The Ford Mustang Turns 60 With Thousands of Starring Roles in Movies Like ‘John Wick’ and ‘Bullitt’
21.04.2024 - 06:06
/ variety.com
Carole Horst Dee Bryant jams on the gas as her Mustang rockets forward toward a line of plastic bollards at the Irwindale Speedway. Suddenly, she takes her foot off the gas. The growling car whips around 180 degrees in a perfect arc.
Veteran stuntwoman Bryant is a top driver and a rare Black woman rising through the ranks. She has doubled for Angela Bassett, Kerry Washington, and Regina King, among many others. She’s here demonstrating the prowess of the Mustang as the iconic car turns 60.
It has appeared in more than 5,000 films and TV shows. Steve McQueen charging through the streets of San Francisco in his 1968 Mustang GT is in every sense of the word, iconic. From “John Wick” to “Gone in 60 Seconds” to “Charlie’s Angels” to thousands of other productions, “the producers want the Mustang because it creates a symbol.
You know, they don’t have to introduce [the character] with a with a heavy storyline. Because the minute you see the Mustang, you know what you’re going to see? You know, it’s freedom, it’s power, it’s sound,” says Ted Ryan, Ford archives and heritage brand manager. The Mustang debuted at the New York World’s Fair on April 17, 1964, but even before the public saw it, the car had been used in the James Bond film “Goldfinger,” which was released in September 1964.
“And ‘Goldfinger’ is the first time Mustang appeared on film,” says Ryan. “It was actually a pre-production version of the Mustang that was sent to Walter Hayes, who headed our PR team and London and it was to generate buzz for the Mustang. So we sent it over.” Ryan notes that Henry Ford II and the Bond franchise producers, the Broccolli family, knew each other.