History's Toughest Heroes: Kitty O’Neil: Hollywood's Real Wonder Woman

History's Heroes

BBC

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the macho stunt world, a deaf woman is determined to push the limits. But as her stunts break records, can she keep cheating death?

In History's Toughest Heroes, Ray Winstone tells ten true stories of adventurers, rebels and survivors who lived life on the edge.

Kitty O’Neil was the stunt-woman behind wonder-woman - in tiny hotpants and a bustier. But she was also a speed demon, a land speed world record breaker and all-round adrenaline junkie who beat all the boys. She used being deaf to her advantage. For Kitty, her disability was her superpower. A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. Producer: Michael LaPointe Development Producer: Georgina Leslie Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Imogen Robertson Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron.
0:10.5	Evil genius.
0:11.6	He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it.
0:15.5	That's like hiding at your own funeral.
0:17.1	Yeah, a bit great gig.
0:18.6	I'm Russell Kane.
0:19.6	Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:40.6	You're about to listen to History's toughest heroes.
0:44.1	Episodes will be released weekly, wherever you get your podcast,
0:46.8	but if you're in the UK and you can't wait,
0:49.5	you can listen to the latest episode a week early.
0:51.7	First on BBC Sounds.
0:59.6	A woman stood on the 12th floor balcony of the Valley Hilton Hotel in Sherman Oaks, California.
1:02.6	She was ready to jump.
1:07.3	The sheer concentration in her face is outstanding.
1:12.7	It's this look of being unstoppable, of being grounded in who she is.
1:21.7	It was February 1979. The woman glanced down, a hundred and twenty-seven feet below her.
1:30.0	A crowd had gathered. A camera crew, a bunch of onlookers, and her target, an airbag.
1:35.1	Well, actually, if you get up real high, the bag starts looking more like a postage stamp.
1:41.7	The jump was going to be the climax of an episode of Wonder Woman, the hit TV show,
1:46.0	but the star Linda Carter would never do a stunt like this. I mean, it was way too dangerous.
	...

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