Town player has links with Hollywood!

Forest Gump?
By Rupe
April 26 2002

In yet another exclusive for Shaymen.org, we can reveal that Steve Bushell was a body double for Tom Hanks in the 1994 film Forest Gump. Read his amazing story here!

Way back in 1994 a film was released that turned into a huge box office smash. This film was called Forest Gump, and we here at Shaymen.org can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that Steve Bushell was a body double for Tom Hanks.

In 1993 when the director was searching for somebody to do the running scenes, he sent scouts all over America to try and find an athlete that could do the part justice. He knew he needed someone who could run and run and run, unfortunately his scouts returned from various parts of the States without anybody to fill the role.

The film was in danger of being delayed as he started considering re-writing the whole story, when completely out of the blue one of his staff, who, whilst visiting relatives in the North of England decided to take in a football match. The nearest club to where he was staying was York City.

As he settled into his seat and the match started a young lad who played in midfield caught his eye. From the first whistle to the end of the half he noticed that this young kid hadn't stopped running. He quickly referred to his programme whilst enjoying a half-time coffee, and noted that this young lads' name was Steve Bushell. As the second half kicked off he decided to just watch Steve for the remainder of the game, he was astonished to see that he ran as fast and as long as he had in the first half, whilst other players were showing signs of tired legs.

After the game had finished he immediately got onto the phone to his Director to inform him of the amazing events of the day, and the day after the Director himself was on a plane on his way to England to come and see for himself. He requested to attend York City's next training session and permission was granted as the club were delighted to be associated with a Hollywood movie. He couldn't believe his eyes as the session came to a finish as Steve was still running round whilst other players were taking on drinks. He immediately signed him up for the part and Steve flew to America to film the scenes.

We caught up with Steve at the Shay earlier this week and this is what he had to say when we asked him about his fifteen minutes of fame - "I can't believe that someone has remembered that I was involved in the making of that film, it is such a long time ago. It was a great honour that I was picked for the role as they couldn't find anyone in America that was capable of doing the job, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It was nice to meet famous stars like Tom Hanks, he was really down to earth and made me feel very welcome as did all the actors. I have a copy of the film on video and it still comes out quite often just for the novelty value."

We asked him if he had considered going back into the film industry with all the uncertainty that is hanging over the club at the moment, and this is what he had to say - "No" he chuckled, "I'm very happy playing football and hopefully Halifax will offer me a contract for next season, but if they don't I am still going to concentrate on my game and maybe someone else will come in for me."

So, next time you watch Forest Gump make sure you look out for Steve.

We at Shaymen.org would like to wish Steve all the best for the future, and if he isn't a Halifax Town player next season we hope he does well wherever he ends up, as both our Cuth and myself think he has been one of the brighter points of a very disappointing season.