List Of Film And Television Accidents

In the history of film and television, accidents have occurred during shooting, such as cast or crew fatalities or serious accidents that plagued production. From 1980 to 1990, there were 37 deaths relating to accidents during stunts; 24 of these deaths involved the use of helicopters.

1910s

*''Across the Border'' (1914). On 1 July 1914, while filming on location in Cañon City, Colorado, cast member Grace McHugh was filming a scene where her character was crossing the Arkansas River in a boat. When the boat capsized, camera operator Owen Carter immediately jumped into the river to save her. He dragged her onto a sandbar that was reported to be quicksand. The rest of the film crew watched helplessly as they were sucked into the sandbar and drowned. Carter received a posthumous Carnegie Hero Award for his rescue efforts.
*'' The Birth of a Nation'' (1915). Future film director Erich von Stroheim fell off a roof and broke two ribs in one scene as an extra.
* ''The Girl of the Golden West'' (1915). Actor House Peters Sr. suffered serious burns to his face and hands when a prop pistol exploded upon being fired.
* ''The Captive'' (1915). During filming of a scene where soldiers were required to break down a locked door, the extras fired at the door using live ammunition to give the scene more realism. Director Cecil B. DeMille then ordered the extras to reload with blanks in order to film the next shot in which the door is broken down. One of the extras inadvertently left a live round in his rifle which discharged, shooting another extra, Charles Chandler, in the head, killing him instantly.
*'' The Woman God Forgot'' (1917). In one scene, extras were required to be thrown over the side of an Aztec pyramid. The 'pyramid' was built of wood and covered in paper on which sand had been glued to create the appearance of stone. The extras were badly scraped as they slid down the side of the structure. Having expected such injuries, a crew member was waiting at the bottom with a bucket of iodine.
*'' The Valley of the Giants'' (1919). Silent-era star Wallace Reid was badly injured in a train crash during filming in Oregon. His injuries caused him severe pain and the studio supplied him with increasing quantities of morphine so he could keep working. Addicted to morphine and also suffering from alcoholism, Reid died in 1923 at the age of 31.
* ''Wet and Warmer'' Henry Lehrman comedy (1919). Comedian Billie Ritchie, while working on a short comedy film, was kicked in the stomach by an ostrich.

1920s

*''Haunted Spooks'' (1920). On the set of a publicity shoot that took place while filming, actor and comedian Harold Lloyd picked up what he thought was a prop bomb with the fuse lit but realized too late the bomb was real. It detonated, blowing off the thumb and first finger of his right hand and also temporarily blinding him. For the rest of his career, Lloyd concealed his missing fingers with a prosthetic glove.
*'' The Skywayman'' (1920). Pilots Milton Elliott and Ormer Locklear were killed on 2 August 1920, during filming. Their plane crashed at the DeMille Airfield, along Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, while filming night scenes.
* ''Manslaughter'' (1922). Stunt man Leo Noomis was required to crash a police motorcycle into the side of a car at . Noomis suffered six broken ribs and a fractured pelvis while performing the stunt.
*'' Trifling Women'' (1922). Joe Martin (orangutan) attacked actor Edward Connelly, biting him, mangling his hand and possibly breaking his arm.
* ''Around the World in Eighteen Days'' (1922). Stunt pilot Jean Perkins fell to his death while shooting a scene where he was to hang from a rope ladder off the side of a plane.
* ''The Eleventh Hour'' (1923). Stunt pilot Dick Kerwood suffered a severe concussion during filming. He was to parachute from a Standard-J biplane which was loaded with explosives set to go off after he bailed out of the aircraft. However the timer was faulty, causing the explosives to detonate when Kerwood was still on board. He was thrown clear and, although dazed, managed to open his parachute in time.
*''Souls for Sale'' (1923). Actress Barbara La Marr injured her ankle during filming and doctors prescribed not only morphine but also cocaine to control the pain and enable her to continue filming. Working on the production left La Marr addicted to drugs, a factor that contributed to her premature death three years later.
* ''The Brass Bottle'' (1923). Charlie the elephant attacked long-time trainer Curley Stecker causing rib fractures, lacerations, contusions and a concussion.
*'' The Covered Wagon'' (1923). Bert Alping was "thrown from a cliff…and severely hurt."
*''The Great Circus Mystery'' (1925). Stuntmen Frank Tully and Tony Brack were killed in auto accident. The footage is in the film.
*''The Desert Fiddler'' (1924). Stunt swimmer William Harbaugh drowned while filming a water scene in the Colorado River near Laguna Dam.
*'' Rex, the King of the Wild Horses'' (1924). An Arabian horse fell on C.P. "Chick" Morrison shortly after filming was complete; Morrison died en route to the hospital.
*'' Raffles'' (1924). Veteran actor Kate Lester was killed by a space heater explosion in her dressing room.
*''Sherlock Jr.'' (1924). While hanging from a water tower, Buster Keaton pulled a rope that released water from the tower, knocking him to the ground. In the scene, he stood and ran into the distance. During a routine physical examination 11 years later, an X-ray revealed that Keaton's neck had been fractured.
*'' The Warrens of Virginia'' (1924). On 29 November 1923, while working on location in San Antonio, Texas, Martha Mansfield was severely burned when a match, tossed by a cast member, ignited her Civil War costume of hoopskirts and flimsy ruffles. Mansfield was playing the role of Agatha Warren and had just finished her scenes and retired to a car when her clothing burst into flames. Her neck and face were saved when leading man Wilfred Lytell threw his heavy overcoat over her. The hands of the chauffeur of Mansfield's car were badly burned while he tried to remove the actress's burning clothing. The fire was put out, but she sustained substantial burns to her body and died the following day.
*''Ben-Hur'' (1925). An early filming attempt of the chariot race was done on location at the Circus Maximus in Rome. It brought about the death of one stuntman when a wheel of his chariot broke.
* ''The General'' (1926). During filming of the epic comedy in Oregon, there were a number of incidents. Several National Guardsmen, employed as extras for the Civil War battle scenes, were injured by mishaps caused by misfired muskets or explosions. Director and star Buster Keaton was knocked unconscious when he stood too close to a cannon firing. Assistant director Harry Barnes was accidentally hit in the face by a blank charge. Train brakeman Fred Lowry sued the production for US$2,900 after his foot was crushed when it was run over by a locomotive wheel during filming of one of the railway scenes.
*'' Wings'' (1927). During filming of the World War I aerial combat scenes, stunt pilot Dick Grace was required to deliberately crash-land a Fokker D-VII, specially modified to "crumple" on impact. When the Fokker struck the ground, the landing gear failed to crumple, making the impact a heavier one than planned. This caused Grace's safety straps to break, sending his head through the instrument panel, leaving him with four crushed vertebrae and a broken neck. Amazingly, Grace spent only six weeks in the hospital and was again performing stunt work within a year.
*'' The King of the Jungle'' (1927). Gordon Standing was mauled by a lion on-set and soon died of his injuries. This serial is considered to be lost, and only a trailer remains.
*'' Noah's Ark'' (1928). Three people died, one man lost a leg and a number were injured in a scene where several hundred extras were caught in the " Great Flood." The deaths were instrumental in the introduction of film safety regulations the following year.
*'' The Trail of '98'' (1928). Stunt men Howard Daughters, Jerome Bautin, and Red Thompson killed on Abercrombie Rapids between Miles and Childs Glaciers in Alaska.
* ''The Aviator'' (1929). During aerial scouting for locations, an aircraft crashed, killing cameraman Alvin Knechtel and actor and stunt pilot William Hauber.
*'' The Godless Girl'' (1929). The filming of one scene required cast members Lina Basquette and George Duryea to be trapped in a burning building and both actors had their clothing, hair and exposed skin covered with an asbestos coating. During filming, Duryea, concerned that the pyrotechnic flames were getting too hot and too close, retreated from the set but Basquette, eager to impress director Cecil B. DeMille, insisted on remaining until the scene was completed despite the intense heat. The actress suffered serious burns and blistering to her forearms and her eyebrows and lashes were singed.
* Unknown film (1929). Strongheart, a German Shepherd film star, was accidentally burned after coming into contact with a hot studio light. The burn became tumorous, leading to his death later that year.

1930s

*'' Hell's Angels'' (1930). Three pilots were killed during the filming. The sole Sikorsky S-29-A, owned by Roscoe Turner, which portrayed a German Gotha bomber, crashed during filming on 22 March 1929 when stunt pilot Al Wilson put it in a spin for its final scene and was unable to recover. He was ready to bail out and called back to his mechanic Phil Jones (who was in the rear of the plane dumping lampblack to simulate smoke) to jump, but Jones did not hear him and went down with the plane. Only one brief shot of the spinning Sikorsky was used in the film. Two other stunt pilots, Al Johnson and Clement Phillips, were killed in separate accidents. Producer-director Howard Hughes was badly injured when he personally piloted a low-altitude aerial maneuver after the professional stunt men informed him it could not be done safely or successfully. They were proven right when Hughes crashed and suffered severe head injuries. Hughes underwent plastic surgery to undo the damage to his face, but his left cheekbone could not be repaired.
* ''Such Men Are Dangerous'' (1930). During aerial filming off the coast of Southern California near Santa Monica on 2 January 1930, two Stinson Detroiter aircraft, employed as camera-planes, collided over the ocean. All ten men on board the two planes were killed, including director Kenneth Hawks (brother of Howard Hawks), assistant-director Max Gold, cinematographer Conrad Wells, director of photography George Eastman, cameramen Otto Jordan and Ben Frankel, two property men and both pilots. Only five bodies were recovered. As it was one of the final scenes to be filmed, the movie was still completed on schedule. Families of the men who were lost took legal action against Fox Film Company but the courts ruled in favour of the latter.
* ''The Viking'' (1931). After completion of filming in Canada, producer, co-director and real-life adventurer Varick Frissell decided that more footage of the Labrador ice floes was required. He and a small film crew joined the real ship ''The Viking'' on a seal-hunting voyage in order to obtain the footage he wanted. On 15 March, the ship became trapped in ice near Horse Isles and dynamite stored on board (intended for breaking up ice floes) accidentally detonated, destroying the vessel and killing 27 men, including Frissell and cameraman Alexander Penrod.
* ''The Little Minister'' (1934). John Beal nearly lost his sight when an extra accidentally stabbed him in his eye during the filming of the mob scene.
* ''Four Frightened People'' (1934). During filming in Hawaii, actress Claudette Colbert was required to stand up to her neck in a real swamp. This scene was shot on her first day on set after having undergone an emergency appendectomy and Colbert and the director disregarded concerns raised by the on-set nurse. Filming in the unsanitary conditions while not yet fully recovered led to Colbert being hospitalized with a severe fever two days later.
* ''The Lost Patrol'' (1934). During filming in high temperatures in Buttercup Valley near Yuma, Arizona, Director John Ford insisted his cast and crew only work in the early mornings and late afternoons to avoid the most intense heat of each day. Under pressure from RKO to speed up filming, Producer Cliff Reid insisted that the midday break be shortened. Ford refused, believing that many of the crew would be at risk of heatstroke in the 120-degree F conditions. Reid tried to prove his point by walking around in the open in the midday heat and soon collapsed with heat exhaustion, requiring hospital treatment.
* ''The Crusades'' (1935). While filming a battle scene in which horses fall into a moat, four stunt riders sustained serious injuries which required hospitalization. All four of their horses were injured so severely they had to be euthanized. It was recommended that the injured stunt-men receive extra pay but director Cecil B. DeMille refused, saying that the riders had "bungled a simple scene".
*''The Charge of the Light Brigade'' (1936). During the filming of the charge sequence, a stuntman was killed when he fell off his horse and landed on a broken sword that was lying on the field, unfortunately wedged in such a position that its blade was sticking straight up. Dozens of horses were killed in the making of the film, and consequently Hollywood adopted more stringent animal protection guidelines.
*'' Saratoga'' (1937). Lionel Barrymore broke his hip after tripping on a cable on the set of that film.
*''Jesse James'' (1939). A horse was killed during the scene where it was ridden off a cliff into a river. This incident led to the American Humane Association opening a Hollywood office in 1940 and monitoring the treatment of animals in films.
* ''The Wizard of Oz'' (1939). Margaret Hamilton was badly burned during a scene in which her character, the Wicked Witch of the West, "vanished" in a burst of flame and smoke. An elevator was to lower her under the stage, after which a gout of flame would be released; during one take, the pyrotechnic device went off too soon. Hamilton suffered second-degree burns on her face and third-degree burns on her right hand. The studio physician was called in and Hamilton was saved any further injury. Her stunt double Betty Danko was also injured in a scene involving a smoking broomstick. Buddy Ebsen suffered a severe reaction to the aluminum powder which was dusted over his Tin Woodman makeup and aggravated a congenital bronchial condition. He was unable to continue working on the production and was replaced by Jack Haley. Also, Margaret’s family sued metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for the “vanished” incident.
* ''Hotel Imperial'' (1939). Actor Ray Milland was seriously injured while filming a cavalry charge scene through a small village. While making a planned jump over an obstacle, the horse's saddle came loose and Milland fell into a pile of masonry. He spent a week in hospital with concussion, a three-inch gash to his forehead and a badly injured left hand.

1940s

*''Citizen Kane'' (1941). While filming, Orson Welles tripped down a staircase and chipped his anklebone, forcing him to use a wheelchair for the next two weeks. Welles also gashed his own hand during a scene where he destroyed a room. Welles quickly improvised, grabbing a curtain and using it to cover his bleeding hand while he completed the scene, which appears in the film.
*'' My Life for Ireland'' (1941). An anti-British propaganda film made by Nazi Germany. During the epic final-battle scene set during the Irish Civil War, several extras were killed when one of them stepped on a live land mine. The footage is said to have been included in the release prints, although no proof of this has been established.
*'' They Died with Their Boots On'' (1941). Three horsemen perished during the cavalry charge, one of whom was extra Jack Budlong, whose horse tripped as he rode alongside Errol Flynn. As he fell forward, he had the foresight to toss his sword ahead of him. Unfortunately, it landed handle down and stuck in place. Budlong was impaled on his own sword, and died in a Los Angeles hospital a few hours later.
* '' Reap the Wild Wind'' (1942). According to a biographer, actor John Wayne suffered a chronic inner-ear condition for the rest of his life after filming under-water scenes in this production.
* ''Lost Canyon'' (1942). Charles B. Murphy was mortally injured when a wagon overturned during a location shoot; he later died in the hospital.
* ''Signed with Their Honour'' (unfinished, 1943). This was to have been a British war film based on the 1942 novel of the same name by James Aldridge. But during filming in Cheshire, a pair of Gladiator biplanes collided, injuring both pilots who managed to escape by parachute. After this incident, the film project was abandoned.
* '' The Royal Mounted Rides Again'' (1945). Addison "Jack" Randall was killed at Canoga Park, California, while riding a horse past the cameras at full speed on 16 July 1945, for a Universal Pictures serial, when he fell from the saddle while trying to retrieve his hat which had blown off his head, and struck a tree. He died shortly thereafter.
*'' Unconquered'' (1947). During the filming of the historical adventure, nine extras suffered burns including one man who had his hair partially burnt off because director Cecil B. DeMille insisted on using real fireballs and flaming arrows for one of the battle scenes. In another incident, stunt woman Polly Burson was filming a scene that required a canoe to go over a waterfall. She missed the tree limb she was supposed to grab onto and fell into the safety net which was below the water's surface. Landing face down in the net, she nearly drowned and was only barely able to struggle upright in time.

1950s

* ''The Cruel Sea'' (1953). During filming of the scene where the crew have to abandon a sinking warship, British actor Donald Sinden nearly drowned in the open air water tank at Denham film studios. Sinden could not swim and also suffered from negative buoyancy. Sinden jumped into where he thought the water would be at its shallowest but immediately went under and sank downwards. Co-star Jack Hawkins quickly noticed that Sinden was missing and dived in and rescued him. The First Assistant Director had asked Sinden if he could swim prior to shooting the scene. When Sinden had replied 'No', the director had assumed the actor was joking.
*'' Summertime'' (1955). In one scene, the character of Jane Hudson falls into a canal as she steps backwards while photographing a shop in Campo San Barnaba. Leading lady Katharine Hepburn, concerned about her health, was disinclined to do the stunt herself, but director David Lean felt it would be obvious if he replaced her with a stunt double. He filled the water with a disinfectant that caused it to foam, which added to Hepburn's reluctance, then required her to film the scene four times until he was satisfied with the results. That night, Hepburn's eyes began to itch and water. She was eventually diagnosed with a rare form of conjunctivitis that plagued her for the remainder of her life.
*'' The Conqueror'' (1956). The exterior scenes were shot on location near St. George, Utah, downwind of the United States government's Nevada Test Site. In 1953, extensive above-ground nuclear weapons testing had occurred at the test site, as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. Director Dick Powell died of cancer in January 1963, Pedro Armendáriz was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960, and committed suicide in 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal. Susan Hayward, John Wayne and Agnes Moorehead all died of cancer in the 1970s. Cast member actor John Hoyt died of lung cancer in 1991. The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By 1981, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer and 46 had died of the disease. Several of Wayne and Hayward's relatives also had cancer scares as well after visiting the set. Michael Wayne developed skin cancer, his brother Patrick Wayne had a benign tumor removed from his breast and Hayward's son Tim Barker had a benign tumor removed from his mouth. It is not clear, however, that the cancer rate for this film crew was significantly higher than in the general population. Further, while the cast members noted developed a wide variety of cancers, according to '' The New England Journal of Medicine'', leukemia is the only form of cancer known to develop from exposure to fallout radiation.
*'' The Ten Commandments'' (1956). Cecil B. DeMille overcame a minor heart attack while climbing down by ladder from the top of the Ancient Egyptian city gate set while filming the "take three" of the Exodus sequence. In another incident, during filming of a sand-storm scene, an extra carrying a flaming torch tripped over and the torch set fire to the clothing of a young girl standing next to him. The girl only suffered minor burns thanks to the quick thinking of make-up artist Frank Westmore