10 Unusual Deaths During Movie Productions

Quick Summary

• 1980-1990: 37 stunt performers died on film sets, including 24 in helicopter crashes.
• 2002-2024: 32 on-set deaths recorded, with 22 directly tied to productions.
1. Twilight Zone (1982): Helicopter accident killed actor Vic Morrow and two child actors due to pyrotechnic explosions; led to legal trials and stricter Hollywood safety regulations.
2. Roar (1981): over the course of filming, untrained wild cats injured over 70 cast/crew members; notable for mass-scale injuries rather then fatalities.
3. The Crow (1993): Brandon Lee was fatally shot by a prop gun due to mishandled dummy rounds and blank cartridges during production; completed with digital effects posthumously.
4. Hell’s Angels (1930): Aviation sequences caused three pilot deaths during filming aerial stunts for Howard Hughes’s ambitious war epic.
5. The Viking (1931): Ship explosion loaded with dynamite for ice-breaking scenes killed over 25 crew members, including key production personnel Varick Frissell and Alexander Penrod.
6. John Jordan Accidents:

– Lost his foot in a rotor blade accident while shooting You Only Live Twice (1967).
– fell from a B-25 bomber during Catch-22 filming in 1969.

1. Midnight Rider/ sarah Jones Tragedy (2014) Train scheduling conflict cost human-permitted Jones’s life next-day pathlines [cine-movement cause starting time].