Biography

Hyla's first film stunt was in Deadly Hero (1975) where she had to dodge a speeding car by leaping over its hood just before the car crashed into a newsstand and flipped over. The risky shot had to be done in a single take. A still-photo of that stunt was widely published in the media with one article calling Hyla the most gutsy stunt woman in the world.

Because she was the same weight and height as Mia Farrow, Hyla became the stunt double for Mia in her movies with Woody Allen. In her March 1983 interview for Oui Magazine Hyla recalled that Broadway Danny Rose (1984) required the most pratfalls and that when she was dressed like Mia for a role, Woody could only tell them apart by comparing their breast sizes.

In the Brian De Palma thriller Blow Out (1981), Hyla tumbled down a 118' cliff with John Lithgow throttling her neck the whole way. The role required Hyla to "die" mid-fall with her lifeless limbs flying in all directions. Hyla recalled that when she hit the ground the crew rushed over thinking she had broken her legs. She hadn't, and De Palma shot the scene two more times.

Hyla's biggest film stunt was the ratchet pull in Vigilante (1982). She explained it in her 1983 Oui Magazine interview as a pneumatic air cylinder strapped to her torso that used 1,200 pounds of pressure to jerk her back violently, simulating being shot at point blank and thrown backwards into a bathtub. When asked how risky the stunt was Hyla said it was dying from severe whiplash.

Hyla's stunt work has involved getting hit in the face, being stabbed and strangled, falling down a cliff, and getting knocked down by a speeding car. She said she had no fear of working with snakes or a bathtub full of spiders, but would do no stunt involving fire. Her biggest phobia was heights, yet years of stunt work cured it and jumping became one of the things she enjoyed most.