A TOUGH man and Hollywood stunt double that has worked with countless A - list celebrities has insisted his success is down to hard work and dedication.

Dave Lea, who spent his teenage years living in Basildon, is most well-known for being Michael Keaton’s stunt fight double in the first two Batman movies but started out as a martial arts teacher, a bodyguard for Page Three models and extra for films.

Mr Lea said: “When I did the Batman movie I was an extra as a biker – at night time I would go on set practicing my punching and kicking.

“I got a call at 1am and I thought someone had died with a call at that time. Then I thought I was in trouble for messing around on set.”

Instead, Mr Lea was told to come into the studio and chosen to be Batman’s double.

He added: “I nearly dropped the phone, something like that just doesn’t happen. I knew nothing about stunt work and suddenly they were paying me to have fun.

“I didn’t understand what was going on, I just went with it. I went from working in London to standing on a red carpet with Jack Nicholson.”

From there, his career quickly progressed. He said: “In LA I established myself and I moved up the ranks.

“You walk onto set and are standing working with people you watched as a child. They were my heroes growing up and I got to shake their hands.

“If I wasn’t trained and prepared, I wouldn’t have got the call. A lot of people wait for the call but you have to be ready and go for it.”

Mr Lea takes his health seriously, insisting he doesn’t smoke or drink, and trains regularly.

He has since worked with celebrities including Guy Richie, Sandra Bullock, Sylvester Stallone, Ben Affleck, Colin Farrell, Will Smith, Tom Cruise and Mel Gibson.

And having starred in so many films, Mr Lea said he can’t bring himself to go to the cinema anymore.

He said: “I don’t go into a movie theatre in case I stand up screaming and shouting at the screen. I sit at home and freeze frame to see what shots worked and didn’t.”

With some shots, you only get one take. Mr Lea said that during the filming of Con Air, they were in front of the plan when it crashed and had one take. He said: “It was everyman for himself, cars were flying in every direction, and your heart was in your throat.

“People always ask if we get hurt during filming. The whole job is that you don’t tell anyone.

“When I worked on 15 Minutes with Robert De Niro, I was driving a taxi and he was running through the road. I got lost for a few minutes when I saw him and I suddenly heard a bump.

“I thought I had hit him with my taxi and I kept waiting for the call to get kicked off set but it turned out he had something metal in his pocket and it hot the window.”

No matter how famous he gets, the Hollywood stuntman keeps coming back to Essex for his family and will be coming to Southend in December to host a seminar.

He said: “You always come back to family and neighbourhoods. I was in Essex a few years, but they were important years. I lived in Basildon in my mid-teens and still have family there, and in Leigh.

Reminiscing about when he comes back to visit, he said: “I went to visit my cousin Linda Muir, who lives in Leigh and I was playing around in the garden when her grown up kids John and Chantal asked me to show them some moves. My cousin jumped me from the back and locked me up – I guess you don’t mess with your older cousins.”

The stunt double used to practice throwing kicks at his sister Sandra, and said that it was his Uncle Gordon’s car that he first started practicing stunt driving moves.

He said: “I did a seminar in London and heard about this kid from Southend who had cancer and has his leg amputated. Conall is a big Batman fan so I called him from LA and did a Batman message for him and have made him the mascot for my Warner Bros page.

“I can’t even fathom an eight-year-old going through that. The least I can do is help the kid. When I come to Southend in December I am hoping he will be able to come to the seminar and we can do some stunts together.”

Dave Lea will be visiting Southend Combat Academy, in Grainger Road, for a one day seminar based around fight choreography and film stunt work on Saturday December 17.

For more information, email davelea7@earthlink.net or buy tickets from en-gb.fievent.com