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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Tim Condren (1926 - 2006)

Tim Condren
I'm very sorry to say that Mr. Condren passed away at 3:05 pm (London time) today, July 19.
His niece emailed me this morning to let me know and to thank everyone for the support. The London Stunt School also wanted to thank everyone for their kindness, the letters of encouragement did lift Mr. Condren's spirits.
I'm sure Mr. Condren was surprised by the outpouring of support the Star Wars fans sent his way.
I now implore all of you to take a little bit of time, get out your extra postage and send your condolences to his family and London Stunt School where he had been teaching for years.
Ms. Boyd, Mr. Condren's niece, let me know just now that the funeral will be on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 and anyone who would like to send their condolences, wishes or anything else can send it to either one of these addresses (preferrably the latter):

The Condren Family
c/o London Stunt School
Sudbury Primary School
Watford Road
Wembley
Middlesex
HA0 3EY
UK

OR

The Condren Family/Miss Z L Boyd
12 Kingsley Court
Penhale
Fraddon
Cornwall
TR9 6PD

Thank you all very much for helping.

Leah


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While I know very little of his personal life I can give you a little bit of information about his professional life.

Tim Condren always had an interest in the physical and made a good career being physical over the last 40 or so years.Condren worked with legends such as Roger Moore, Charles Bronson, Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman and Robert Mitchum to name but a few, and created stunt work for many popular movies including several Bond films, Star Wars, Superman I & II, Labyrinth, Willow and others. He also played a smattering of on-camera roles, one of which was one of the original Stormtroopers for Star Wars.

His very first stunt work in film was in the 1962 David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia (my favorite film) Sir Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) was also in this film.

Condren's work took him to the US, Australia and to other film locations around the world and also had him gainfully employed in the UK (his home) for all of his adult life.

Condren was experienced in archery and horses and incorporated those skills into his stunt work, generally both together. While in the US he made several westerns (I'm still working on finding which films these were), usually involving horse work, many times playing an Indian (Apache and Sioux, of course), all of which were filmed here in Southern California or in Arizona. He also participated in several rodeos as a trick rider/guest performer. I believe that he did the same in Australia too.
Many years ago Condren made appearances in circuses (he had a strong acrobatic background) and also made good of his fencing and sword-fighting skills by working the show at the Tower of London (The White Tower) as a Knight...these shows are still presented now and are held in August.

Condren spent many of these past years teaching at the London Stunt School with Alasdair Monteith and others preparing scores of young stunt hopefuls for film, TV and other productions. This was his last position before his death and I do believe that he was teaching up until he became ill.

I don't know how he died (what he died of) but I do know that his family and friends were there to support him through all of it and that he was glad to hear from fans he no doubt had little idea existed until 3 days ago.

Leah

1 comment:

Nerf-Herders Anonymous said...

10 comments:

bonniegrrl
Droids Just Wanna Have Fun

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 11:32 AM
I'm making this the blog of the day so fans know the sad news...
would you mind adding to this entry a bit more about Tim Condren and his life?



cbern
Omega Squad's 5th member

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 11:52 AM
who was tim condren? i haven't heard of him




nob01
Oil Bath Bubbles

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 12:13 PM
Thanks for passing on the sad news.
No role is insignificant when it comes to being a part of the saga.



marybrainchild
SidiousSith's Holocron

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 12:21 PM
Thanks for posting this sad news-I had no idea.. May the Force & God be with him & his family.



NerfHerdersAnonymous
Life, the Star Wars Universe and Everything

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 12:47 PM
I'm making this the blog of the day so fans know the sad news...
would you mind adding to this entry a bit more about Tim Condren and his life?
I've added the little I know.
Thank you.

Leah



bonniegrrl
Droids Just Wanna Have Fun

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 2:18 PM
Thanks Leah!



YoshiYoda
"No Slotting, No Disintegration, No Accidents." - "Not Even a Good Slap?"

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 3:41 PM
Best of wishes to the rest of his family. Thank you for keeping us updated.



solo smelly

date Posted: Jul 19, 2006 4:35 PM
Thanks for the update Leah.

Best wishes for his family. May The Force Be With Them.



JediMelindaWolf
Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.

date Posted: Jul 21, 2006 7:59 AM
Thanks for the info, Leah. Everyone involved with the saga has touched our lives, and Mr. Condren was no different.

MTFBWY . . . and Mr. Condren and his family . . . always.



grevious1193
TK 9114's Journal Of Old (Star) War Stories

date Posted: Aug 09, 2006 3:05 PM
who was tim condren? i haven't heard of him

He was a stormtrooper in ANH

Im so sorry for the bad news...