Ironically, Budlong may have been inadvertently responsible for his own demise – according to legend, he opted to carry a real weapon on set instead of using a prop sword.Īn all but forgotten Tom Selleck adventure flick directed by Brian G. One of the film’s leading stars, Jack Budlong, also died on-set when he was fatally impaled on a saber after a nearby explosive charge went off. One stunt performer broke his neck after falling off a horse, while yet another experienced a fatal heart attack with the cameras rolling. The production was riddled with mishaps, with no less than three cast members getting killed. This Errol Flynn vehicle helmed by director Raoul Walsh told a greatly embellished story about the supposed life and times of General George Custer. According to Hollywood legend, more than 30 ambulances were needed to tend to those injured – including one extra who later required an amputation – during the filming of the sequence. More than 600,000 gallons of water was used for the movie’s big finale, which ultimately led to the drowning of three cast members. Here, you’ll find a dozen films that incurred numerous on-set deaths, ranging from pioneering biblical epics from the early, early days of sound motion pictures all the way up to international crime dramas from the 2000s that had the misfortune of filming at the very epicenter of a natural disaster.Īlthough the causes of each fatality differs (some can be attributed to directorial neglect, while others are just the end results of fluky technical errors) each of the twelve films below demonstrate just how dangerous the film industry can be – and, rather morbidly, give new meaning to that old hackneyed aphorism, “dying for your art.”ĭirector Michael Curtiz’s ambitious early talkie (its budget was more than $1 million – about $14 million in today’s dollars) is more or less responsible for Hollywood even having safety regulations. Even more surprising are just how many films in which multiple fatal accidents – in some cases, numbering in the dozens – didn’t halt production. Unfortunately, on-set deaths, especially outside the parameters of Hollywood safety protocols, are much more common than one would assume. While some of these mishaps led to long and costly wrongful death trials (a stunt person’s death in Vampire in Brooklyn, for example, cost Paramount $50 million) only very rarely do filmmakers themselves face civil or criminal charges for the lethal accidents that transpire under their watch. Who could ever forget the fatal accidental shooting of Brandon Lee during The Crow and the litany of deadly stunts gone wrong in films like The Dark Knight and The Expendables II? Throughout history, filmdom has seen its fair share of horrific on-the-set tragedies.
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