My wife and I caught a bit of Gladiator on TV last night, which sparked a bit of a discussion about Richard Harris. Lori recalled hearing that he had died during filming, requiring some editing of the movie to make use of his existing footage. I disagreed, pointing out that both his Harry Potter movies were made after Gladiator. We eventually looked it up and, sure enough, he had just finished Chamber of Secrets in 2002.
Anyway, we started discussing actors who had died while making movies. It happened to John Candy, and I believe it happened to both Bruce Lee and his son. I would also include Bela Lugosi, except that he was dead before Plan 9 began filming.
I know there are others. Who else has this happened to, and what were the movies?
Vic Morrow (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0607558/) died in a helicopter accident while filming "The Twilight Zone"
Of course. I don't know how I could have forgotten that one. Decapitated by a helicopter while making the movie that was supposed to revitalize his career.
Interestingly, it was around the same time, give or take a few months, that director Boris Sagal was also killed by a helicopter while making a TV movie. Took a wrong turn getting off and walked into the tail rotor. He was the father of Katey Sagal, by the way.
actually it was Oliver Reed that died while filming Gladiator.
Kinji Fukasaku who directed battle royale also died while filming battle royale 2, just after the first day of shooting.
Richard Harris passed away surrounded by friends and family if I recal correctly.
is that what happened to Vic Morrow? I thought he died in a chopted crash.
is that what happened to Vic Morrow? I thought he died in a chopted crash.
Sorta. The helicopter crashed into him. It was on the location for part of his Twilight Zone spot and the helicopter in the scene crashed. Morrow was hit with the rotor as it happened
Let us not forget Brandon Lee who died while filming "The Crow".
(http://www.crowfansonline.com/img/fan_art/49s.jpg)
Post Edited (07-05-04 21:01)
Bela Lugosi shot a few minutes of footage with Ed Wood. After Lugosi died, Wood got his chiropractor to double for Lugosi (chiroractor was a much taller, younger man, by the way) for "Plan 9 From Outer Space."
Also, Bruce Lee's "Game of Death." Only eleven minutes of Bruce Lee footage are in there, and the rest is a double. The double often wears really big sunglasses, and also occasionally wears a beard, helmet, or bandages. In one great scene, Bruce Lee's face is clumsily superimposed over the double.
Oh, I think there were a bunch of John Carradine movies made after his death, too.
Bruce Lee was in a lot more that 11minutes of Game of Death. The special they had on AMC had him fighting his way through 5 floors of the pagoda and it was a hell of a lot longet than that, I think the fight with Kareem was almost that long.
Natalie Wood died while they were making Brainstorm. The movie was kind of in limbo until they proved to the insurance company that they had enough footage of her to finish the film.
Post Edited (07-05-04 17:07)
Didn't Peter Sellers die during "Trail of the pink panther" ? they made the movie anyways, But I can't recall if he died in production or if they just used old footage for it. Either way he was on scene and toes up at the same time.
Shemp of The 3 Stooges died while they were making 3 or 4 shorts simlutaneously. There were several ways the Stooges solved this -- as they couldn't just trash all the footage they'd shot. One way was to have Moe and Larry shoot inserts of them saying "Hey, I wonder how Shemp's doing" and calling him up, then they'd insert old Shemp footage of him doing something else.
Another way was to shoot a "fake Shemp" actor only from behind during chase sequences, riding in a car, etc.
The term to "do a fake Shemp" even had some currency in the film industry for awhile for using a standin for a principle actor in long shots, etc.
Film Threat magazine did several articles on this topic years ago.
peter johnson
Robert Walker, of "Strangers on a Train" fame, died during the filming of "My Son John".
Co-star Robert Shaw and director Mark Robson both died during production of "Avalanche Express". Having seen the film, who can blame them?
According to IMDB, Peter Sellers' scenes in "Trail of the Pink Pather" were made up of unused footage from "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" with new footage shot with other actors to integrate Sellers into the new film. Cut and paste filmmaking basically.
John Erik Hexum killed himself (accidentally?) during the filming of the show Cover Up. According to the accounts I read, he was fooling around during a break between scenes when he put a gun loaded with blanks to his head and pulled the trigger. The force of the blank blew a chunk of his skull into his brain.
Yeah, he filmed more than eleven minutes, but only eleven minutes of his footage actually ended up in the movie. The rest was thrown away.
Yaddo42 wrote:
> According to IMDB, Peter Sellers' scenes in "Trail of the Pink
> Pather" were made up of unused footage from "The Pink Panther
> Strikes Again" with new footage shot with other actors to
> integrate Sellers into the new film. Cut and paste filmmaking
> basically.
This explains why the movie had the feel of a sitcom clip show. The kind of show where the cast would sit around in the kitchen and say.."Hey, remember the time when..." and insert clip from old episode. Very bad, indeed.
Who can forget Brandon Lee's unfortunate death during the filming of the Crow? In fact, a whole lot of people died during the filming of the Crow.
Heather O'Rourke, the poltergeist little girl, she died during th makeing of poltergeist 3 "cardio-respiratory arrest" it was needed to use a double to finish the movie.
Post Edited (07-06-04 12:54)
Marlon Brando is supposed to start filming in a little while a movie called "Brando and Brando" or something like that. I hear he plays himself. Something tells me that this is gonna need a major re-write.
Bubba, I couldn't help but notice you're on Rogers. Good to have another Canadian on here.
Yeah, it's true, eh? (he said while adjusting his touque and putting on his snowshoes).
Michael Jeter "Open Range"