Please Rewind Talent Wall

Allan Graf

For Allan Graf, the route to a life on screen began on the football field. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Sylmar, California, he transferred to San Fernando High School in tenth grade and became captain of its football team as a senior. The undefeated 1968 Tigers won the Los Angeles City High School championship, while Graf was named L.A. City co-player of the year and a Parade Magazine All-American at defensive tackle. Graf stayed close to home to play for the University of Southern California Trojans, starting for three years at offensive tackle. He was part of USC’s undefeated 1972 season and earned a national championship ring after the Trojans defeated Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl. After going unselected in the 1973 NFL draft, he attended Los Angeles Rams training camp and later played for the Portland Storm of the World Football League. That football background became Graf’s way into filmmaking. While with the Storm, he worked for Disney as Dick Butkus’s stunt double on Gus, a comedy about a field goal-kicking mule. Further doubling jobs followed, and Graf developed a career as a stunt performer, stunt coordinator, second-unit director and actor. His repeated collaborations with director Walter Hill expanded the scope of that work. Hill asked Graf to coordinate the stunts and direct second unit on 1989’s Johnny Handsome, marking Graf’s first second-unit directing assignment. On Another 48 Hrs., he performed a cannon roll that launched a school bus 17 feet into the air before it rolled along the highway. Sports movies became a particular specialty. Graf performed or coordinated stunts on more than a dozen football-related films, including The Replacements, Any Given Sunday, Friday Night Lights and The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. His approach combined football knowledge with close attention to actor safety, earning him the on-set nickname “Coach.” He also brought his physical presence to Deadwood as Captain Joe Turner, the bodyguard of George Hearst, and staged action for the series with Hill. Across acting, stunts and second-unit direction, Graf’s career has been built around making screen action feel grounded, forceful and convincingly played.