Kitty O'Neil American deaf stuntwoman and race car driver Date of Birth: 24.05.1946 Country: USA

1. Kitty O'Neil: Deaf American Stuntwoman and Racer
2. Early Life and Career
3. World Speed Records and Stunt Achievements
4. Retirement and Personal Life
5. Land Speed Record Controversy
6. Quarter-Mile from a Standing Start Record

Kitty O'Neil: Deaf American Stuntwoman and Racer

Kitty O'Neil was an American deaf stuntwoman and racer who held the unofficial women's land speed record of 843.323 km/h (524.016 mph) on the SMI Motivator from 1976 to the present day (2015). She received the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf's Volta Award for outstanding contributions to increasing public awareness of the problems and achievements of deaf and hard of hearing people (1979). Her life story became the basis for the 1979 television film Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story, which received two Emmy nominations.

Early Life and Career

Kitty was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, to an Irish father and a Cherokee mother. She lost her hearing at four months of age due to a combination of measles, mumps, and chickenpox. Her family soon moved to Wichita Falls, where her mother taught her lip-reading, enabling Kitty to attend regular schools. In 1964, she relocated to California, where she trained for the Tokyo Olympics as a member of the US diving team but was unable to compete due to spinal meningitis.

Despite her deafness, small stature (5 feet 3 inches or 160 cm), and two surgeries to remove cancerous tumors in the 1960s, Kitty was always drawn to dangerous pursuits. She first tested parachutes and then married stuntman Duffy Hambleton in 1970, becoming a stuntwoman herself, appearing in notable films of the 1970s such as Airport '77, The Blues Brothers, and The Omen II: Damien. Kitty also developed a passion for motorsports, particularly drag racing.

World Speed Records and Stunt Achievements

Kitty holds 22 world speed records on both land and water and has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for her stunt accomplishments. In 1970, she set a women's world record for water skiing at 168 km/h (104 mph). In 1980, she achieved a stunt record for the highest freefall of 127 feet (38.7 m, approximately 12 stories). A biographical film, Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story, was made about Kitty in 1979 and received Emmy nominations for directing and supporting actress. According to a 2005 interview, Kitty was surprised after the film's release, as she had performed her own stunts but nearly half of the movie was fictionalized. Dolls were also produced in her likeness.

In a 1979 interview, Kitty attributed her success in her chosen field to the assistance of God and her deafness, which she believed enhanced her sense of vibration and allowed her to remain undistracted by noise: "I can concentrate better and my equilibrium is more steady."

Retirement and Personal Life

Kitty retired in 1982 and currently enjoys gardening, party catering, and computer gaming at her home near Lake Eureka with her long-time partner Raymond Wald, a Eureka native with whom she has been in a relationship since 1989 (as of 2005).

Land Speed Record Controversy

In 1976, William (Bill) Frederick completed construction of the jet-powered vehicle SMI Motivator, which was designed to break the sound barrier on land. Desperate for funding, he sold exclusive driving rights for $50,000 to two drivers and stunt performers: Kitty (who invested $20,000) and Henry (Hal) Needham (whose share was $30,000 or, according to some sources, $25,000). Test runs began in the summer of 1976 at El Mirage Dry Lake north of Los Angeles, then moved to Bonneville and eventually Alvord Desert in Oregon. Needham was busy filming and did not drive the vehicle, while Kitty set new women's land speed records run after run.

On December 6, 1976, after praying as she always did before a run (as a devout Christian), Kitty achieved a two-way average kilometer speed of 825.127 km/h (512.710 mph; 827.396 km/h on the first run) and one-way mile average of 843.323 km/h (524.016 mph). Having run the maximum speed of 618 mph (approximately 994 km/h) at only 60% power on the last run, she was prepared to break Harry Gabelich's then-current record of 1014.294 km/h (630.255 mph) in the very next run. However, the sponsors of the jet-powered record car and Needham began pressuring Frederick to halt Kitty's runs.

The stated reason was that Frederick had allegedly not met the terms of Needham's contract (which was worded so that Kitty's rights were limited to breaking the women's mark, while Needham held the right to pursue the men's record) and that it would "injure Needham's manhood and the manhood of every red-blooded American man if a woman were to become the world land speed champion." A representative of Needham is even quoted as telling reporters that it would be "demeaning" for a woman to set a "man's" record. (Sports Illustrated claimed this was a misquote, though; Needham received several calls denouncing him as a "chauvinist pig" and worse, and other sources attribute the statement to a sponsor who feared how the sales of Needham dolls would be affected if he were not the world's fastest driver.) Faced with the threat of a lawsuit from Needham and the loss of his funding, Frederick infamously pulled Kitty out of the car at the starting line and barred her from further runs that very next day.

In July 1977, Needham took the wheel. During his third run, two of three drag parachutes failed to deploy, and the car crashed, skidding to a halt in the sand after a hundred-yard-long scar, though the driver suffered no major injuries. It turned out that an employee at the parachute manufacturer had sabotaged Needham's chutes by pouring acid into their canisters at the behest of one of the opposing record-setting teams. The car was repaired and eventually sold to the widow of Austrian F1 driver Jochen Rindt for her private collection.

Kitty's record remains unbroken to this day but has not been recognized by the FIA because the car had only three wheels instead of the four (or more) required by the regulations. However, some sources claim that the record was recognized by FIM, which governs three- and two-wheeled motor vehicles, typically motorcycles, though this record is not listed on FIM's website.

Quarter-Mile from a Standing Start Record

On July 7, 1977, driving the "Rocket Cat" jet-powered dragster designed by Ky Michaelson at El Mirage Dry Lake, California, Kitty set a record for the quarter-mile, completing it in 3.225 seconds. The terminal speed for that run, set at the same time, was 631.732 km/h (392.516 mph).

The record was not set at an official drag racing event and was not repeatable within 1% at the same event, so it remains unrecognized by the NHRA. It was also not recognized by the FIA since only one run was conducted.