Manfred Zendar; Ex-Olympian, Water Stunts Expert

Manfred Zendar, 83, an Olympic swimmer whose work on such films as “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and “Jaws” earned him the nickname “Hollywood’s Water Man.” As a marine adviser and certified master diver, Zendar scouted locations, operated boats, designed costumes and laid out underwater sequences for more than 50 movies. Born in Switzerland, Zendar had lived near the Southern California shore since 1935, most recently in the Santa Monica Canyon area near Will Rogers State Beach. He placed third in the breast stroke in the 1924 Olympics in Paris and competed but failed to win a medal in the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam. He began in films as an assistant cameraman for producer David O. Selznick and later did stunts--diving from cliffs and doubling for actors wrestling alligators. He designed the diving suits for Walt Disney’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” built a raft for the Marilyn Monroe and Robert Mitchum film “River of No Return,” and created the 22-foot lift bags that raised the jet off the ocean bottom in “Airport ’77.” In Santa Monica on Monday of heart failure.