Do you remember the 1983, James Bond film, Octopussy? The brothers, David and Anthony Meyer played Mischka and Grischka (credited as Twin One and Twin Two): Orlov's knife-throwing henchmen who are performers in the circus. Well it turns out that they didn't throw any knives at all!
Barrie Winship was the real knife thrower in the film. The original intention was for him to teach the Meyer twins to knife throw but it soon became apparent that wasn't feasible so he was made up to look like them and did all the sequences. Barrie came from a circus family which formerly had Winships Circus in the UK. He began his knife throwing act in 1966 and was approached to be the stunt co-ordinator in Octopussy in 1982.
Here's Barrie and his wife, Jacqueline, performing their knife throwing act as “La Vivas” in 1974 on the first episode of the first series of a British TV variety show called, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. It was set in a fictional working men's club in the North of England
https://youtu.be/6jChufJu7fo?si=3APYtsJagJkf1AKy&t=1077
Barrie Winship was the real knife thrower in the film. The original intention was for him to teach the Meyer twins to knife throw but it soon became apparent that wasn't feasible so he was made up to look like them and did all the sequences. Barrie came from a circus family which formerly had Winships Circus in the UK. He began his knife throwing act in 1966 and was approached to be the stunt co-ordinator in Octopussy in 1982.
Here's Barrie and his wife, Jacqueline, performing their knife throwing act as “La Vivas” in 1974 on the first episode of the first series of a British TV variety show called, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club. It was set in a fictional working men's club in the North of England
https://youtu.be/6jChufJu7fo?si=3APYtsJagJkf1AKy&t=1077
On this website, it claims that you can buy one of the knives that were commissioned by Barrie to be used in the film. I think this is legit as it's through bondstars.com but the webpage has several grammatical and spelling mistakes, so I'm not sure. Still very interesting though. I've invited Barrie to join this group, so hopefully he can confirm this for us and share some stories about his life as a knife thrower!
https://bondcollectibles.de/catalogue/products.php?product=7067
