Lights.. camera.. death! On-the-set fatal accidents. Stuntmen, actors, etc.

[retrorussell]

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.

What other on-set fatalities can you think of?

[Alex]

There is always Brandon Lee dying in The Crow.

[RCMerchant]

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. 

[LilCerberus]

I understand three of the stunt pilots in Hell's Angels (1930) were killed...

[Pacman000]

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.

[Trevor]

The soundman on the South African film The Last Lion (1972) was mauled to death by a lion.

[Trevor]

A camera operator on the film Options was gored fatally by an elephant.

[Allhallowsday]

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. 

[Pacman000]

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.

[claws]

Actress 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.

[Trevor]

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.

[Trevor]

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.

[Raffine]

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

[FatFreddysCat]

Italian actor Claudio Cassinelli was killed in a helicopter crash during the filming of 1986's Hands of Steel (aka Atomic Cyborg).

[Rev. Powell]

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.