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It seems appropriate that the popular American Ninja Warrior is showing on television when Myles Humphus telephones me. Humphus is not a Ninja, but he’s certainly a warrior. He could pass for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, the actor. In fact, he has passed for Johnson, many times over the last 11 years.
Humphus is a stunt double for The Rock.
Originally from Milledgeville, Ga., he is one of two hulky men—Tanoai Reed, Johnson’s cousin, is the main one—who take falls for Johnson. They jump off bridges, get exploded from helicopters, leap for barges leaving the docks—they do whatever the stunt calls for so that the multi-million-dollar actor can stay safe.
And Myles Humphus loves it, even if he’s hurt. About 11 years ago, he got the chance to stunt in Johnson’s blockbuster movie Hercules, but he was hobbling around on a busted kneecap. No problem. He simply applied Neosporin cream, wrapped the knee and did the stunt.
He has suffered a broken leg, broken ribs, a dislocated foot. He has been knocked out several times. “It’s worth it,” he says. Being broke is painful, too.
But you need to know this: Humphus is more than a stuntman.
After lettering in 10 different sports at a military academy prep school, he found himself meandering from a promising football career, to almost being a Christian missionary, to almost being a lifetime sales manager for a company, to almost being a good Mixed Martial Arts fighter.
Finally, he found his calling in acting in movies and TV shows and taking tumbles as a stuntman.
He has used his acting talents in a number of movies—just Google him—and is featured in a TV series called Penguin, streaming late summer on Max. He has also been tagged for “a very big movie,” but couldn’t reveal details.
What makes Humphus more than just a stuntman today is his work with Sentinel, an organization that tracks sex traffickers and rescues possible victims.
Just before our interview, he had flown with another Sentinel volunteer to Haiti, where he found 59 special-needs children in an orphanage—vulnerable children who had been threatened by sex-trafficking gangs. It was just a matter of time.
The men loaded the children onto a boat and cruised for four days to Jamaica, where all 59 were taken in by a Christian orphanage that provides a safe place for life for severely disabled children.
When I ask Humphus what gives him satisfaction, he talks about one little girl from that boat trip. She is nonverbal and confined to a wheelchair. Whenever she spotted Humphus, she tapped her heart with her hand and smiled. “She has a wonderful smile,” he says.
The day they got off the boat, she grabbed the hand of this 47-year-old dude who weighs 260 pounds, stands 6 foot 3, a man who still works out constantly to remain tough as The Rock.
That little hand and that big hand did not let go of each other for two solid hours.
