Sonny Landham Biography

Sonny Landham was an American actor and stunt man, popular for his Herculean build and deep voice. He has appeared in movies such as ‘48 Hrs,’ ‘Action Jackson,’ ‘Lock Up,’ ‘Poltergeist,’ and the most famous of all, ‘Predator.’ He had to start his acting career with X-rated movies before landing mainstream roles and becoming a professional stunt man, an issue that had its repercussions not only in his brief political career but in his personal life, too. He played football at the university and joined the ‘US Army’ for a brief period of time, before going to acting school for 2 years. Given his part-Cherokee descent, robustness, and dark hair, Landham landed a number of Native American roles, the most distinct of them being the role of a Native American tracker in the movie ‘Predator.’ He developed strong bonds with his co-actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. Inspired by their success in politics, Landham tried securing endorsement from the ‘Republican Party’ to run for the governor’s office in Kentucky. However, he was unsuccessful in launching his political career. He was put behind bars for a few years in the 1990s, for making threatening calls to his wife at the time. Upon his death, co-star and dear friend Arnold Schwarzenegger tweeted that Landham was a talented actor and was always fun to work with.