Bob Yerkes died recently. Bob was a legendary American stuntman who began a life of acrobatics in the circus as a teenager and went on to work as a stuntman in such films as Back to the Future, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, and Hook. He said, “I started tumbling down at Santa Monica Muscle Beach, which they now call Venice Muscle Beach, when I was 11, and then I ran away and joined the Clyde Beatty Circus at 15 and joined an acrobatic act.” Bob doubled such stars as Paul Newman, Robert Duval, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In 2013 Bob told his story. His parents never mentioned God and he didn’t go to church but one day, when he was working with the Ringling Brothers circus trapeze act, he had time on his hands and decided to buy a Bible. He said, “I decided to buy a Bible and go through it and list all the contradictions I found in it. It took me a year and four months to get through it and when I finished, I said that this could not have been written by man unless they were God-inspired. It just proved itself to me and all through the Bible God said, ‘Put this to the test? Is this man’s word or mine?’ As I read it, I knew that it was all true and it was God’s Word.”

Bob went on to say, “Everything we’re seeing happening today in the world is in the Bible, not vague prophesies, but detailed. So, it’s an amazing book and now that I am a believer my ministry is in the entertainment world because that’s where the Lord put me. I remember Roy Rogers and Dale Evans starting a Bible study group in the film industry. It was called “The King’s Stage Christian Actors” and I used to attend. Later I started a Bible study group on the Ringling’s show, and I called it “The King’s Ring”.

Bob was a modest man whose life had been transformed by Jesus Christ his Saviour and Lord. He said, “Since I became a Christian, I tell my friends in the business that I was mentored by the world’s greatest stuntman who specialized in ‘high work’ and that was Jesus Christ who ‘stood in’ for everybody when he died on the cross for our sins!” Bob wanted to make this world a better place and was eagerly looking forward to the Second Coming of Jesus when God’s Kingdom will come in all its fullness.