Nobody should ever have to die in the process of making movies — and thankfully, fatal
accidents on movie sets are pretty rare. But that doesn't mean they don't happen. Here
are some of the cast and crew members who have been killed on set.
In the immediate aftermath of the death of Halyna Hutchins, many pointed to a similar
incident that occurred 28 years earlier: the death of Brandon Lee. Lee died on the set
of the gothic superhero classic The Crow on March 31st, 1993. He was just 28.
Like Hutchins, Lee was shot and killed by a prop gun that a fellow actor believed contained
blanks. Lee's autopsy revealed that he had been killed by a "fragment of a dummy shell"
that had been previously fired but which had lodged in the gun's barrel, unknown to the
production team. Though a lawsuit filed by Lee's family alleged that "crew members improperly
manufactured their own from live ammunition," no charges were ever filed.
Following the death of Hutchins in 2021, the family of Brandon Lee took to Twitter to share
their condolences and to decry the circumstances that could let such a horrific accident happen
again. They wrote:
"Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved
in the incident on Rust. No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period."
The on-set death of Brandon Lee wasn't the first to occur as the result of a firearm.
In 1984, 26-year-old actor Jon-Erik Hexum lost his life as a result of what Entertainment
Weekly described as a "fatal joke."
At the time, Hexum was engaged in filming on the CBS adventure series Cover Up, playing
a model and ex-Green Beret named Mac Harper. Production had run into numerous delays, leaving
Hexum bored on set. After discovering a .44 magnum prop gun, the actor jokingly made his
exasperation known to the cast and crew by holding the gun to his head and pulling the
trigger. Though the weapon only contained blanks, the force of the blast at short range
fractured Hexum's skull and caused a fatal brain hemorrhage.
"In this demonstration, a .38 blank was fired. As you can see, the explosion can do a lot
of damage."
He died after five hours of emergency surgery at Beverly Hills Medical Center.
Daniel Oates, former police chief of Miami Beach and Aurora, Colorado, told CNN how even
prop guns have the potential to be fatal. He said:
"They all contain a charge, a powder that creates the noise and the explosive, the visual
blast, and usually it's some kind of wire or something that explodes out of the weapon
when it's fired [...] These weapons can be very, very dangerous."
For as long as movies have been around, Hollywood has tried to wow cinema audiences with incredible
stunts. Like many of his contemporaries, the silent comic Buster Keaton was known for doing
his own stunts, which included clearing planks from railway tracks while sitting on the front
of a movie train, and standing stock-still as the wall of a house collapses on top of
him.
No safety regulations existed at the time, but as the years have passed, Hollywood stunts
have become far safer. In 2011, the veteran stunt performer Hal Needham told The Independent:
"It is much safer today than when I was doing stunts eons ago. Stuntmen today are more talented,
more experienced and in better shape. The equipment they have today is much better."
However, tragic accidents still happen. In 2017, the highly respected stunt motorcycle
rider Joi Harris was killed on the set of Deadpool 2.
"The bike just sped off and went straight into the building."
The movie's production company, TCF Vancouver Productions Ltd., was later held responsible
and fined $300,000; they were found to have instructed Harris not to wear safety headgear
while operating the motorcycle. 20th Century Fox subsequently arranged a settlement with
Harris' family out of court. Harris' colleague, Melissa Stubbs, later said:
"Her death was senseless and could have been avoided."
In 1982, the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie was struck by tragedy when veteran actor Vic
Morrow was killed in a tragic helicopter accident, along with two child actors he was working
with: Renee Shin-Yi Chen, 6, and Myca Dinh Le, 7. Morrow had made his name during the
1960s as the star of the World War II TV series Combat!
Just before he was killed, Morrow was carrying the two children on a set depicting a battle
during the Vietnam War. Suddenly, a chartered helicopter became affected by the pyrotechnics.
The pilot lost control of the helicopter, striking the three actors with the spinning
rotor blades and killing them instantly.
John Landis, who was co-directing the film, was charged with involuntary manslaughter
alongside four other crew members, including the helicopter pilot and the special-effects
coordinator. All five defendants would be acquitted following a highly publicized trial,
which helped cast light on the dangers of Hollywood film sets at the time.
Following the tragic deaths that occurred on the set of Twilight Zone, health and safety
regulations in Hollywood were subject to such an overhaul that insurance companies were
willing to insure film sets for the first time.
The 1986 classic Top Gun is one of the most beloved action movies of all time — but
the film's production was overshadowed by the death of the acclaimed stunt pilot Art
Scholl.
Scholl had enjoyed a distinguished career as a Hollywood stunt pilot, with the movies
Blue Thunder and The Right Stuff among his many credits. He was considered among the
best in the field of aeronautics, having been brought into movie stunt work by Paul Mantz
and Frank Tallman, two legendary Hollywood stunt pilots who also lost their lives in
accidents while filming.
Scholl was in San Diego County piloting an aerobatic biplane equipped with cameras to
capture his audacious stunts. Suddenly, he lost control of the vehicle at an altitude
of 4,000 feet, radioing the stunt team that he was experiencing "a problem." His plane
plunged into the sea, with debris from the wreckage washing up hours later. Scholl's body was never recovered.