In the James Bond film Live and Let Die, there’s a famous scene in which Bond, played by Roger Moore, ostensibly runs across the backs of live crocodiles in order to cross a river.
The stunt looks a bit naff, and the crocodiles a bit mechanical. It’s easy to imagine that it’s an effect. But it turns out it was performed with actual, live crocodiles by crocodile farmer Ross Kananga.
Kananga ran an exotic animal farm in Jamaica that was spotted by location scouts. The stunt took five attempts to complete, and Kananga required 193 stitches after a crocodile snapped at his heel during one attempt. He was paid $60,000 for his work, and lived a generally adventurous life; he died in 1978 while spear-fishing, aged 32.
There’s a video of the stunt on YouTube. There’s also a rumour that Kananga performed the stunt despite the fact that his father was eaten by a crocodile, but that’s not true. His father ran a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale and actually outlived him, dying aged 90 in 2005.