When Boone's Farm decided to promote its wine with a television commercial featuring a motorcycle-riding grandmother, stunt coordinator Bob Harris suggested using John Hateley to double granny. The professional racer was a logical choice-he was Hollywood-based and one of the fastest riders in America. He was also 19 years old.
Initially, the director was unimpressed with the diminutive, boyish Hateley and his blue CZ.
"Hey kid," he sneered, "what can you do?"
"What do you want me to do?" Hateley replied.
"I need a wheelie. Let me see you do a wheelie."
"How far?"
"Just go out on the road and do a wheelie."
Hateley rolled off in low gear, popped up the front wheel, short-shifted into second and then up into top, and disappeared over the horizon. Then he turned the bike around and came back on the back wheel. Setting it down, he asked, "How was that?"
"Paint the bike red," the director said. "He'll do."
The commercial was a hit and Hateley's wheelie in a wig earned him a Screen Actor's Guild card, plus regular stunt work in more than 50 feature films and hundreds of commercials and television shows. But Hateley had worked in Hollywood before.
In 1955, at 3 years old, he was cast in Bob Hope's The Seven Little Foys. That experience launched more than a decade of work as a child actor in shows like Dennis the Menace, The Virginian and Bonanza, and a lifetime of daredevil playfulness.
The directors and actors Hateley worked with didn't make much of an impression on him, but the work got him out of school and gave him opportunities to wreak havoc on the movie lots. "I was one of those kids who had way more energy than brains," he said.
The work as a child actor tailed off in the early '60s, and by '62 Hateley had turned his considerable energy to motorcycling. In '64, his father Jack founded Triumph of Burbank, giving the youngster access to bikes, and Hateley showed an immediate affinity for riding. At age 9, he raced at the Acton TT track. At age 14, he won the 1966 AMA District 37 100cc TT Championship.
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From bum wine to big time: This Boone's Farm commercial was Hateley's breakthrough role.
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Wonder if the costume Hateley wore during the filming of 2001's Bubble Boy was Snell-app
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Stunt work has introduced Hateley to the biggest names in Hollywood, like director Steven
Hateley's racing career took off quickly. His father forged a birth certificate to get him into the professional classes at age 15, and he soon began running wheel-to-wheel with the fastest racers in Southern California. Fluid and graceful on the track, Hateley is a rider who combines innate athleticism with energy and aggression.
He was the AMA West Coast Amateur Dirt Track and TT Champion in '70, and the AMA Pro Rookie of the Year in '71. That same year, he finished second at the Ascot Park Half-Mile and rode the Daytona 200 for the first time.
The Boone's Farm commercial ran in '72, just as he was hitting the national circuit. For about 10 years, he picked up movie work when he could fit it in between races.
Hateley rode for the factory Triumph-Norton team in '75. The next year, he earned points at Hangtown and rode for KTM in the Grand National Championship, making him the first rider to earn points in both AMA National Motocross and Grand National dirt-track events.
Despite being one of the fastest Pros in the country, Hateley raced at a time that lacked the high-dollar salaries and budgets enjoyed by modern racers. In the early '70s, you could campaign a $1000 motorcycle in several of the higher-level classes, and you drove yourself to the races in a van. Most racers had to work to pay the bills, often at a dealership as that allowed them access to discounted (or free) parts. Like playing major league baseball in the early days, racing was something you did "for the love of the game."
Hateley met long-time friend Gene Hartline during this time, and the two competed with a pack of vagabond riders. "We just kind of collectively appeared," Hartline said. "I did it for better than nine years. We'd do 60,000-80,000 miles a year. I wasn't anywhere near the racer that John was, but I'd make enough money to buy a tire and some gas and get down the road to get dinner at some choke-and-puke truck stop."
By Lee Klancher
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