Allan Graf

As the result of his experience coordinating stunts on sports movies, Graf has developed a regular "team" of stuntmen he can call on to get just the right look for the film. Graf's knowledge of the history of the game makes him especially useful. "for The Express: The Ernie Davis Story, based on Syracuse's Ernie Davis in 1961 becoming the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, [Graf] needed smaller players – and ones who could adopt that era's playing styles."

Allan Lee Graf was raised in Sylmar, California, but transferred to San Fernando High School in tenth grade. According to Graf, San Fernando was the best high school football program in the state in the 1970s. Though originally from mostly white Sylmar, Graf proved himself sufficiently as a defensive player at San Fernando to be elected captain of the more integrated Tigers team as a senior. In 1968, the San Fernando Tigers won the Los Angeles City High School football championship, going undefeated; Graf was selected L.A. City co-player of the year and a Parade Magazine All-American at defensive tackle.

Heavily recruited by Pac-8 universities, Graf opted to stay in his native Los Angeles to play for John McKay and the University of Southern California Trojans. Graf was unhappy when line coach Rod Humenuik told him he'd be playing offensive tackle. Graf liked to tackle offensive ball carriers; with his natural aggressiveness, he felt he would play better on defense. Humenuik said: "With your speed you're a great pulling guard. You have a natural tendency to pull with your hips." Graf started three years at tackle for the Trojans. During USC's remarkable undefeated 1972 season, Graf played with Trojan legends Lynn Swann, Pat Haden and Sam Cunningham, helped Anthony Davis to get a record six touchdowns against rival Notre Dame, and won a national championship ring after defeating Ohio State in the 1973 Rose Bowl. The 1972 USC Trojans have sometimes been classed among the best college football teams of all time. Thirty three teammates on the 1972 roster would eventually be drafted by teams in the National Football League, including five first round picks.

Unpicked in the 1973 NFL Draft, Graf attended the Los Angeles Rams' 1973 fall training camp as a free agent. Playing behind All-Pro Tom Mack in camp, Graf asked to be traded or released, but was the last man cut from camp, leaving him without an NFL contract. Graf was one of several Trojan graduates to join the Portland Storm franchise in the new World Football League, but after the league folded in the middle of its second season, Graf thought his football career was behind him.

Frequent collaborations with director Walter Hill gave Graf the experience and confidence to do more than just stunt work; in 1989 he was asked by Hill not only to coordinate stunts for his new film Johnny Handsome, but also to direct the film's second unit, a first for Graf.

Graf has directed the second unit of photography on many sports-related motion pictures where his stunt coordination made him a key decision maker, but he has also directed second unit in many mainstream comedies, starting with Wayne's World in 1992. Especially in collaboration with Walter Hill, with whom he shares association in many movie projects, Graf's experience has grown in the action film genre, especially in the Western. In 2004, Graf helped Hill create and execute realistic stunts for the premiere of David Milch's Deadwood television series on HBO. Graf was himself cast as the bodyguard "Captain Joe Turner" of series antagonist George Hearst. In episode five of the third season, Graf's character and his camp rival Dan Dority (portrayed by William Earl Brown) engaged in a climactic and gritty five-minute bare-knuckle brawl which was described by one reviewer as "a bloody marvel."