Brian Simpson

Growing up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh PA and being the youngest of six children gave Brian a challenging and wonderful childhood. He remained in Pittsburgh until he was 15 years old when his father asked him to come and live with him in Southern California. He finished high school at South Pasadena High School where his childhood experiences in Pittsburgh helped him excel in football, baseball and wrestling.  

In his early 20’s, an opportunity in the Creature FX business came up which opened a door in film and television. He started as a “runner” gathering supplies for the highly talented Creature FX artists and gave him chances to help out on set. This led into an even greater opportunity to go on location in Mexico to film “Predator.” He jumped at the chance to work on set with Kevin Peter Hall, who was also from Pittsburgh PA, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. 

The real exciting work was with the stunt performers, Henery Kingi Sr. and Tony Brubaker. They worked closely making sure Kevin was safe in the Predator suit while explosions were going off close to him, and while he was climbing in and out of the water. They quickly found out the Predator suit would absorb the water and weigh twice the normal weight. This made Kevin’s work harder. They came to Brian and asked if he would like to try to do stunts in the Predator suit. You can imagine his excitement! He replied, “hell yes!” With the approval of the Creature FX team, Brian donned stunt flying harnesses under the Predator suit, which was attached to cables, and put his trust in the rigging team as he leapt from boulder to boulder, jumped from branch to branch, and ran through the uneven terrain in the jungle. This was the start of Brian’s new career.  

After finishing principal photography in Mexico, they had reshoots in Hollywood. Brian seized the opportunity and worked along side many top Hollywood stunt performers. The combination of the Creature FX work and stunt work led Brian to perform in many other creature suits. Brian performed inside the “Hercules” suit from The Sandlot, played “Lisker” in The Guyver, and was “The Broodwarrior” in StarKid. He also came back to stunt double Kevin Peter Hall in “Predator 2.”  

Over the last few decades, and always willing to try something new, Brian’s career has evolved into Stunt Rigging and Stunt Coordinating on Antman, Avengers, Transformers 1,2 and 3, and Dungeon’s and Dragons.  

Brian has had a successful career over the last few decades and is still going strong today. He has named his corporation after the same as the street he grew up on in Pittsburgh, so, as Brian says, “to never forget where you come from.”