10 actors who died while on set
With Tom Cruise being a notable exception for the ever-escalating and insanely dangerous stunts he pulls off with each new Mission: Impossible movie, very few actors head to work with the intention of putting their lives on the line.
Unfortunately, the hands of fate often tend to move in mysterious ways, with accidents, ailments, and medical incidents having claimed the lives of countless on-camera talents in a variety of ways. Casting a shadow over the entirety of the production as a result, the tragedy often becomes the most well-known – or infamous – element of the entire production.
Shooting scenes on a daily basis while appearing to be in full health, breakout performances that cut short a promising career firmly on an upward trajectory, preventable accidents that led to a rise in awareness for on-set safety, and reputations being lived up to have all accounted for actors failing to survive certain shoots.
Each incident is tragic in and of itself, with the following ten names having all gone in with the best intentions of collaborating with the cast and crew to deliver the finest possible end product, only for tragedy to strike.
10 actors who died while on set:
10. Tyrone Power
Blessed with the chiselled good looks and square jaw of a matinee idol, Tyrone Power understandably rose to fame in the 1930s as a romantic leading man, although he was also partial to the odd swashbuckler or two. He was a heavy smoker, too, which ultimately contributed to his death.
During the eighth take of a swordfight while shooting 1959’s Solomon and Sheba, Power – who smoked dozens of cigarettes daily – suffered a massive heart attack that saw him pronounced dead in the back of the ambulance before he’d even had the chance to reach hospital, with his wife tragically giving birth to a son two months after his passing in November of 1958.
9. Adolph Caesar
Adolph Caesar had only appeared in a handful of movies before receiving widespread recognition for his performance in 1984’s A Soldier Story, reprising the role of Vernon Waters that he’d previously played on stage, landing Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his efforts.
Cast in action comedy Tough Guys as Leon B. Little, cameras had been rolling for just two days when Caesar suffered a heart attack, and died moments after arriving in hospital. Harold Ramis’ comedy Club Paradise marked his final role after being released posthumously, with Eli Wallach being drafted in as his replacement on Tough Guys.
8. Roy Kinnear
The father of James Bond, Black Mirror, Penny Dreadful, and Men star Rory, Roy Kinnear was one of the United Kingdom’s most recognisable characters, who showed up in hundreds of projects without rarely being awarded a leading role.
Having previously played Planchet in 1973’s The Three Musketeers, Kinnear returned a third time for the second sequel a decade and a half later, when disaster struck. Shooting The Return of the Musketeers, the actor was thrown from his horse and hospitalised with a broken pelvis in September 1988, before suffering a fatal heart attack just a day later. Even today, Rory continues campaigning for safer film sets given what happened to his father, as he explained to the BBC.
7. Vic Morrow
The Twilight Zone: The Movie was left with its place in the halls of Hollywood infamy secured after the harrowing accident that claimed the life of 53-year-old Vic Morrow, as well as child actors Renee Chen and Myca Dinh Lee.
The small-screen veteran had appeared in countless TV shows during a career spanning decades, but it was a feature film that saw him killed in a fatal incident. The two children were hired in violation of California law, to begin with, but the production nonetheless carried ahead with a dangerous helicopter sequence shot at night that ended with three dead and Morrow decapitated.
Director John Landis stood trial for involuntary manslaughter alongside three crew members before being acquitted, with Steven Spielberg left aghast by the situation, and new industry-wide safety measures were implemented as a direct result.
6. John Ritter
Equally comfortable on film or television, John Ritter’s exuberant personality and larger-than-life charisma made him an ideal fit for the world of comedy. Sadly, his much-vaunted return to sitcoms as the star of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter turned out to be his final role.
During rehearsals for an episode of the show’s second season in September of 2003, Ritter began sweating profusely, vomiting, and complaining of chest pains. At first believed to be a heart attack, tests revealed the actor had an undiagnosed aortic dissection, which proved to be fatal, and he died later that same day at the age of 54.
5. Oliver Reed
One of the most notorious hellraisers in Hollywood history, hard-drinking Oliver Reed succumbed to a heart attack when indulging in his other favourite pastime during a break from shooting Ridley Scott’s historical epic Gladiator, which was his most prominent feature film role in years.
As writer David Franzoni put it to Variety, Reed had challenged a group of sailors to a drinking contest, during which he collapsed. Unable to be resuscitated, he died in an ambulance on the way to hospital at 61 years old, with Gladiator completing his scenes using CGI in what proved to be a posthumously Oscar-nominated performance.
4. John Candy
A titan of Hollywood comedy throughout the 1980s and 1990s, John Candy suffered from health problems arising from his weight, drug and alcohol abuse, and status as a heavy smoker during a rapid rise to the top of the industry that saw him lend his talents to a string of critical and commercial smash hits, and no shortage of classics.
His final movie proved to be a box office disaster and a critical catastrophe, though, making it all the more tragic that Wagons East serves as a footnote to his filmography. Candy finished the day’s shooting on March 4th, 1994 and returned to his trailer for the evening where he called his children. He went to sleep that night, suffered a heart attack, and never woke up.
3. Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta became increasingly prolific in front of the camera as his career progressed, often appearing in multiple movies and TV shows on an annual basis. One such project was the action thriller Dangerous Waters, which was shot on location in the Dominican Republic at the time of his passing.
Playing a character known only as ‘The Captain’, Liotta returned to his hotel room after filming one day and died in his sleep from what the autopsy concluded to be respiratory failure, pulmonary edema, and heart failure. Production was completed with the Goodfellas star playing a sizeable role in the story all things considered, and he still has two more features set for release despite his death in May of 2022 at the age of 67.
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman
One of the most naturally gifted actors of his generation, Philip Seymour Hoffman was making a rare detour into blockbuster territory at the time of his death, having completed the majority of shooting for both parts of The Hunger Games – Mockingjay.
With just one week of filming left for Part 2 of the dystopian franchise’s concluding chapter, Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan apartment at the age of 46. The cause of death was revealed to be acute mixed drug intoxication, with a cocktail of various opiates, stimulants, and depressants found in his system.
1. Brandon Lee
Brandon Lee’s stunt double and eventual John Wick director Chad Stahelski has never used live firearms on any of the Keanu Reeves action movies after what happened on the set of The Crow, where the leading man was killed by an improperly loaded prop gun.
A star firmly on the rise, a dummy projectile being placed inside the weapon designed to shoot blanks effectively that the same effect on Lee as a genuine gunshot would. Rushed to hospital, he was declared dead on March 31st, 1993 at the age of 28, with shooting on The Crow resuming just a month later with body doubles and digital effects completing his remaining scenes.
