13 Things You Didn't Know About Friday The 13th Part III
7. The Casting Of Richard Brooker
With police officer-turned-stuntman Steve Daskewisz, aka Steve Dash, playing the masked version of Jason Voorhees for Friday the 13th Part 2, a decision was made to feature a quicker, more agile Jason in Friday the 13th Part III.
In the case of Richard Brooker, he was a stuntman in Los Angeles at the time, but more importantly, his background was as a trapeze artist in the circus. Having seen a casting call for an imposing figure in an unnamed Steve Miner movie, the 6'3" Brooker had no idea it was actually Jason he was auditioning for.
Given his lean, toned frame, Brooker wore plenty of padding during the shoot to make Jason look bulkier. As for direction, the actor was given zero instructions from Miner other than to think of Jason as a human version of the shark from Jaws.
As for Richard Brooker the man, he led quite the extraordinary life. In addition to his acting work, the Englishman was also a sailor, an expert polo player, a horse trainer, an amateur photographer, a director, a producer for sports TV, he created his own website design company, and he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development in 2006.