Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon | |
---|---|
Born | Cheryl Marie Wheeler August 18, 1960 Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
Died | February 12, 2020 Yellow Springs, Ohio, U.S. | (aged 59)
Occupation(s) | Stuntwoman, martial artist, nutritionist |
Years active | 1984–2020 |
Spouse |
Shane Dixon (died 1999)Robert "Lindsey" Duncan
(m. 1999; div. 2009)Robert "Reed" Sanders
(died 2020) |
Children | 2 [4] |
Cheryl Marie Wheeler-Dixon (August 18, 1960 – February 12, 2020) was an American stunt woman, stunt double, and stunt driver in the US movie industry. She was credited as Cheryl Wheeler-Duncan, Cheryl Wheeler, Cheryl M. Wheeler, and Sheryl Wheeler. She was stunt double for Rene Russo, Kathleen Turner, and Goldie Hawn, among others. She had two daughters, and with her husband, Lindsey Duncan, owned Genesis Today, Inc., a nutritional supplement company in Austin, Texas, and a multilevel marketing offshoot called Genesis Pure.
She and her husband, Robert Reed Sanders, were shot and killed in an apparent shootout with her ex-husband, Lindsey Duncan, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on February 12, 2020.[5][6]
Cheryl Wheeler began studying Yoshukai Karate at fifteen years of age in Pensacola, Florida, with instructor Gerry Blanck. She began kickboxing when her instructor began training an amateur team, but her championship matches were considered professional, as she was paid for the work. Wheeler-Dixon also studied Judo, Aikido, and grappling[7] and trained for a while with kickboxer and actor Don Wilson. She was a three-time WKA World Kickboxing Champion[8] with a record of 17-1-1 and a 2nd degree black belt in Yoshukai Karate.
Wheeler-Dixon began work in the film industry in 1987 and maintained an extensive filmography of stunt work in such films as Back to the Future Part II, Bird on a Wire, Die Hard 2, Lethal Weapon 3 and sequel Lethal Weapon 4, Demolition Man, The Thomas Crown Affair and Charlie's Angels.[9] She provided martial arts training to Rene Russo for the Lethal Weapon film series.[10][11] Wheeler-Duncan was inducted into Black Belt Magazine's Hall of Fame as 1996 Woman of the Year.[12] With Chris Casamassa, she appeared on the cover and in a feature article in Black Belt Magazine in July 1997.[13] Wheeler-Dixon received a Stunt Award for "Best Stunt Sequence" in the 2000 film Charlie's Angels.
Wheeler-Dixon was injured during the filming of Back to the Future II when she shattered her face and right wrist in a fall and required reconstructive surgery.[8][14] In April 2010, she was featured on the cover and wrote an article for Healthy Living Magazine.[15] She also worked as a "stuntnastics" instructor and stunt performer at The Stunt Ranch in Austin, Texas.[16]
In 2016, Cheryl's ex-husband, Robert "Lindsey" Duncan, filed a lawsuit against Sanders and her third husband Robert "Reed" Sanders, alleging breach of contract, defamation, breach of fiduciary duty, and theft, and requested "monetary relief over $200,000 but not more than $1,000,000."[17][relevant?]
Cheryl Wheeler-Sanders (Dixon) and her husband Robert Reed Sanders were both killed in what has been described as an "ambush" and "shootout" with her ex-husband Robert Lindsey Duncan on his property in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Cheryl and her husband had driven from their home in Leicester, North Carolina, purportedly to confront Mr. Duncan about a college trust fund set up on behalf of their daughters. According to the Greene County, Ohio, sheriff, the Sanderses set up wireless video cameras on a tree stump across the street from Duncan's property to monitor the activity there.
On the morning of February 12, 2020, as Mr. Duncan and his wife Molly were pulling into their driveway, they were confronted by Mr. Sanders, who approached the vehicle and pointed a gun at Mrs. Duncan, before turning the weapon on Mr. Duncan. Mr. Duncan, licensed to carry a concealed weapon, shot and killed Mr. Sanders. Cheryl Sanders, who was monitoring the live stream of the events on her cell phone from the wireless cameras, then pulled up to the driveway in her vehicle and pointed her weapon toward Mrs. Duncan. Mr. Duncan shot Mrs. Sanders, killing her. No charges were filed, as the case was determined to be "justifiable homicide".[3][18][19]
Date | Result | Opponent | Event | Location | Method | Round | Time | Record | |
1984-11-10 | Win | Carol Lemos | World Kickboxing Championships | Reno, Nevada | TKO (referee stoppage) | 1 | N/A | ||
For the WKA World Super Bantamweight (-55.5kg/122.1lb) Championship.[20] Lemos substituted for Arlene Weeber.[21] | |||||||||
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Sanders signed a prenuptial agreement in 1999, were married, then divorced in 2009. Since the divorce, the records indicate their relationship remained sour. According to a court filing in 2016, Duncan sued Cheryl Sanders and Robert Sanders for defamation, slander, libel and other accusations.
King said he is a former business partner of Reed Sanders and is a lay minister who performed Reed and Cheryl's wedding ceremony. He called himself Reed Sanders' "closest confidant."
Lindsey Duncan, who headed the Genesis Today health and wellness company and promoted green coffee bean weight loss supplements on such television shows as "Dr. Oz" and "The View," has two college-age daughters from his marriage to Cheryl Duncan.
Living life on the edge can take a toll on one's health, and on Sunday, stunt woman Cheryl Wheeler Duncan hopes to teach West Lake Hills residents what she's learned.[...]After several months of not being able to recover, a friend referred Duncan to Dr. Lindsey Duncan, a nutrition expert who later became her husband. "I was just blown away by him and his scope of knowledge and his philosophy, she said. "He worked with the philosophy of the three pillars of health – one is cleansing, one is balancing and one is building. "Duncan made a full recovery using her nutritionist's advice on cleansing her body and building her immune system back to health, and since then has gone on to perform her most challenging stunts.
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The homeowner [Lindsey Duncan] also told authorities that his ex-wife, Cheryl, had targeted him in the past. "About five years ago, the resident...notified us that he had received information that the ex-wife was trying to hire somebody to murder him", said Sheriff Fischer.
A couple who once lived in the Bee Cave area were killed Wednesday after they confronted the woman's ex-husband — who previously lived in Bastrop — and his wife in a dramatic Ohio shootout that a friend said was over their children's college fund.[...][Adrian] King said law enforcement officials in North Carolina sealed the home of Reed and Cheryl Sanders on Friday morning pursuant to a search warrant.