Even when he was a kid starring in variety shows and drama presentations at Fairview Public School and T.L. Kennedy high school, Larry McLean always knew what he wanted to be.
“I wanted to be an actor so bad,” chuckles McLean as he sits on the patio of his Erin Mills West home, looking a lot younger than his 53 years.
Well, every once in a while McLean can still indulge his childhood passion – by writing himself into scenes in the numerous film and TV series he directs.
Not bad for a guy who got into the business via the back door — getting his first break when someone saw him jumping cars on his motorcycle on CTV News and asked him if he would be interested in some film stunt work.
By then he was already known as “the other Hurricane” in Mississauga. There was Hurricane Hazel McCallion, who jumped political barriers like no one before her and there was Larry ‘Hurricane’ McLean, Canada’s answer to Evil Knievel, who jumped cars and trucks with equal nerve.
As Larry recalls it, one of the first times he met the mayor was at the opening of the McDonald’s restaurant on Millcreek Dr. and Erin Mills Pkwy. Hazel cut the red ribbon and Larry jumped several cars of different colours in the parking lot.
The stunt business was lucrative but dangerous. McLean broke his leg on national U.S. television on CBS Sports Spectacular in 1978 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There were numerous broken bones on other occasions.
His stunt work on film included TV series like Robocop and Due South. He became stunt coordinator, talked directors into giving him a few lines of dialogue every once in a while and, most importantly, watched, learned and asked questions about why and how shots were set up.
The stunt work, “was a launching pad for me to get into the film industry,” says McLean with an accurate, accidental pun.
He struck up a friendship with director Paul Haggis (who has gone on to direct Million Dollar Baby and Crash since) which led to a chance to do second-unit directing. “He gave me a chance to direct a few full episodes of Due South, which turned out great, and it just went from there.”
McLean has worked all over the place in the business, including at City Hall. A bout of insomnia not too long ago reminded him of one of his first jobs in Mississauga. At 3 a.m. he found himself watching Switching Channels, the first feature film shot at the Mississauga Civic Centre in 1987. The movie featured Burt Reynolds, Christopher Reeves, Ned Beatty and Kathleen Turner, who did a star turn coming down the Great Staircase before its sweeping expanse was ruined by building officials who insisted on the installation of safety railings.
“I jumped off one of the balconies” in the Great Hall, recalls McLean. Wow. Many’s the time we have all come out of the second floor chambers after a seven-hour marathon and wanted to do that, but Larry’s the one who got to live the dream.
McLean’s upstairs pool room is lined with incredible mementoes of his career from the numerous friendships he’s developed with people like Billy Ray Cyrus, whom he directed in the TV series Doc, Burt Reynolds, Dick Van Dyke, Harry Morgan, etc. etc. One favourite shot features George Wendt (Cheers) and John Candy whom he worked with on Incident in a Small Town. They are holding up a birthday greeting for McLean’s pal, Mark Portugal, who was a pitcher at the time with the San Francisco Giants.
When his pal Joe Walsh of the Eagles comes through town later this week, McLean will be at Casino Rama for the show.
He’s in between gigs at the moment, but has some irons in the fire. He could be directing Pam Anderson in a new spy series called Havana, doing a Disney series called Aaron Stone and/or be working again with John Watters in a true-life crimes series which is called Love You to Death in Canada and ‘Til Death Do Us Part in the States.
If it all seems a little overwhelming for a guy who grew up in Cooksville and whose 89-year-old dad Albert was a goal judge at Dixie Gardens Arena, well, it is. A backyard rose garden dedicated to his mother Meriam, who died three years ago, helps keep him grounded.
For the past year, he has been dating Mississaugan Barb Benson who has “stolen my heart and is my rock when the film business gets crazy.”
McLean realizes he could just as easily have been one of those stunt guys listed at the end of the movie credits, to whose memory a film has been dedicated.
“I was lucky to come out as unscathed as I did,” says McLean. “When I look back at some of that footage now, it’s scary. I broke my wrist, my leg, my ankle and my collarbone. I could have been a paraplegic or worse.
“Yeah, I’m blessed that it led me into the film business. From aspiring actor to doing stunts to stunt co-ordinator, it’s been amazing. But I love directing and I hope it will take me to my grave.”
Which should happen, as long as someone doesn’t offer him a feature role in front of the camera.