Mr Soper said he plans to cover funeral expenses for his friend.That moment - when Hannah heard Amaii express something she’d never guessed she was feeling - sparked a new connection. He is survived by his wife and four children. Hannah's story, co-written by Mr Soper, was chronicled in the 2010 book, A Bum Deal: An Unlikely Journey From Hopeless To Humanitarian. "He taught me that we all needed to look at the homeless more kindly, that it could've been your mother or your brother. "He worked with the National Coalition for the Homeless as an advocate because he had lived that life himself," Mr Soper said.
Hannah also became an advocate for the homeless.
RUFUS HANNAH TV
"I see a TV show like 'Law & Order,' where they win a case and go back to the office and have a drink, and I say to myself, 'Boy, that looks pretty good.' I can almost taste it. "I loved to get drunk," Hannah told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2010.
"He took care of the complex like it was his place," Mr Soper said. He held the job for more than half a decade. He became assistant manager at Mr Soper's 62-unit townhome complex where Hannah had previously scrounged for cans. But eventually, he turned his life around. Hannah in those days was a wild-haired, gap-toothed man with the word "BUMFIGHT" tattooed across his knuckles. In 2006, the four filmmakers reportedly paid at least 300,000 dollars to settle lawsuits filed by Hannah and two other men who appeared in the original video. They avoided jail, but McPherson and another man later were sentenced to 180 days each in jail for failing to complete community service. The four original filmmakers eventually pleaded guilty in California to misdemeanour charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight. But they were condemned by homeless advocates, blamed for inspiring violence against the homeless and banned in several countries. The videos sold hundreds of thousands of DVD copies. Hannah, who smashed his head into a steel door, said he suffered permanent injuries. It was followed by several sequels in which Hannah, known as "Rufus the Stunt Bum" and other homeless people performed dangerous and degrading stunts. The first Bumfights video was released in 2002. "He told me he was doing a video for his economics class on what it was like when you don't have a job," Hannah said in a 2006 article in the New York Times. Hannah, a Georgia native who began drinking when he was 14, was living on the streets when he began his "Bumfights" career.Ī high school student and aspiring filmmaker, Ryan McPherson, offered him five dollars to run head-first into milk crates stacked outside a grocery store in El Cajon, California. He told KNSD-TV that Hannah was a "beautiful soul" who had been sober for 13 years. Mr Soper gave Hannah a job and helped in his eventual recovery. They were given about 10 dollars per stunt, and were usually drunk. Hannah first appeared in notorious videos which featured homeless people brawling or performing degrading stunts such as setting fire to their hair or slamming head-first into walls. On Friday, Hannah's friend and benefactor, Barry Soper, placed a bouquet on the Dumpster in San Diego where he first encountered Hannah more than 15 years ago. Police said Hannah was a passenger in a car which collided with a truck just outside Swainsboro, Georgia. Rufus Hannah, a formerly homeless alcoholic who fought and performed dangerous stunts in the notorious "Bumfights" videos, has died in a car crash at the age of 63.