Since Mosley portrayed a helicopter pilot on “Magnum,” it would stand to reason that several scenes would involve him flying a helicopter. As it turns out, Mosley himself was a licensed helicopter pilot, according to the Los Angeles Times. However, just because an actor is legally and functionally capable of doing something doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s prudent or advisable, particularly when stunts are precise and dangerous. Producers instead relied on a stunt pilot for Mosley’s helicopter shots. However, for the first season, his stunt double was a white actor wearing a bodysuit and makeup, complete with an Afro, to make him look Black, and Mosley wasn’t having it.
“They told me they couldn’t find any qualified Blacks,” he told Ebony in 1982. “I raised hell, telling them that as many Blacks as there were flying in Vietnam, I knew they could find somebody.” Sure enough, from Season 2 onward, Mosley’s stunt double was a Black man and not a white man in blackface.
