From the Fall 2010 issue of Street Chopper Magazine
Gary Littlejohn was a stuntman and actor. Moreover, he was also a chopper builder, custom BMX bicycle creator, and still is an all-around good guy to know.
He's most famous for being one of the first (if not the first) guys to make a rigid BMX frame and producing Littlejohn sidehacks to go with them. Gary also made his mark on Southern Cali choppers through the '60s, '70s, and '80s. He created chop jobs using his own frames and tanks, and supplying them to many builders of the time. He wasn't so narrow-minded as to go all V-twin, though. Harley, Triumph, and Honda motors all found new homes in his projects. A lot of those scoots ended up featured in all the chopper mags, too.
His devotion to custom iron and close proximity to Hollywood also led him into the film industry. You can see him or his work in a variety of movies, ranging from the biker movies of the '60s and '70s to mainstream flicks like The Mask and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He still gets stunt coordinator work, only now he's based out of Vermont instead of Los Angeles, and builds hot rods as well as motorcycles. I was able to corner him for an interview
How'd you get into building bikes and motorcycles?
When I first got to California, I got into a body shop doing car stuff. I always loved motorcycles. One of the guys had a bike. We went to Hanson Dam and I brought a dirt bike. Riding it around I thought, "Man, that was easy." Then it stalled at the railroad tracks. Traffic was backing up behind me, so I gave it a healthy twist of throttle after restarting it and wheelied to get out of traffic. My buddy says to me, "I thought you didn't know how to ride." After that I started doing custom work, and the magazines began covering me, and later the movies came in. At one point, I turned a trans axle upside down to make a Cinderella cart. I also got a little bike from Bud Ekins and mounted a sidehack on it with a hand throttle for a movie. Bud got a cyclone engine (only three of which were made), then he and I made a frame for it. Motorcycles were something I enjoyed doing. I'd work with Triumph of Burbank making Hollywood choppers, and Von Dutch would stripe 'em for me. I made a BMW for Madman Muntz with a stereo in the tank and some speakers on it. I had quite a following for a long time on the motorcycle thing.
Tell us a little about your experiences with Von Dutch.
You couldn't tell Dutch what you wanted, he always did it his way. Sometimes he'd talk with me for hours, other times he wouldn't even look at me. One time he cut the whiskers off a bunch of cats because they made great pinstriping brushes. When Bud Ekins found out about that, he beat Dutch within an inch of his life.
How'd you get into doing movies?
It started out with me doing a bad guy motorcycle movie with Peter Fonda. We set the production company up, but it didn't work out. Then I did another with John Cassavetes who set me up with a union card. It snowballed after that. I put together all kinds of riders and stuff for them. One movie we did at Lake Isabella, it turned out one of the extras was Dan Haggerty who later became Grizzly Adams. He was a talented, clever guy who was always into animals. It also helped that I could fabricate and make things. Ann-Margret wanted me on CC Rider, and I built all the bikes for that. I'd just done a show and broke my leg, then she called me up to work on the picture. We bought a bunch of cop bikes out of Tennessee for it.