For years, film crew unions have been trying to expose the dangerous working
conditions in Hollywood. Sadly, it seems they've still got a lot of work to do.
Here are some of the cast and crew who have been killed on the set of a movie.
In 2021, a freak accident on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie, Rust, shocked the world.
"Alec Baldwin says he is fully cooperating with police after
one crew member was killed on a movie set in New Mexico."
It was soon revealed that Baldwin had shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a gun
he didn't know was loaded. According to an affidavit published by Deadline, the assistant
director handed it to Baldwin, declaring that it was a "cold gun" and therefore had no live rounds.
Director Joel Souza was also injured when the actor shot towards the camera during a rehearsal.
Questions have since been raised about the film's production. The film's gaffer,
Sergey Svetnoy, who held Hutchins when she died, wrote on Facebook:
"To save a dime sometimes, you hire people who are not fully qualified for the complicated and
dangerous job, and you risk the lives of the other people who are close and your lives as well."
Svetnoy accused the film's producers of caring more about the budget than their employees,
several of whom had walked out earlier that week. After the news broke, Baldwin announced that he
was working with the official investigation to figure out exactly what went wrong. He tweeted:
"There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that
took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours."
When Top Gun was released in 1986, it quickly won over America with its stunning action sequences
and charismatic lead performance from Tom Cruise. The film was also dedicated to the memory of Art
Scholl, a stunt pilot who lost his life in a horrible accident while shooting the movie.
Scholl had gone from teaching aeronautics to becoming one of the best stunt pilots in the
country. As well as flying for the US aerobatic team, he had flown in movies such as Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom, Blue Thunder, and The Right Stuff. While performing an inverted
spin 4,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean during filming on Top Gun, however, something went wrong.
During his descent, Scholl radioed that he was having a problem — before repeating the
same as he hit 1,500 feet. Spotter planes arrived shortly afterward, but by then he had disappeared.
Although the Coast Guard searched for Scholl's body and the wreckage of his plane, they were
never recovered. It has been speculated that the plane was thrown off by the weight of Scholl's
camera equipment, though the true circumstances of Scholl's death remain a mystery to this day.
The film industry was shaken in 1982 when a brutal helicopter crash on the
set of Twilight Zone: The Movie led to the death of Vic Morrow and two child actors.
The scene was supposed to depict Morrow saving the two kids during the Vietnam war.
It was later revealed that seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen
were being paid under the table by director John Landis to avoid child labor laws.
"How two children can be working at 2:30 in the morning… just blows my mind."
The helicopter was also being flown by a real Vietnam veteran,
who became terrified by the film's pyrotechnics.
When the helicopter crashed into the river in which the cast members were standing, Renee
was crushed by the vehicle's right side, while Morrow and Myca were slashed by the main blade.
The special effects explosions had just been too close to the helicopter, causing it to crash when
it went into an "uncontrolled descent." It was also later ruled that a lack of communication
between the pilot and Landis had meant that the helicopter was flying too close to the ground.
Although Landis and the film's producers went through almost a
decade of lawsuits and criminal cases, they were eventually acquitted. The accident did,
however, lead to much-needed changes to safety practices in the movie industry.
In 1984, a prop gun was used in an accidental death on the set of the CBS series Cover Up.
Star Jon-Erik Hexum was 26 when he was filming the action-adventure show, which would likely have
been his big breakthrough role. After filming was delayed again on a particularly long day,
the actor began joking around with a prop gun as though he was playing Russian Roulette.
When he pulled the trigger, however, Hexum fatally shot himself in the head.
Although the gun didn't contain any real bullets, blanks can still be dangerous when they're fired
within a few feet of somebody's head. The blast from the gun was explosive enough to
damage his skull, which meant Hexum had to be rushed to the hospital for a five-hour surgery.
Doctors couldn't save him, but they were able to use his heart in a life-saving transplant.
Former Navy SEAL Michael Washington, who received Hexum's heart, later said:
"It gave an opportunity for my two kids to still have a father."
Fans across the globe were heartbroken when it was announced that Australian
animal expert Steve Irwin had been killed while filming a documentary in 2006.
The Crocodile Hunter had been recording his last-ever project, Ocean's Deadliest, which
followed Irwin as he traveled on his research boat "Croc One," learning more about the world's
most dangerous aquatic species. One of these species led to his untimely death, however, when
the beloved host was stung by a stingray. It's likely that the barb pierced his heart directly.
After a private funeral was held, Australia Zoo hosted a public memorial to pay tribute
to Irwin's conservation efforts. 4,000 of his most devoted fans showed up in person and an estimated
300 million people watched online from around the world. Irwin's father told the attendants:
"Please don't grieve for Steve — he's at peace now. But I would like you to grieve
for the animals — the animals have lost the best friend they ever had."
Irwin's final moments were recorded, and the footage still
exists — but everyone working on the film agreed that it should never be shown.
The finished documentary is dedicated to Irwin's memory, but doesn't address his death.
Years after martial arts legend Bruce Lee died tragically while filming his last movie,
his 28-year-old son, Brandon Lee, was shot and killed on set.
The young actor was on the verge of becoming a star thanks to The Crow,
in which he played the lead role. One scene in the movie demanded that Lee be shot at close range by
a prop gun — but things went tragically wrong when he was hit in the abdomen by a cartridge that had
become stuck in the weapon. Although he was rushed to the hospital for surgery, nobody realized he
had actually been shot until after his death, when an autopsy found the bullet close to his spine.
After a lengthy investigation into why a gun supposedly loaded with blanks had
fired a real bullet, Lee's death was ruled an accident by negligence. The circumstances
of his death haunted Michael Massee, who shot Lee, for years. In 2005, he said:
"It's something that I'm gonna live with."
Of all the camera operators to have ever worked in Hollywood, John Jordan must have been one of
the most daring. Despite being severely injured on set, he continued to risk his life to achieve
an array of stunning shots. In an interview with Bond Pix,
pilot Kenneth Wallis explained how Jordan was first injured while shooting the 1967
James Bond film You Only Live Twice, during a helicopter fight sequence. Wallis recalled:
"There was a nasty accident in which the cameraman John Jordan lost his leg when
one of the other helicopters collided with the camera helicopter in what should have
been a close pass. At that altitude one needs to allow a bit more space for the control response."
The blades of a Bell 47 helicopter almost took his foot off completely, and although it was
quickly reattached by surgeons, Jordan eventually had his leg amputated anyway.
His brush with death clearly didn't scare him away from filming air battles, since the cameraman
later fell out of a plane while filming Catch 22. This time, however, he wasn't so lucky. Jordan
plummeted 4,000 feet into the Atlantic ocean after a passing aircraft made his bomber overbalance.
Although The Dark Knight became an Oscar-winning smash hit,
the Batman sequel was infamously overshadowed by the tragedy of Heath Ledger's death.
And Ledger wasn't the only person who died before the film's release: special effects
technician Conway Wickliffe was killed when the 4x4 he was riding in crashed into a tree.
The crew were filming a stunt in the English town of Chertsey, and Wickliffe apparently wasn't
wearing a seatbelt. His vehicle was supposed to follow the action so that the technician could
shoot the scene with a handheld camera through his car window. When it hit a tree instead,
Wickliffe suffered severe head injuries and later died in hospital.
Soon after, the studio confirmed that there had been "a fatal accident" on set, saying:
"A special effects technician on the film was in
a truck that struck a tree at the end of a test run-through."
The filmmakers behind The Dark Knight decided to acknowledge his death in the
movie with a dedication to their friends: "Ledger and Wickliffe".
When Eddie Murphy teamed up with Wes Craven to make the horror film Vampire in Brooklyn,
no one could have predicted that it would lead to a horrific real death on set.
Angela Bassett's stunt double, Sonja Davis, sustained critical injuries
while performing a 42-foot backwards drop. Cinematographer Mark Irwin later explained:
"This airbag was as big as a house, it filled the alley entirely. That's why there was no
ambulance on set. Sonja had done all the moves, she was aware of the scene. Leading
up to the fall she was hanging on the side of the building, or it was supposed to look like that."
He recalled that Davis hit her head as she fell
and almost completely missed the airbag. Irwin remembered:
"She landed at my feet."
Fellow stuntwoman Lafaye Baker observed that
Davis was just reaching the peak of her career at the time. She said:
"She was so well-liked and had such a great personality. It was just so tragic."
In a heart wrenching twist, Davis' mother and brother happened to be on set that day.
The Davis family sued Paramount afterward for $10 million,
but they nevertheless made clear that no amount of money could bring their daughter back.
Director Richard Lester retired from filmmaking after the death of his frequent collaborator Roy
Kinnear, following a horse-riding accident on the set of The Return of the Musketeers.
After breaking his pelvis, Kinnear was rushed to the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid.
There, the star suffered a heart attack and died.
Kinnear's tragic death led to a lawsuit against the production company,
which resulted in a payment to the Kinnear family of
£650,000 in damages as well as their legal costs. His widow, Carmel, said in court:
"That night is indelibly printed on my mind forever."
After the settlement was announced, she said that "justice" had been delivered. Carmel explained:
"Somebody can't just die and we all forget about it. Nothing will ever
make up for the last six years of hell or the rest of our lives without him."
His son Rory, who followed in his father's footsteps and became an actor,
told The Guardian that Kinnear still has his fans in the industry. He said:
"I still meet people today who say they were very affected by his death. But working in the
business now, everyone has a new story about him, and every new story is a nice story."
He also insisted that his father would have approved of his own acting career. Rory added:
"He would have been happy, if I was happy."