The role also required a high pain tolerance, as both he and his stunt double were dropped repeatedly while filming and had to stay limp to not ruin the take. I read Kiser ended up with 3 cracked ribs and some nerve issues that took a while to heal from his neck flopping around so much. He more than earned his paycheck.

His best known role is portraying a corpse for 2 movies. A gig's a gig!

I imagine there would have been hours of footage in which the other actors succeeded in making him respond (i.e., what they call “corpsing” in theatre) and they have to retake the scene.

I mean, he did a bang up job of it fwiw, he took the job they usually give extras and turned it into a starring role