The stunt community is pretty tight knit, one where almost everybody knows everybody in some capacity. So when things happen, specifically speaking in terms of an accident or a tragedy, virtually everyone feels it, and the loss is especially greater when the younger ones pass on. For the past few days now, that community was feeling that very pain as I looked in my newsfeed and spotted numerous posts sharing news pertaining to SAG-AFTRA accredited actor, martial artist and freerunner, Carlos Lopez IV, who died on Thursday, October 2. The Hollywood Reporter reported on Friday that the 25-year old actor and avid stuntman and Charlotte, North Carolina native, who was traveling with his girlfriend in Lisbon, Portugal was performing a non-work related parkour jump from his fourth floor window onto a balcony. Lopez shares numerous credits that include the Danny McBride martial arts comedy, The Foot Fist Way (2009), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and this year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the upcoming revenge thriller John Wick.
I learned of Lopez IV myself about a month or so into my blog last year as a started engaging more into the stunt community through social networking, which is how I came to meet Lopez IV and his fellow colleague, stuntman, actor and filmmaker Walter Garcia. “He was a true martial arts lover and practitioner, a young up-and-coming, hardworking and committed.” he says. “He was up for any challenge and would do it with a smile, constantly searching for improvement within himself and he never missed an opportunity to try and help someone in need. He was a real man.”
It’s always so surreal to learn of someone’s passing, especially if they a share a friend list with you or a network of familiar people. I never personally knew Lopez IV, nor have I had the chance to really exchange words with him and talk about his work, but I can certainly say that with the outpouring of thoughts and memories shared in posts by people who have, it certainly would have been a privelege to.
Lopez IV was not a celebrity or a huge star. Nonetheless, he was an active member of a certain profession, often risking life and limb to entertain massive audiences through the magic of film. For this, as a fellow consumer who plans on seeing John Wick in three weeks, I honor Lopez IV and his memory, and I thank him for the work that he has so consistenly contributed to folks like me, and millions of others who love movies. I look at some of his YouTube videos and he clearly loved what he did. He was happy, had fun, had a loving family and girlfriend, and he led an awesome life that not many of us get to. And I hope that wherever his spirit and his essence may be, that he is smiling down on the rest of us.
My heart, condolences and best wishes for a steady and graceful path toward healing goes out to the friends, family and loved ones of Carlos Lopez IV.
Thank you Carlos, for being who you were, doing what you did and loving every minute of it while you were here.
