I know this is *just* a tad morbid but what on-the-set deaths can you think of in films that claimed the lives of actors, actresses, cameramen, stuntmen, lighting staff, sound staff, directors, assistant directors, etc.?
I will start with one of the worst:
TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1982)
July 23, 1982-- Indian Dunes, Valencia, Santa Clara, CA:
Prominent actor Vic Morrow and 2 young Asian children are killed. In a vignette of the film in which Mr. Morrow's character is an unrepentant racist/bigot, he has to live out the plight of the people he decries. He is transported to the Vietnam War, where he has to help some Vietnamese children. In one scene he is wading through water with 2 children. A pyrotechnic explosion hampered a helicopter pilot's visibility and he lost control, severing the heads of Morrow and one of the children, and crushing the other. Director John Landis and others on the set shirked numerous child labor laws and safety standards and probably should have done some jail time.
(https://www.dailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2016/201611/NEWS_161119454_AR_0_GDREUHMIVMUH.jpg?w=620)
What other on-set fatalities can you think of?
There is always Brandon Lee dying in The Crow.
In SUCH MEN ARE DANGEROUS (1930), two pilots died when the bi-planes they were flying ran into each other.
And guess what? Bela Lugosi was in this movie!
Thats the only reason I know this. :drink:
I understand three of the stunt pilots in Hell's Angels (1930) were killed...
Ben-Hur (1929) Several extras were killed in the sea fight scene & the chariot race. Resulted in stricter safety standards in future films. Also meant the 50's remake had to use model ships.
The soundman on the South African film The Last Lion (1972) was mauled to death by a lion.
A camera operator on the film Options was gored fatally by an elephant.
Quote from: Pacman000 on March 25, 2018, 07:17:29 PM
Ben-Hur (1929) Several extras were killed in the sea fight scene & the chariot race. Resulted in stricter safety standards in future films. Also meant the 50's remake had to use model ships.
It's 1925. In those years, an important distinction.
JON-ERIK HEXUM died on the set of his TV show - accidentally killing himself with a blank cartridge.
Quote from: Allhallowsday on March 30, 2018, 01:27:32 PM
Quote from: Pacman000 on March 25, 2018, 07:17:29 PM
Ben-Hur (1929) Several extras were killed in the sea fight scene & the chariot race. Resulted in stricter safety standards in future films. Also meant the 50's remake had to use model ships.
It's 1925. In those years, an important distinction.
True. Probably should've looked it up.
Von Richthofen and Brown - a pilot died in an airplane crash.
QuoteActress Edith Webster died onstage from a heart attack while performing her death scene in the play "The Drunkard," in a lodge in Baltimore. The role called for her to sing "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," and then slump to the floor, which she did.
:buggedout:
The famous South African actor Gert van den Bergh - who acted in Zulu and The Naked Prey - died during production of the apartheid challenging film Die Kandidaat [The Candidate] after suffering two heart attacks during production. He was warned that finishing the film would kill him, he ignored doctors orders and suffered another heart attack, dying before the film was complete.
Camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed in an on set train accident while filming a scene for the film Midnight Rider: thankfully the douchebag director who assured everyone it was safe to film there DID serve time in jail, but not enough, unfortunately.
Several people were injured and three extras reportedly died during the Great Deluge sequence of Michael Curtiz's NOAH'S ARK (1928).
It's not hard to imagine how that happened:
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mjtr6V5hCE#)
Italian actor Claudio Cassinelli was killed in a helicopter crash during the filming of 1986's Hands of Steel (aka Atomic Cyborg).
When I was doing research for my CATCH-22 review, I learned that an assistant director plummeted to his death while filming aerial shots. Apparently he was shooting from the open tail turret of a B-52 and refused to wear a harness.
THE RETURN OF THE MUSKETEERS (1989)
ROY KINNEAR died from a fall off a horse.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/51/Roy_Kinnear.jpg)
I'm not sure if the apparent hoax death of the German tourist Pit Dernitz in the film Savage Man Savage Beast fits in here.
Quote from: Trevor on April 04, 2018, 02:07:12 AM
I'm not sure if the apparent hoax death of the German tourist Pit Dernitz in the film Savage Man Savage Beast fits in here.
Was that the tourist in Namibia? I've read that was a genuine death (by lion). I would say it fits.
Quote from: retrorussell on April 04, 2018, 02:44:41 AM
Quote from: Trevor on April 04, 2018, 02:07:12 AM
I'm not sure if the apparent hoax death of the German tourist Pit Dernitz in the film Savage Man Savage Beast fits in here.
Was that the tourist in Namibia? I've read that was a genuine death (by lion). I would say it fits.
I'm not sure if it was Namibia or Kenya, but that's the one.
Quote from: Rev. Powell on March 31, 2018, 01:02:04 PM
When I was doing research for my CATCH-22 review, I learned that an assistant director plummeted to his death while filming aerial shots. Apparently he was shooting from the open tail turret of a B-52 and refused to wear a harness.
That was John Jordan I think.
Quote from: Trevor on April 04, 2018, 06:26:55 AM
Quote from: Rev. Powell on March 31, 2018, 01:02:04 PM
When I was doing research for my CATCH-22 review, I learned that an assistant director plummeted to his death while filming aerial shots. Apparently he was shooting from the open tail turret of a B-52 and refused to wear a harness.
That was John Jordan I think.
Yes, that was him.
Here's a 1993 article with some others not mentioned here: http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-02/entertainment/ca-18359_1_malibu (http://articles.latimes.com/1993-04-02/entertainment/ca-18359_1_malibu)
A total of 8 people died filming just two Chuck Norris movies from 1987-1989.
:buggedout:
Is that true or did you get it from Chuck Norris Facts?
Quote from: Pacman000 on April 04, 2018, 11:46:22 AM
:buggedout:
Is that true or did you get it from Chuck Norris Facts?
Five people died making
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection - I don't know about the others.
Stuntman AJ Bakunis died in a fall when doubling for George Kennedy (!) in the Lee Majors high rise construction saga STEEL (1979).
There's a mini-documentary about the accident:
! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD_iRX8bQog#)
A BELL FROM HELL (1973)
Weird Spanish-French horror film involving a man returning from a mental asylum where he was wrongly sent by his aunt and her three daughters so they could steal his inheritance. He seeks terrible revenge.
Anyway, the director (Claudio Guerin) fell off the tower that housed the titular bell on the final day of shooting and died.
H.B. Halicki just popped into my head.....
If memory serves me correctly, he was complaining to reporters about the insurance & what-not he had to go through for the scene that got him killed....