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Joe spent the first 27 years of his life in Park Ridge and Wheaton, Illinois. At age 8, after witnessing Evel Knievel jump 10 buses live at the old Chicago amphitheater, and seeing the film Hooper (1978) at 13, he knew he wanted to become a Hollywood stuntman.
His passion for climbing local water towers, hopping freight trains, skateboarding, BMX racing, and various sports helped pave the way toward his dream. He graduated from Wheaton Central High School in 1982, a school also known for alumni like John Belushi and Bob Woodward, the journalist who exposed the Nixon Watergate scandal. Joe was a two-sport athlete in both high school and college, though his college career was brief. He became legendary for performing 1/4-mile-long wheelies on his Ninja 900 motorcycle and hurdling over the roofs of parked cars. After working numerous odd jobs, he found success in sales, specializing as a food broker selling steak and seafood door-to-door across the Chicagoland area, all while stunt work remained a constant ambition.
When a stunt school opened in Chicago in 1988, Joe seized the chance to enroll. He refined his stunt abilities and gained insight into the film industry by hustling on sets and working as an extra in movies such as Uncle Buck (1989), The Package (1989), and Flatliners (1990). His big break came when Universal Studios, conducting a nationwide search for stuntmen and actors for their Wild West Stunt Show in Orlando, selected him from around 2,000 applicants. He relocated to Florida in 1991 and spent two years there before moving to Las Vegas to work on the stunt Pirate show at the MGM Grand. Feeling restless and eager for more, he took a chance moving closer to Los Angeles, despite having no contacts. Through persistence, he landed a major opportunity doubling for Steven Seagal and never looked back. Since then, Joe has doubled for stars including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Ferrell, John Cusack, Jeff Goldblum, David Hasselhoff, and Dan Marino. He has also stunt coordinated and doubled for Vince Vaughn on 22 projects and currently doubles for Gerard Butler. Joe is recognized as one of Hollywood’s premier all-around stuntmen.
He has been nominated twice for the World Stunt Awards and has won two Emmy Awards for outstanding action sequences on television. When not performing stunts, Joe enjoys playing golf with a USGA 3 handicap and riding motorcycles. He is happily married to his wife Lisa, and they have two children, Ryder and Raquel. Joe continues to live out his childhood dream.
