Rusty McClennon

Leon "Rusty" McClennon  was a stuntman and stunt actor who was the regular stunt double for Michael Dorn on  beginning with the third season under stunt coordinator Dennis Madalone. He also doubled Dorn for the water stunt in . His costume and hat from the seventh film was later sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.    Other costumes worn by McClennon were also sold off, including the ones from ,   ,  and .  His Klingon uniform neck collar from his work on the episode  was later sold off on a Propstore auction.

Early life and career 
Born as Leon McClennon to John and Dorothy McClennon, he was nicknamed "Rusty" by his aunt Alma and uncle Sapp as an infant. He was the second of three children with older sister Vinita and younger sister Sahala Smith. He attended the Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles and was introduced into drafting. He excelled and moved to UCLA for a drafting class. Following his high school years he was offered the first job using his drafting skills.

Through his sister  who was working as a stuntwoman throughout the 1990s, McClennon got a job as a background actor on the Universal television series Airwolf in 1984. Not knowing the restrictions not to talk to the actors, he started to talk and telling jokes to  who asked to give him a line for his acting job so he would become an SAG member. McClennon's appearance as limo driver in the second season episode "Eruption" became his first on screen appearance. Stunt coordinator Ron Stein and stunt double Bob Herron also worked on this episode.

Stunt career 
In 1984, McClennon started training stunt work with  and Joey Banks. A few years later he received his first credit as stuntman on a feature film with the action comedy I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988, with Bernie Casey, Clarence Williams III, Cullen Chambers, Wren T. Brown, Tom Wright, stunt coordination by Alan Oliney and stunts by Tony Brubaker, Eugene Collier, Gilbert Combs, Kenny Endoso, Jim Halty, Irving Lewis, Dennis Madalone, Dwayne McGee, Johnny C. Meier, Bob Minor, Sharon Schaffer, and Kym Washington).

Further stunt work includes the war drama Glory (1989, stunt coordination by Bob Minor), the action film Peacemaker (1990, stunt coordination by B.J. Davis and Eddie Braun), the fantasy comedy Ghost Dad (1990, working with Greg Barnett, Janet Brady, David Richard Ellis, Tommy J. Huff, Jeff Imada, Buck McDancer, Noon Orsatti, Lynn Salvatori, and Sharon Schaffer), the comedy Cold Dog Soup (1990), the science fiction sequel Predator 2 (1990), the music drama The Five Heartbeats (1991), the crime thriller Deep Cover (1992), the comedy Class Act (1992, stunt coordinated by Julius LeFlore), and the action thriller Live Wire (1992, stunt coordination by Yannick Derrien).

It was in 1991 that McClennon doubled actor  for the first time on the sport comedy Necessary Roughness (1991, starring Scott Bakula and stunt coordination by Allan Graf). Further projects on which he worked as his stunt double are the comedy Houseguest (1995, working with his sister), the comedy First Kid (1996, also as c-stunt coordinator with Tony Brubaker), the comedy Jingle All the Way (1996, stunt coordination by Joel Kramer), the western comedy The Cherokee Kid (1996, stunt coordination by Tony Brubaker), and the comedy Good Burger (1997, with stunts by Denney Pierce, Johnny Martin, Jay Caputo, and David Keith Anderson).

McClennon worked as stunt coordinator on the Academy Award nominated drama What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993, stunts by Janet Brady) and performed stunts in the horror comedy Vampire in Brooklyn (1995, working with LaFaye Baker, Ousaun Elam, Bob McGovern, and Bennie E. Moore, Jr.), the comedy Friday (1995), the crime drama Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead (1995), the crime drama Out-of-Sync (1995, also as stunt coordinator), the science fiction film Virtual Combat (1995, with Michael Dorn), the comedy Captain Nuke and the Bomber Boys (1995, with Joe Piscopo and Kate Mulgrew), the horror sequel Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998, stunt coordination by Kane Hodder), the comedy Holy Man (1998), the crime comedy Life (1999), and the television series The Practice (1999-2000, with Wren T. Brown, Richard McGonagle, and Eileen Weisinger).

In 1999, McClennon was the stunt coordinator on the drama Love and Action in Chicago, which featured Jason Alexander, Kamala Lopez-Dawson, and Mike Mukatis. He also performed stunts in the crime drama Hot Boyz (2000), the thriller Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), the action thriller Swordfish (2001, with stunts by Dana Hee, Denney Pierce, Joey Box, and Mark Riccardi), the crime thriller Training Day (2001), and the science fiction thriller The One (2001), and worked as stunt coordinator on the comedy The Wash (2001).

Death 
McClennon passed away on 30 April 2015. His memorial service was held on 20 June 2015 at Faithful Central Church in Inglewood. Alan Oliney spoke about him and Sinbad was scheduled to speak about him but was not part of the memorial service.

Star Trek appearances

External link 
 

es:Rusty McClennon
Stunt performers
Performers
TNG performers
Film performers