They Risk Their Lives for Our Entertainment...

...and are thoroughly unsung.

The filming of Deadpool 2 fell under a cloud after the (thoroughly preventable) death of stunt performer Joi Harris.

Now Joe Watts, Vin Diesel's stunt double, is in a medically induced coma after falling thirty feet when a support cable apparently snapped.

This one may have been preventable too - sadly, many accidents involving stunt performers are.

But even when everything is done right, stunt performers risk life and limb so that we can enjoy that summer blockbuster...and some earn only a few thousand a year. Even the very best make up to $250,000, which sounds like a lot, but when you put it up against what the actors make...

Stuntmen also provide skills that actors may not have. It's relatively rare, for example, for an actor to learn swordfighting for a role - one notable exception being George Takei, who took fencing lessons because he wanted to do his own stunts in the Star Trek episode "The Naked Time." (Takei apparently enjoyed it far too much, because he went on to become a master fencer). Most horseback riders you see in the movies are stunt performers, especially these days. During the heyday of the western, riding was a required skill for actors, but not so much any more.

And they take these risk. And sometimes movie companies let them down. A stuntman was almost killed in the Ben Hur chariot race. Even actors occasionally die - Brandon Lee during The Crow comes to mind.

And there is no Oscar awarded for stunt work.

There should be.