Biography for
Bud Ekins More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 May 1930, Hollywood, California, USA

Date of Death

6 October 2007, Los Angeles, California, USA

Nickname

James Sherwin Ekins

Spouse

Betty Gene Towne

(? - 15 July 1996) (her death) 2 children

Trivia

He doubled for Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (1963) doing the motorcycle jump over the barbed wire. He also also doubled for McQueen jumping the Ford Mustang 390 GT over the hills of San Francisco in Bullitt (1968).

Relatives: Dave Ekins (brother), Frank Weatherwax, William MacAllister Weatherwax, Rudd Weatherwax & Jack Weatherwax (uncles), W.S. Weatherwax (grandparent) and Robert Weatherwax (first cousin).

Inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.

Specialized in motorcycle and car stunts.

Won the Big Bear Endurance Run three times, the Catalina Grand Prix, and won Southern California's District Number One Plate seven times.

Founded the Baja 1000 off-road motorcycle race and recorded several record runs in the early 1960's.

Won 4 Gold Medals and a Silver at the International Six Day Trials during the 1960's.

Cited his daughters' success in the movie business as his greatest pride

Rode a 650cc Triumph TR6 Trophy as did Steve McQueen in the USA International Six Day Trials team for 1964 held in East Germany. The team also included his brother, Dave Ekins, who rode a 500cc Triumph T100 Tiger. The team visited the famous Triumph motorcycle factory at Meriden, England to collect their motorcycles. Both McQueen and Bud crashed out of the contest.

Was a Triumph dealer and now restores old British bikes sometimes for movie stars. Cited his becoming a Honda dealer as the one thing he'd change from his past.

Won a gold Medal at the 1962 International Six Days Trials, was part of the US ISDT team of 1964 with John Steen, Cliff Coleman, Dave Ekins, Steve McQueen and, in 1965, McQueen being replaced by Ed Kretz Jr.

Inducted into the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1980.

Father of Susan Ekins.

Inherited Steve McQueen's entire collection of motorcycles on Steve's death.

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