STUNTING YOUR GIRTH HOLLYWOOD TRICKS OF THE TRADE CAN WHIP US INTO SHAPE.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski

Staff Writer

Sandra Gimpel is a petite lady with a pixieish laugh and well-manicured nails who's filled her Valley Village cottage with antiques and chintz.

You'd never guess the 67-year-old makes her living throwing punches, crashing cars and getting set on fire.

An accomplished Hollywood stuntwoman with a new workout DVD called "Stuntblasters," Gimpel started her show-business career as a dancer and was working as a stand-in on the TV series "Lost in Space" in 1967 when the producers saw greater potential in her.

"They said, 'Would you like to do stunts?' And I went, 'What's a stunt?' " she recalled.

The stunt coordinator took Gimpel under wing and trained her for all the falls and maneuvers she would do doubling for 11-year-old Billy Mumy, who played Will Robinson.

"It was the best introduction to stunts I ever could have had," said Gimpel as she sipped coffee on her patio. "I learned how to sword-fight, I learned how to do high falls. I learned how to do anything physical.

"And then when the show was over, I got together with some of the other guys, and they started teaching me how to do car work.

"We'd rent cars, and we'd take them out," she said, giggling. "We used to just take the cars out to Whiteman Airport, to some parking lot at 4 o'clock in the morning, and play."

Leading a double life

She's doubled for a long list of A-list actresses during her 40-year career, including Jodie Foster, Sarah Jessica Parker and Sally Field.

Her most famous stunt remains the barroom battle of the Girl Scouts in Jerry Zucker's 1980 disaster spoof "Airplane!"

She's been seen in "Adaptation," "The Rock," "My Name Is Earl" and "Ghost Whisperer," as well a few TV series with the word "burn" or "fire" in their episode titles.

Gimpel has more recently offered her expertise as a stunt coordinator and second-unit director. But at a time of life when colleagues have retired or at least reinvented themselves to off-camera work only, Gimpel's still in the mix.

No stunted growth here

Her recent credits include going airborne in "Norbit," doubling Cloris Leachman on "Malcolm in the Middle," and taking a tumble down 60 steps in the lobby of the Venetian Hotel in the slapstick comedy "Rat Race."

"I've done tons of fights, I'm a fourth-degree black belt, I've crashed cars, done 360s, 180s, 90s -- just about anything in a car," she said.

It's a misconception, she said, that stunt players don't really get hurt.

"Honey, I've lost friends -- stupid things that shouldn't have happened," she said. "It's funny. The times that you think something's going to happen, they're so well-prepared that usually everything's all right. It's the easy ones that come up and bite you."

A few years ago, a fellow stuntwoman attending the industry's Taurus Awards show found it ironic that there were metal detectors at the doorways, noting that most stunt actors have pins, screws or plates somewhere in their battered bodies. Gimpel, though, is among the lucky ones. In four decades of perilous work, she's suffered only a few broken ribs.

It's part fortune and part fitness, she said of the secret to her longevity.

"I work out every day," she explained. "One thing I have found is if I continue to work out, I stay healthier, just physically feel better. And I don't get hurt."

She's taught Tae Bo and karate classes between Hollywood assignments, and she said several friends encouraged her over the years to make a workout video. One comment from a young student was particularly inspiring.

"I had one girl say to me, 'I want my mom to meet you. My mom doesn't do anything,' " Gimpel recalled. "I looked at her and went, 'How old's your mom?' And she said, '42.'

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, what's going to happen to these people when they do get to be my age?' "

So she came up with "Stuntblasters." The first DVD was released in May ($14.99 at Borders, on www.amazon.com and through www.razorfitness.com), and two more are on the horizon.

"Stuntblasters is aimed at people who don't work out, or who haven't worked out in a long time," she said. "I firmly believe that if you stretch out every single day and you do a little bit of a cardio workout, that alone is going to get your blood moving, and you're going to feel better all day long."

The first DVD is a mild-mannered half-hour program that emphasizes stretching and a low-impact cardio workout. The exercises sample yoga, ballet and a few fight maneuvers, all enhancing flexibility, particularly for the hips and knees -- joints that most often seem to go creaky from inactivity.

The follow-up DVDs will run an hour each and demand more from viewers.

"They have a little bit of everything I've done in my life," Gimpel said. "Some yoga, some boxing, some sword-fighting without the swords, some jumping rope without the jump rope so you don't have to jump. It's got a little bit of everything to make it fun."

Real exercise

Gimpel is particularly proud of the DVD's "reality" angle. The students in the video weren't too rehearsed, so they seem to be learning the routine with the exercisers at home.

Some of those behind her are friends from martial arts, while others come from the stunt field.

"It's a lot of fun. And if you only have a few minutes here and there, you can pop it in and do some of the exercises," said Denise Gossett, an actor who appears in the video.

"You know how sometimes you watch these videos, and it's all these perfect bodies doing the workout? It's not like that, and it puts you at ease when you're working out."

Gimpel said she has no intention of retiring any time soon.

"But I don't intend to break," she said. "And I've got to keep working out in order to keep strong. That's why I do it."

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

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CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Healthy stunt

After years of taking punches in Hollywood Sandra Gimpel helps the rest of us get fit

(2) no caption (Sandra Gimpel)

(3 -- 4) Above, stuntwoman Sandra Gimpel, left, does some of her "Stuntblasters" exercises alongside Steve Rizzo and Sue Marshall on the "Waterworld" set at Universal Studios Hollywood. At right, Gimpel flies over a crowd in the movie "Norbit."

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(5) Gimpel doubled for Billy Mumy in the television series, "Lost in Space."