Frank Beddor in the start area in a red race suit, goggles
pushed up on his helmet and a pole in each hand, grinning.
The bib over his chest is number 1 and reads Beddor,
Carrera, Angel Fire, World Cup Freestyle.

World Champion
Freestyle Skier

Some Stories Start Downhill.

Before Hollywood, before Wonderland, there were mountains, jumps and a life built on adrenaline and competition.

But Frank Beddor’s story actually began on the water.

A Family With A Taste For Adventure

Frank grew up in Excelsior, Minnesota, and learned to water-ski at six. In his family, adventure and showmanship were already traditions.

His father, Frank Beddor Jr., helped build the family’s printing business into a major enterprise across the Midwest. He also had a flair for the extraordinary. In 1953, he water-skied 1,800 miles down the Mississippi River dressed as Paul Bunyan to promote a ski show in Brainerd, Minnesota.

It was an unusual family legacy, and perhaps the perfect preparation for a boy who would one day make his living flying through the air on skis.

A black-and-white publicity still from 1953: Frank Beddor Jr.,
young and grinning in a white sweatshirt, an arm round a
papier-mâché Paul Bunyan in a checked shirt, a
pair of Ski Antics water-skis held upright beside him. The
caption reads: Record Breaker, World’s Record Champion
for Distance and Endurance, set May 26, 1953 by Frankie
Beddor, 229 miles in 9 hours and 10 minutes non-stop. Ski
Antics of 1953.

The Jump That Had Never Been Done

Every summer, while other skiers waited for the snow to return, Frank trained on Lake Minnetonka.

One year, he built a ski jump into the lake at his uncle’s house and set out to perfect something no one had ever done before: a twisting triple backflip.

Attempt after attempt ended in spectacular crashes. He hit the water hard enough to leave himself bruised, battered and gasping for breath. But each fall taught him something. He adjusted his timing, his rotation and his takeoff, and went again.

Until one day, he landed it.

The jump that had seemed impossible on the lake, he performed for the first time in competition at Tignes, in the French Alps.

A skier upside down in mid-flip high over Lake Minnetonka,
skis pointing at the sky, launched from a tall wooden ramp
that runs out over the water on a scaffold of timber legs.
A small boat of onlookers waits on the lake below.

Two-Time World Champion

Freestyle skiing demanded an unusual combination of athleticism, creativity and nerve, and Frank had all three.

In those days, freestyle meant three disciplines: moguls, aerials and ski ballet. To win the combined title, a skier had to excel at all of them.

Frank won the world combined freestyle title in 1981, and again in 1982.

At twenty-three, he retired from competition after winning his final event. He had gone out on top.

But his time on the slopes was about to open an entirely different door.

Freestyle skiers celebrating at a winter event in front of a
CBS Sports banner: three in yellow and red suits, wearing
bibs 8 and 34 among them, raise their skis and arms
overhead while a crowd, photographers and a TV camera press
in around them.

The Reel

From The Mountains To The Movies

When the producers of Hot Dog…The Movie needed someone to perform the skiing for their villain, Austrian freestyle champion Rudi Garmisch, Frank got the job.

Filming at Squaw Valley, he earned $30,000 for a single day of stunt skiing, several times what some of the actors were paid. Not a bad day’s work.

More importantly, it introduced him to filmmaking. He went on to do stunt work in Better Off Dead, starring John Cusack, and began building relationships with actors, directors and producers. Those connections led to acting roles, and eventually to producing.

What began as a pursuit of athletic excellence had become an unexpected way into Hollywood.