Brian Smrz

Biography

Brian Smrz (/smɜːrʃ/; born c. 1960), also Brian Delaney Smrz, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director of projects such as Mission: Impossible 2, Live Free or Die Hard, Taxi, Eagle Eye, Night at the Museum, Windtalkers, Iron Man 3, and Superman Returns, among others. He is also the director of Hero Wanted, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta, and of 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke and Xu Qing. He won the Taurus Award twice and was nominated for a third time. Smrz has worked as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator on Hollywood films since 1981. In more recent years, he has acted as second unit director and director on projects such as Hero Wanted, Fantastic Four, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Predator, and Face/Off. He has worked on several of director John Woo's American films, including Windtalkers, Pay cheque, and Mission: Impossible 2. Smrz shared a Taurus Award for stunt work on Mission: Impossible 2 and Live Free or Die Hard. He was also nominated for Taxi. In an otherwise negative review of Taxi, Variety praised Smrz's stunts. Hero Wanted is his directorial debut. It is a crime drama/action film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ray Liotta, and Norman Reedus. Shooting occurred in Sofia and Bulgaria with a crew composed mostly of Bulgarians. Smrz is from Strafford, Pennsylvania, and was the brother of the stuntman Brett Smrz, who died while performing a stunt jump off a building. Smrz was hospitalised after a stunt went wrong in 1992 on Cyborg 2. The incident was investigated by the Screen Actors Guild.