Nick Dimitri (born December 27, 1932), is a stuntman and actor best known as Charles Bronson's veteran bare-knuckle black leather coat wearing opponent in the climax of Hard Times.
In addition to fisticuffs, his specialty was dying violently on screen. He was a regular stuntman on the World War II TV series The Rat Patrol and a double for action actors Sean Connery and William Smith. He helped set up the great fights in Darker than Amber and Any Which Way You Can.
Dimitri was also memorable playing Angie Dickinson's undead husband in the 1973 cult TV Movie The Norliss Tapes. He later became a fixture in many of Arnold Schwarzenegger's films, stood up to Steven Seagal in Out for Justice, and doubled for the one arm man in the big screen version of The Fugitive.
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Prolific Hollywood stuntman / actor / bodybuilder who portrayed bare knuckle fighters, tough thugs, vicious hoodlums and even a living dead sculptor in a career spanning over thirty years. A US navy veteran, the athletically built Dimitri first got involved in cinema in the late 1950's and contributed stunt work to TV series like 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Route 66 (1960) and appeared in minor acting roles in Kid Galahad (1962), The Train (1964) and The Ambushers (1967).
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Dimitri was genuinely terrifying as an artist who returns from the dead seeking blood to build a hideous statue and to terrorize Angie Dickinson in the TV pilot The Norliss Tapes (1973). He was equally impressive as a ruthless bare knuckle fighter hired by white collar gangsters to slug it out with Charles Bronson amongst pits of oyster shells in the climax of the gritty Hard Times (1975).
He remained perpetually busy during the 1980's contributing stunts and acting appearances in many action oriented TV shows including Knight Rider (1982), The A-Team (1983), MacGyver (1985) and Hunter (1984). In the 1990s, Dimitri tangled with cop Steven Seagal during a pool room brawl in Out for Justice (1991) and he was knocked out cold by a bomb laden corpse as Arnold Schwarzenegger made his escape for a gangster's lavish rooftop funeral in Last Action Hero (1993). A longtime member of the well known Stuntmen's Association, Dimitri enjoys minor cult status amongst some movie fans for his "tough as nails" screen characters !
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