Ronnie Rondell Jr., the stuntman best known to rock fans as the on-fire businessman on the cover of Pink Floyd‘s Wish You Were Here album, has died of unspecified causes at the age of 88.
Rondell died at a Missouri senior living center on Tuesday, Aug. 10, according to his family.
In 2020 Aubrey Powell, who took the Wish You Were Here cover photograph, told the Guardian that Rondell was reluctant to do the shoot. “He said, ‘It’s dangerous for a man to stand still on fire. Normally, you’re running and the fire’s spreading behind you, or you’re falling and the fire is above you, or you can always make out with camera angles that the stunt person is closer to the fire than they really are, but to stand still…?”
Using a suit and wig soaked in flame retardant, Rondell was set on fire 15 different times to make sure they got the perfect photograph. “On the 15th a gust of wind blew up and wrapped the fire around his face and burnt him,” Powell recalled.”He said: ‘That’s it! I’m done.”
Luckily, Powell said that turned out to be the magic shot. “I knew I had got a special picture. It took a long time to persuade Ronnie to stand exactly as I wanted but in the end he was very brave and it was a perfect composition.”
Read More: How Pink Floyd Remembered Syd Barrett on ‘Wish You Were Here’
Rondell was also a highly accomplished stuntman, appearing in dozens of movies including 1962’s How the West Was Won, Blazing Saddles, Diamonds are Forever, Lethal Weapon, They Live and 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded, his final work.
Album Cover Stars
Someone else takes the spotlight on these covers.
Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
