In movies, various hazards like gunfights, explosions, zombies, or mischievous leprechauns are frequently depicted on screen. Nevertheless, the process of filming these movies is generally considered to be quite secure. It’s not anticipated that individuals would sustain injuries or face mortal danger while working on a movie set.
Across the Border
The Colorado Motion Picture Company was shooting a western titled Across the Border, using a section of the Arkansas River in Canon City. At one point, McHugh was supposed to cross the river on horseback, but her horse stumbled and she fell into the water and immediately headed downstream. A brave cameraman rescue, but even though he was a strong swimmer and the river was only a few feet deep, the current was so powerful that it swept both of them away to their watery doom. It wasn’t until days later that their bodies were recovered, miles away from where they disappeared.
The Crow
The most famous death that occurred while filming a movie was when Brandon Lee was accidentally shot and killed on the set of the 1994 dark fantasy The Crow. After all, while deaths on set happen from time to time, the death of the movie’s leading man is a far more singular event.
Such Men Are Dangerous
On January 2, 1930, three planes carrying eleven men took off from San Pedro to film a flying sequence off the coast of Southern California. Only one plane carrying pilot and stuntman Fred Osborne made it back. The other two suffered a mid-air collision which killed all ten men on board, including the director, Kenneth Hawks, the assistant director, four cameramen, two pilots, and two prop men.
Roar
Roar has sometimes been called “the most dangerous movie ever made.” Estimates regarding how many people were injured on set are all over the place, but they seem to include at least 70 cast and crew members and, possibly, upwards of 100. And keep in mind, this refers to different people, not different injuries. Many on set suffered multiple injuries, sometimes during the same day of filming, and the film was specifically made with non-union talent to get over those pesky safety regulations.
The Conqueror
The movie was filmed partly in the Escalante Desert in Utah, downwind of a nuclear testing site. The cast and crew were exposed to nuclear fallout which may have had an adverse effect on their health and even caused some of their deaths. John Wayne himself died of cancer. So did this movie’s leading lady, Susan Hayward, as well as the director, Dick Powell. According to a 1980 report, 91 people of the 220 cast and crew members had contracted cancer, and 46 of them died from it. Was this because of The Conqueror?
