Stunt pilot Corkey Fornof talks about his James Bond flights

Corkey Fornof has flown in 48 movies, often with jeopardy as his co-pilot. His best-known maneuver? Flying through a hangar in "Octopussy," one of four James Bond movies in which he flew - reports The Ledger.

He didn't just fly through the hangar. He did it eight times.

"We did all the math, and we knew it could be done, but my heart was in my throat," Fornof said.

Fornof, 63, who lives in a Dallas suburb, is performing at the Sun 'n Fun Fly-In. His LoPresti Fury is easy to spot from the ground because YIPPEE! is written on the underside of his wings.

The other 007 movies Fornof flew in were "Moonraker," "License to Kill" and "The World Is Not Enough." He worked with two Bonds, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton.

If there were a casting for a mug shot to accompany the word "macho," Fornof's face would fit perfectly. He's about the last guy you'd expect to be a cross-dresser. But he's the first one to do it for the movies.

Fornof passed for Catherine Zeta-Jones in the 1996 movie "The Phantom." He bears not the slightest resemblance, but his explanation makes sense. "A wig with the same hair, the same makeup and the same dress from a camera 1,000 feet away, nobody knows."

Of all the ingredients that make Fornof a temporary starlet in the cockpit, the key is the 1,000 feet.

While the hangar fly-through was one of his most dangerous film moves, there were many others. In the 1997 movie "Face/Off," starring Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, Fornof rolled a Jetstar through the closed doors of a hangar at 70 mph. He discounts the danger involved by saying, "The fire department was ready, they were right there."

In the 1989 Bond film, "License to Kill," a man was lowered from a helicopter and wrapped a thick wire around his tail, intending to disable the plane and tow it through the air. "It was scary flying with someone on my tail," Fornof said. "It really shook me up."

If actors could fly, Fornof would have missed out on a lot of work. But Fornof said Harrison Ford is a pretty good pilot. They worked together in the 1989 movie "Six Days Seven Nights."

Fornof said Ford, Travolta and Tom Cruise are great to work with. But both his all-time favorites have died - Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. He worked with them in the 1998 movie "The Odd Couple II."

"We worked together, and we ate lunch together. They could have eaten anywhere, but they ate with the crew," Fornof said. "At night, we drank together."

Fornof said the odd couple trusted him. They trusted him enough that for a scene in the movie, in which they could have had doubles, "I crop dusted them. Flew about five feet over their heads."

Fornof said Lemmon and Matthau were as funny in person as they were in the movies. "They constantly traded insults," Fornof said. "They were best friends."

Fornof worked hard as an airshow performer, which he's back to doing now. What fueled his career as a stunt pilot and movie aerial director was "Sports Illustrated asked me to do some flying for them. Then the phone started ringing."

Fornof has flown over every continent except Antarctica. He loves the LoPresti Fury he flies now, but he not making any plans to fly it over the South Pole.

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