Kitty Linn O’Neil was likely best known as a stunt woman in television and films, but she led a very active life. She was born on March 24, 1946 in Corpus Christi to John Thomas O’Neil and Patsy Linn Compton O’Neil. Her father was of Irish descent and her mother’s ancestry was Cherokee. Her father died in March, 1950 in California, apparently from complications of an earlier heart attack. Photographs of him often show him in a rugby uniform. He had competed in the Olympic Games in 1924. A death notice in the San Antonio Light issue of March 26, 1950 tells that he had been in the oil business in San Antonio since 1933. Marriage records show that he and Patsy had married in 1940. Two children were born to the couple, Kitty in 1946 and John in 1947. However, in the death notice, there is no mention of Patsy, Kitty or John. Their marital status at the time of his death is unknown.
Patsy Linn Compton was born in Oklahoma. Various articles mention how devoted she was to Kitty including teaching Kitty to read lips proficiently. She later took college education courses and worked as a speech therapist. At the time of her death in Wichita Falls in April of 1969, she was described as a teacher at the Fannin School, a local elementary school, and that she was instrumental in the establishment of the School for Listening Eyes, a Wichita Falls school for the deaf.
In a 1979 newspaper interview, Kitty related that when she was still an infant, she had suffered from high fever during a bout with measles and smallpox. Kitty said that her mother had wrapped her body in ice but was not able to bring her fever down before she suffered nerve damage to her ears and became deaf. She did not know that she was deaf until she was about two years old and Kitty became one of the early students at her mother’s school. Kitty attended public school for the first time when she was in the third grade. She continued her education until she had completed junior college.
Newspaper reports often mention Kitty’s athleticism. Growing up in Wichita Falls, she showed a talent for swimming and diving. As a youth, she had been extremely competitive and quite successful. A 1979 article in the Fort Madison, Iowa Evening Democrat stated that in the AAU Junior Olympics, Kitty had won 38 blue ribbons, 17 first place trophies and 31 gold medals. Kitty was aiming to compete in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo until she came down with spinal meningitis and was not able to participate. Kitty called this the only goal she ever had to abandon. Kitty continued to complete in competitive diving for a while had suffered some injuries and decided to seek other interests.
Kitty began to participate in more active sports including motorcycle and auto racing such as the Baja 500 and the Mint 400, high speed water skiing and the like. Various articles mention that she earned a number of records for high speed water skiing. She was riding in a motorcycle race around 1971 when she took a curve at a speed too high. She lost control of the bike which went end over end. A Hollywood stunt man named Duffy Hambleton witnessed the accident and rushed to her aid. Kitty had lost parts of two fingers in the wreck but still wanted to mount the bike and finish the race. Duffy was able to persuade her to seek treatment. The two had been acquainted before. Duffy helped her make the decision to let the surgeons try to reattach the fingers, though they might not be the same as before the wreck. After the four hour surgery, her fingers were reattached. Although her fingers were curved after being rejoined to her hand, they still functioned. She and Duffy began to have a relationship but apparently never married. Duffy had been a stunt man for many years and helped her begin a stunt career of her own. Mostly throughout the 1970s, Kitty did stunts in film for which she was both credited and uncredited. Internet Movie Database lists her film appearances from 1974 to 1980 as follows.
- “Airport 1975”
- “Two-Minute Warning”
- “Airport ’77”
- “September 30. 1955”
- “Foes”
- “Damien: Omen II”
- “Foul Play”
- “Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story”
- “The Blues Brothers”
- “Smokey and the Bandit II”
She and Duffy used their earnings from stunt work to pursue land speed records for Kitty. The men’s driving record as of 1976 was held by Gary Gabelich at 622 mph. Kitty and Duffy financed an effort for her to drive a three wheeled hydrogen peroxide powered rocket car called the SMI Motivator. After training with it, on December 6, 1976, she achieved a peak speed of 618 mph (just four miles per hour short of the men’s record). The record being sought was average speed over a measured kilometer. In that session, Kitty achieved a record average speed 512.710 mph. Thereafter, Kitty was referred to as “the World’s Fastest Woman.” Her measured kilometer speed record stood for over forty years until Jessi Combs surpassed it on August 27, 2019. Unfortunately, this was the time trial in which Jessi’s vehicle crashed and she lost her life. Kitty continued to pursue other speed records and drove a jet powered dragster before ending her record chase.
Kitty appeared in numerous episodes of the television show “Wonder Woman” filmed from 1977 to 1979 and “Bionic Woman,” the series staring Lindsay Wagner which ran from 1976 to 1978. Her stunts included serving as a stunt double for Lynda Carter, the star actor of “Wonder Woman.” On the strength of Kitty’s stunt career, Mattel released an action figure of her in the late 1970s. Numerous stunts are described in articles, including multi-story falls, falls out of helicopters, explosions and fires, car and dune buggy crashes. Kitty was the first woman to be invited to join Stunts Unlimited, a company that provided stunt performers to the industry.
A made for television film called “Silent Victory: The Kitty O’Neil Story” was released in 1979. Based on the life of Kitty, it starred Stockard Channing in the title role, James Farentino as Duffy Hambleton and Colleen Dewhurst as Kitty’s mother Patsy. Duffy is listed as an executive producer, technical advisor and as stunt coordinator and Kitty is listed as a stunt double for Stockard Channing. The film can still be found on the internet.
Kitty retired from stunt work around 1982 after a number of her stunt colleagues had died. She continued to follow the stunt world and racing life, but was no longer a participant. In addition to her relationship with Duffy Hambleton, she is believed to have been married to John D. Piazza and Thomas Allen Justice although she is not known to have had any children. Kitty died of complications relating to pneumonia and a heart attack on November 2, 2018 in Eureka, South Dakota. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered.
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