Stunt men and stunt women are specialized dupes or body doubles in movies and television programs.
Their skills are utilized in scenes involving fighting, diving, gun firing and other high-risk conflict scenes.
Their action is shot in such a way that their face will not be recognizable on screen.
In that way, it is a thankless job.
Their job generally involves jumping from one skyscraper to another, jumping from airplanes with a parachute or jumping out of moving vehicle without parachute.
Nevertheless, it is a job that is in high demand.
In general, heroes are heroines are not very interested in acting in fight sequences for fear of hurting themselves.
This is not to say that all actors and actresses are like that.
There are some exceptionally brilliant actors, for example Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise, and actresses who do the fight scenes themselves.
But a majority of the film stars prefer a dupe for risky action scenes.
Since a stunt man or stunt woman should have a close body resemblance with the actor or actress, generally for every star, there will be a favorite.
Stars who prefer to use people for fight scenes are likely to keep his or her original until the end of his or her career unless the relationship goes sour.
Harrison Ford, Eddie Murphy, John Wayne, Steve Martin, and Michael Landon are reputed to have long-lasting stunt men.
Some stars have a superstition that a particular stunt man would bring good luck charm to them.
Although it is a thankless job, it is not easy to land on this job.
For a start, you have to have good physique and a fair amount of athleticism.
Also, by becoming a stunt man or stunt woman, you are going to put yourself in risky fighting scenes.
So you need to have the mental toughness to face those circumstances.
Training in martial arts like karate is an advantage in becoming one.
They are not expected to do high-risk jobs like jumping from a high scrapper recklessly.
One is expected to do the work in an efficient and timely manner.
There have been many deaths in the history of performing.
Paul Mantz, Mark Akerstream, Vic Magnotta, and Harry O'Connor are some of the men who died while doing a scene.
There are training institutions for providing practical training for becoming efficient stunt people.
Also, there are some books, which illustrate the industry know-how.