes Radio Archives

Aired Sunday, 11 December 2016, 10:00 PM ET

Lisa Loving Dalton spent years working with or stunt doubling for a galaxy of celebrity stars including Madonna, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Katherine Hepburn, Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, Darryl Hannah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robin Williams, Robert Downey Jr., Liam Neeson, Cher and more… Yet, what stands out in her new book Falling For The Stars: A Stunt Gal’s Tattle Tales is the indomitable spirit she assayed, despite the extraordinary price she paid for her stellar career including misogyny, a miscarriage, and a life-long back injury. And each juicy story she relays in her fascinating chronicle, brings home an important life lesson for the reader—one that she learned the hard way.

Beginning as a naïve, insecure actress, trying to use extra work and stunts as a way into the motion picture industry firmament, Dalton rises to become one of the top stunt professionals on the East Coast, ultimately reaping the economic rewards and the ego gratification—while denying her true desire to act full time. Dalton appeared in more than 200 films, television shows and commercials in New York, Hollywood and Texas, including work in Ghostbusters, Money Pit, Crocodile Dundee, Married to the Mob, FX, Legal Eagles, and Splash on the big screen and ER, HBO’s Carnivale, Dr. Quinn and Melrose Place among her many TV credits.

Yet, Falling For The Stars—already an Amazon.com #1 bestseller– also provides a magical behind-thescenes look at the stars and moviemaking through the eyes of a woman who went toe-to-toe with the Hollywood elite, or at least walked in their stunt shoes. She knows first-hand the caring and humanity of such luminaries as Streep, Redford and Cher.

Dalton reveals what it took to hang over cliffs, get hit by a moving car, drop from five stories up, dodge a bridge full of speeding cars—and to ignore the Universe’s more gentle prompts that it was time to quit and follow her passion into acting fulltime or teaching acting. The resulting career-ending spinal injury has a story of its own, how she researched medical and alternative paths that form the heart of what she shares with the world today. She is now certified in NLP, Hypnosis, and Neurological Repatterning—ways she learned to heal.

With humor and candor, Dalton inspires the reader to rise above one’s fears and limitations and go for the gusto. In her book, it is very clear that she knows full well that tomorrow is promised to no one and there is no gift greater than the present. And the present is what you make of it by finding the hidden gifts. Today, she helps actors burnish their gifts by performing and teaching acting around the world.

From a bullied, dyslexic, messy, freckle-faced, klutzy pixie, Lisa Loving Dalton grew into a statuesque and skillful stuntwoman, actor, director, teacher, author, filmmaker, leadership and life coach, and ceremonial minister. Always seeking and finding the silver lining, she has made the most of whatever life threw at her. She says, “I spill stuff, trip and drip all of the time so I made a career out of it. My advice: Embrace what is as perfect.”

About the Guest Lisa Loving Dalton

Lisa Dalton appeared in more than 200 films, television shows and commercials as an actor and stunt player in New York, Hollywood and Texas. You’ve seen her in ER, HBO’s Carnivale, Dr. Quinn and Melrose Place among her many TV credits. She was featured in the cult favorite “Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon” as a bad gal in Sho’nuff’s Gang. Her stunts were used in such hits as Ghostbusters, Money Pit, Crocodile Dundee, Married to the Mob, FX, Legal Eagles, and Splash. She doubled Cher, Madonna, Kelly McGillis, Grace Jones and Meryl Streep. On the other side of camera, she is an award winning director/producer of independent fiction and documentary films.

Lisa teaches and performs in Russia, Europe, and the Americas, on stage and film, beginning in 1976 with BondST.org as a founding member. She is on the SAG-AFTRA DFW Board, President of the Tarrant County Live Theatre League, President of the National Michael Chekhov Association (www.chekhov.net); and is a John Maxwell Founders Circle Certified Speaker, Trainer and Coach. Through the NMCA, Dalton and Professor Wil Kilroy developed the longest running Michael Chekhov Teacher certification track globally. Lisa was the 2014 SouthEastern Theatre Conference (SETC) Guest Master Teacher.

In 1998, Lisa co-created the Award-winning documentary From Russia to Hollywood narrated by Gregory Peck that aired on PBS. Other DVD’s she has authored include:
* The Michael Chekhov Workout
* Michael Chekhov: The Dartington Years
* Anthony Quinn on Chekhov.

She is the author of:
* Michael Chekhov Playbook: Discovering the Complete Chart of Inspired Action
* Murder of Talent: How Pop Culture Is Killing “IT”
* Falling for the Stars: A Stunt Gal’s Tattle Tales
* Atmospheres: The Soul of Storytelling
* SynthAnalysis@: A Multidimensional Approach to Script Analysis with Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov
* Foreword: Acting Exercise for Non-Traditional Staging: Michael Chekhov Reimagined by Anjalee Nadkarni (2017) London: Routledge
* Foreword: Energize: A Balancing Act by Emmanuelle Chaulet (2008) Maine, Starlight Acting Books
* Articles: Backstage, Soul of the American Theatre and Actors Ink

She is also certified in NLP, Hypnosis, and Neurological Repatterning. Off-duty, you might catch Lisa cruising on her BMW motorcycle with her Shih Tzu, Tibby Dalton (Friend him on FB). A biker since her first stunt in 1980, she has ridden in all 50 United States and 9 Canadian Provinces. As a celebrity golfer with her late husband, actor Ken Kerman, she has served many charities, with favorites Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Foundation, Barbara Sinatra Abused Children’s Center and Make-a-Wish Foundation. She is a proud stepmom of two and grandma of four. Scuba, hiking and being a “bird-nerd” flesh out her hobby list.

For more information visit: www.lisadalton.com
Landline: 817 656 4620
Cel: 818 761 5404
Email: Lisa@lisadalton.com
Secondary email: Chekhov@sbcglobal.net
Skype: LisaLDalton