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Lathan McKay
Born
Erik McKay

(1978-01-10) January 10, 1978 (age 46)
Austin, Texas
Nationality (legal)American
Occupations
  • Producer
  • Historian
  • actor
  • entrepreneur
Years active2002 - present
Known forCo-founding Evel Knievel Museum
Notable credits
  • I Am Evel Knievel
  • Chasing Evel
  • Being Evel

Lathan McKay (born January 10, 1978) is an American producer, historian, actor, entrepreneur and co-founder of the Evel Knievel Museum.[1][2] A former professional skateboarder, he has amassed the largest collection of Evel Knievel memorabilia in the world.[3]Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). That now resides at the official Evel Knievel Museum alongside Historic Harley Davidson.[4][5]

Early Life edit

Mckay was born on January 10, 1978, in Austin, Texas. The second of two children of Karlan M. and Karen Ann Mckay. His surname is of Scottish origin; His paternal great-great-Grandparents emigrated to the U.S from England. Both his mother and father were of Scottish ancestry. Karlan and Karen divorced in 1986. Mckay and his older sister, Amy were primarily raised in Missouri City, Sugar Land and Austin, Texas.[6]

Biography edit

McKay grew up in Austin, Texas. He started skateboarding as a child, became sponsored at just 14 and found that wheels were to take him down many roads to self discovery. Inspired by "the father of extreme sports," Evel Knievel, he spent a decade on the road as a professional, breaking for a year to attend college at the University of Texas, Austin. McKay became a 70’s era cinephile and was inspired by existential films like,Cisco Pike, Night Moves, Charley Varrick, Little Fauss and Big Halsy and the essential Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.[7] The films of Sam Peckinpah and particularly Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop.

In 2003, McKay was cast and starred in Levelland,[8] A film about coming of age in the flatlands of Texas.[9] Several of its non-fictional characters were skateboarders, and director Clark Lee Walker, co-writer of The Newton Boys cast avid skateboarders to act in the film.[10] Levelland premiered at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival.[11] Because another actor had already registered Erik McKay in the Screen Actors Guild he chose Lathan as his first name.[12]

In 2004, he moved to Los Angeles to continue a career as an actor. As he looked for a place to live, he was ironically introduced to his favorite film director Monte Hellman by a friend, actor Nicky Katt. Hellman had a spare room in his Laurel Canyon home, and McKay moved in. He performed in several films, and in 2008, he was cast to portray Layne Staley of Alice In Chains.[13] In Layne Staley: Get Born Again.[14][15] a biographical film that went into production but was never completed due to estate and legal issues.[16][17]

McKay continued to act,[18] but became more interested in all aspects of filmmaking. In 2008 he joined Monte and Melissa Hellman's newly formed production company. He wore many hat's as mentor Hellman's assistant on the 2010 Golden Lion award-winning film Road to Nowhere,[19] in which he also performed and worked production alongside the Hellman family.[20] McKay played a significant role in the re-release of Two-Lane Blacktop.[21] Assisting production on Somewhere Near Salinas with Kris Kristofferson and appearing in On The Road Again; Two-Lane Blacktop Revisited,[22] through The Criterion Collection.[23]

Long enamored with his own fathers and Evel Knievel's “live your dreams“ philosophy, McKay began his collection of memorabilia in early 2012.[24] After months of research and a lengthy negotiation, he acquired his first set of Knievel's 1974 jump leathers and a performance helmet. Soon after, he traveled to Knievel's hometown of Butte, Montana for the annual Evel Knievel Days celebration.[25][26] Forming life long connections with knievel family, crew and fans. "None of his memorabilia was there," McKay said in a 2014 interview. "I wondered where his possessions were, did some research and found that his belongings were scattershot all over the globe. Much of it was hidden, gifted, stolen, auctioned or given away.” "His ramps were rotting, sitting in the fields, and that really motivated us even more to get his legacy intact."[27]

With the blessing and partnership of Knievel's family and widow, Krystal Knievel,[28] McKay, Robby Hull, Scott Wiley and Marilyn Stemp set out to resurrect Evel Knievel Enterprises. Thus began a worldwide hunt for Knievel memorabilia,[29] which McKay termed "Evel Archaelogy."[30] By 2015, McKay owned "the largest Evel Knievel collection ever assembled, a collection of such massive proportions it’s more complete than the daredevil himself ever amassed in one place."[31][32] McKay has exhibited the collection throughout the United States consistently since it was first displayed in 2013.[33][34] It includes six jump bikes, X-rays of Evel's broken bones, Knievel's performance leathers and most iconic helmets, wardrobe and personal effects.[35][36]

After it was featured on the television series American Trucker, McKay purchased Big Red.[37]The Mack truck Knievel used as living quarters and bike and ramp hauler. Badly weather-damaged, McKay, Mike Patterson, and his team of restoration experts at Historic Harley-Davidson in Topeka, Kansas, refurbished Big Red.[38] A bolt-by-bolt restoration which took 22 months, 96 people and over $300,000.00[39] The truck's interior and exterior were restored to its exact condition in the 70's when Knievel, at the height of his popularity, travelled in it.[40] It was debuted and led the yearly parade at Evel Knievel Days in Butte in 2015.[41] Driven by Mike Draper,[42] who began driving for Knievel in the early 1970s, Big Red was displayed on tour at events throughout the United States with the support of Mack Trucks.[43] The tour schedule included Evel Knievel days, Sturgis, Hollywood, Texas Motor Speedway and the Great American Trucking Show.[44][45] It was the star attraction at the premiere of the documentary Being Evel.[46][47] Big Red will be permanently housed at the Evel Knievel Museum, which opened in Topeka, Kansas in July, 2017. McKay refers to it as the "mothership" of his collection.[48][49]

McKay was also a co-producer and rare film & photo archivist for the Emmy nominated documentary Being Evel[50][51] with producers Johnny Knoxville[52] and George Hamilton.[53] He appeared in Derik Murray’s documentary I Am Evel Knievel,[54] with Matthew McConaughey,[55] for which he was also a co-producer/archivist, and executive produced the Leo Award winning feature-length documentary Chasing Evel: The Life of Robbie Knievel,[56] which premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival in 2017.[57][58] It was released worldwide in 2018.[59]

In 2018-2019 editing began on Resurrecting Evel and Evelution. Both films documenting the arduous undertaking that was the restoration of Evel Knievel’s Mack truck and the six year journey that lead to the opening of the Museum.[60] Mckay co-produced and was featured in both the Austin, Texas based film “Off The Record”[61] and Reelz channel's Collision Course.[62][63] Also, in April of 2019 production began on Evel Live 2 for A&E Networks and the Evel Knievel Museum received a prestigious THEA Award for being one of the best new attractions in the United States.[64][65][66] Awarded by the Themed Entertainment Association.[67][68][69]

Personal life edit

The years 2015-2017 for McKay were the crowning and most fortuitous, yet most arduous hills he had climbed. The inaugural tour of Big Red (partnering with Mack Trucks) came in the nick of time. A personal goal of McKay's was to have the truck lead the parade at Evel Knievel days in Butte, Montana that year. Mckay and Doug Danger successfully completed their mutual dream of the world record 22-car jump on Evel's Harley Davidson XR750.[70] During the 75th Anniversary of the Sturgis motorcycle rally at the Legendary Buffalo Chip Campground. 2015 also saw partnering yet again with the Knievel family on Evel Ale, a custom beer out of South Austin Brewery.[71]

The Knievel family told McKay that Evel’s dream was to have a museum. Now, along with Mike Patterson and the Historic Harley-Davidson team, McKay and Patterson have ensured there will be a museum dedicated to Evel Knievel’s legacy.[72][73]

As of 2019 they are in pre-production on an original feature film and soundtrack Mckay penned with Jared Hellman, Melissa Hellman and Julie Christensen titled Falling Forward. The film depicts people who are "finding a way to live fully immersed, surviving the whole fucked-up swirl of life on the edge, rather than finding a way to merely exist on the safe side." Monte Hellman, among others, drove home to McKay the realization that it's important to "spend your time authentically."

Like other performers, artists and trailblazers who have created lasting impact, Evel Knievel was a risk-taker.[74] Instead of judging such characters as aberrant or inconvenient we're better served trying to understand what motivates them and appreciate how their defiance of convention resonates to the benefit of society. Larger appetites and complexities. Big in weakness, bigger in strength. The world needs people like this, and thanks to the vision of one such personality, the legacy of another, one of epic Americana proportions, is being preserved.[75] “I believe people were put on this earth to LIVE, not just exist." McKay's father Karlan would say many of the same things to him. The words have resonated.[76][77]

Filmography edit

Year Title Credit Medium
1995 411 Video Magazine Houston Metrospective Skateboarder, (Himself) Video Magazine
1997 Ten Losers Skateboarder, (Himself) Video
1997 Austin Stories Skateboarder, Episode 7 MTV Series
1999 ATX Skateboarder, (Himself) Video
2000 Reflection Understood Skateboarder, (Himself) Video
2001 Logic #2 Scope-Austin Texas Skateboarder, (Himself) Video Magazine
2001 The Right Girl Actor, (Skateboarder) Film
2002 Pastime Editor, Skateboarder, (Himself) Video Feature
2002 The New Guy Stunts, (Skateboarder) Feature Film
2003 Levelland Actor, (Nick Stanley) Feature Film
2005 Protest Kids Actor, (Varan) Short Film
2007 Two-Lane Blacktop" (Revisited) Production, Actor (Himself) Short film
2007 Somewhere Near Salinas, Kris Kristofferson Production Short film
2008 Harold Actor (Officer Shannon) Feature Film
2009 Layne Staley and Demri Actor (Layne Staley) Short film
2011 Road to Nowhere Production, Actor, (Erik) Assistant to Director, Mentor Monte Hellman Feature Film
2011 Trichotomy Writer, Actor (The Kid) Video short
2011 Echo Park Love Story Actor (The Artist) Short film
2012 Snake River Canyon Archival Short Film
2012 True Evel Archivist, Film, Photo TV Documentary
2013 Pure Evel Archivist, Film, Photo TV Documentary
2014 I Am Evel Knievel Himself, Archivist TV Documentary
2014 Sal And The Goon Co Executive Producer Short Film
2014 Evel Knievel Lives On Archivist, (Himself) Documentary Short
2015 Being Evel Co-producer, Archivist, (Himself) Feature Documentary
2015 Road to the Record; Doug Danger Associate Producer TV Movie
2016 Color Me Lucky Executive producer, actor (Evel) Video short
2016 Tim Montana Shredneck USA Himself, Episode 3 Web Series
2016 BBC Four Storyville Co-producer, Archivist, 1 Episode Tv series
2017 Resurrecting Evel Knievel Director, Executive producer, Editor, (Himself) Documentary
2017 Mysteries at the Museum Archivist, Contributor (Himself) 1 Episode TV Series
2017 Chasing Evel; The Life of Robbie Knievel Executive producer, Contributor (himself), Archivist Documentary
2018 Collision Course Evel Knievel Reelz Co-producer, (Himself) Documentary
2018 Off the Record Producer, Actor (Simms) Feature Film
2018 Evel Live Archival TV Series
2019 Evelution; Evel Knievel Director, Executive producer, Editor, Writer (Himself) Documentary
2019 Evel Live 2 Panelist, (Himself) Archival TV Series

References edit

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External links edit



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