Eric Mansker (14 January 1947 – 7 April 2019; age 72) was a stuntman and stunt coordinator who performed stunts as a bartender in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. He received no credit for this work but his costume was later sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1] His stunt was featured in the San Francisco bar brawl along with Jean Coulter, Jim Halty, and Tom Morga. (Source: Tom Morga)
Mansker was born in Chicago, Illinois and diagnosed with spinal meningitis at the age of ten. He enlisted in the US Marines and later in a cinema program at Los Angeles City College before he attended UCLA and earned a BA-MP/TV. He started to work in the industry as a background extra in the late 1970s with appearances in the horror film Prophecy (1979, with Robert Foxworth, Graham Jarvis, and Kevin Peter Hall), the comedy Nine to Five (1980, with Lawrence Pressman and Earl Boen), and the third season of Hill Street Blues (1983, with James B. Sikking, Barbara Bosson, Margot Rose, Armin Shimerman, and Ilona Wilson).
Mansker turned into stunts and worked as a stunt performer on Airplane II: The Sequel (1982, coordinated by David Richard Ellis), The Thing (1982, with Tony Cecere), D.C. Cab (1983, coordinated by Alan Oliney), episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1984-1985, with Steve Kelso, Tony Brubaker, and Joey Banks), Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986, coordinated by Don Pike), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988, with Eric Chambers, Dane Farwell, Irving Lewis, and coordinated by Tony Cecere), They Live (1988, coordinated by Jeff Imada), I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988, with Eugene Collier, Dennis Madalone, Rusty McClennon, and Dwayne McGee), and Red Heat (1988, with Joel Kramer).
Mansker doubled actor Denzel Washington in The Mighty Quinn (1989, with Al Simon) and Shaquille O'Neal in the Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001, coordinated by Brett A. Jones). Among his credits as stunt coordinator are Gideon Oliver (1989), the television drama Caroline Skeletons (1991), the action film Hard Justice (1995, with Rex J. Reddick and Manny Perry), Strange Wilderness (1997), the thriller A Table for One (1999, with Lisa Hoyle), the action comedy Shafted! (2000), the horror thriller The Stepdaughter (2000, with Spice Williams and Cris Thomas-Palomino), the thriller The Perfect Nanny (2000), the television drama The Perfect Wife (2001), the thriller Blind Obsession (2001, with Laura Albert and Michelle Sebek), and A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002).
During his thirty years in the industry, Mansker also performed stunts in films such as Road House (1989, coordinated by Charles Picerni), Glory (1989), Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990, coordinated by Kane Hodder), Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection (1990), Men at Work (1990), Predator 2 (1990, with Janet Brady and Tierre Turner), Toy Soldiers (1991), The Last Boy Scout (1991), Live Wire (1992), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993), Falling Down (1993), Demolition Man (1993), Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Congo (1995), Sgt. Bilko (1996), the action thriller Mercenary (1996, coordinated by Scott Leva), Steel (1997), Most Wanted (1997), episodes of The Practice (1997), Pacific Blue (1997), and Ally McBeal (1998), Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999, with Johnny Martin, Denney Pierce, and Brian Simpson), Leprechaun in the Hood (2000), and Bruce Almighty (2003). [2]
Following a diagnosis which required radiation treatment and chemotherapy in 2003, Mansker worked on Next Action Star (2004), as assistant stunt coordinator on the crime drama Harsh Times (2005, coordinated by Michael J. Sarna), as stunt coordinator on the drama The American Standards (2008), and as stunt performer on the action comedy Afro Ninja (2009) and the action comedy Born to Ride (2011).
Mansker died of cancer on 7 April 2019 at the age of 72.