10 Actors Who Died On Set

Under normal circumstances, we like to think of sets as extremely controlled environments. People are trying to make a movie or a television show, of course, but there’s also a considerable number of individuals working solely to keep everyone on set safe. But in spite of these protections that are in place on set — now more than ever before in the history of cinema — tragic accidents still happen. While stunt performers are still far more likely to die or be seriously injured on set, and we’re still miles away from adequately protecting them in their dangerous work, there have been rare occasions where actors died while actively on a shoot. 

Whether this is the result of negligence, bad luck, or sadly unavoidable pre-existing health conditions, these sudden deaths leave both coworkers and fans profoundly shaken — especially when there is a sense that something more could have been done to prevent them, which is too often the case. These are just a few of the actors who have tragically lost their lives while actively working on the set of a film or television series.

If you don’t remember “Sliders,” it was a quirky little show about a group who harnessed the ability to travel throughout the multiverse, embarking on an adventure in a new timeline each episode. The season 3 episode “Desert Storm” had major “Mad Max” vibes, taking place in a desert landscape dealing with a severe scarcity of water — something even the characters on the show, presumably familiar with the George Miller cult classic, remarked upon. Actor Ken Steadman played Cutter, the leader of a motorcycle gang traversing the desert who is romantically involved with a psychically attuned woman known as a water witch. But while he was filming the episode on September 20, 1996, a routine journey from one shooting location to another led to tragic consequences. 

While driving a dune buggy to a new shooting location, it suddenly overturned, landing on top of the 27-year-old actor and killing him instantly. His parents later published a website memorializing their son while at the same time expressing their rage against the studio for not better protecting Ken. They wrote scathingly that Ken’s death was “preventable and no agency or organization will do anything. They did nothing because they don’t have time or because Universal/MCA Television is too big, too powerful, and has too much money for them to go up against.”

Beginning his career as an off-color stand-up comedian, Redd Foxx shot to fame on television with his performance as Fred G. Sanford on the hit NBC sitcom “Sanford and Son,” which followed the exploits of a father-and-son duo of junk dealers in Los Angeles. The show ran for six seasons, and one of its most famous recurring bits was that Fred would frequently clutch at his chest, feigning a heart attack while saying “I’m coming to join you!” in reference to his late wife.

This recurring joke was a cruel irony, considering how Foxx ultimately died on October 11, 1991, while in the middle of his television comeback. While on the set of the sitcom “The Royal Family,” where he played a father on the brink of retirement only to learn that his recently divorced daughter and her children would be moving back home, he collapsed to the ground. He was suffering a massive heart attack, but the cast and crew were so used to his trademark antics that they initially thought he was joking. Foxx was taken to the hospital and died just a few hours later. And to make matters worse, guess what the working title of “The Royal Family” was, according to writer Billy Ingram in his book “Tvparty!: Television’s Untold Tales”? “Chest Pains.”

Back in the early days of cinema, there weren’t too many regulations in place to protect the cast and crew of films, and accidents were much more common. Consider, for example, the experience of the silent film actor Gordon Standing on the set of the adventure serial “King of the Jungle.” On May 20, 1927, a lion that was used in the film’s production got loose on the set and viciously mauled Standing, who was left in critical condition and died of his wounds the following day. 

His co-star Elmo Lincoln — now best remembered as being cinema’s first Tarzan — was so shaken up by the experience that he retired from acting for the next 12 years (He returned in bit parts much later). The icing on the cake of this horrific incident is that “King of the Jungle” is now considered a lost serial, so the performance that Standing was killed over doesn’t even exist anymore.

In the early 1980s, Jon-Erik Hexum was a star on the rise after appearing in a hit made-for-TV movie “Making of a Male Model,” after which he was cast in the series “Cover Up,” where he played a CIA agent working undercover as a model. While filming an early episode of “Cover Up” in October 1984, boredom between takes led Hexum to goof off on set — with tragic consequences. Playing around with a prop gun, he mimed a game of Russian Roulette for the entertainment of those around him on set, leaving one blank in the gun and firing it into his head. 

Although there was no real bullet involved, the result was no less catastrophic than if he had actually shot himself in the head. The force from the gun’s muzzle blast fractured Hexum’s skull, sending a bone fragment directly into his brain and causing it to immediately hemorrhage. Surgeons at the Beverly Hills Medical Center operated for hours in an attempt to save his life, but he was declared brain dead shortly thereafter. If there’s a bright spot to the story, it’s that the prompt action of doctors and his grieving mother allowed his organs to save the lives of many others in need of a transplant.

H.B. Halicki was no stranger to putting his life on the line professionally. Although he worked as an actor, primarily in action films, he also often performed stunts. When he starred in “Gone in 60 Seconds” as Maindrian “Vicinski” Pace — a film that he also wrote, directed, and produced — he was part of a stunt that went horribly wrong, as a jump he executed from a great height led to several of his vertebrae ending up compacted, leaving him with a permanent limp. 

But during the making of the film’s 1989 sequel, “Gone in 60 Seconds 2,” things got even worse. While in the process of prepping one of the film’s most exciting set pieces, a cable attached to a water tower unexpectedly snapped, sending a telephone pole crashing down onto Halicki’s head and killing him instantly. Since he was the driving force behind the film, it remained unfinished, although it was revisited in the 2003 documentary “The Life and Times of H.B. Halicki.” Three years earlier, his widow Denice Shakarian Halicki produced a remake of “Gone in 60 Seconds,” starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie, in honor of her late husband.

During the early years of cinema, Martha Mansfield was a very familiar face, appearing in everything from the 1920 adaptation of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” alongside John Barrymore (grandfather of Drew Barrymore) to a series of short films with French silent star Max Linder. She was later was cast in the period drama “The Warrens of Virginia,” which took place at the start of the Civil War. Mansfield played Agatha Warren, a Virginian whose childhood sweetheart joins the Union Army. 

Although “The Warrens of Virginia” is considered a lost film, it was a lush costume drama, and we can only imagine the period costumes the actors wore. Unfortunately, on November 29, 1923, Mansfield’s dress — a hoop dress complete with layers of petticoats — went up in flames while she was on set, allegedly due to an errant match being struck nearby and carelessly tossed. Her co-star Wilfred Lytell attempted to save her by putting out the fire with his overcoat, but the damage had already been done. She suffered severe burns over most of her body and died of her injuries at the hospital the following day.

Roy Kinnear appeared in a number of the “Three Musketeers” films that came out in the 1970s and 1980s, playing the role of Planchet. But it was during the making of 1989’s “Return of the Musketeers” that disaster struck. Kinnear was filming a scene when he fell off the back of his horse, causing him serious injury, including a broken pelvis and significant internal bleeding. After being taken to the hospital, he suffered a fatal heart attack from the physical stress of his injuries and passed away at the age of 54. 

His son Rory Kinnear, also a prominent actor, was only 10 years old at the time of his death and has since been a vocal proponent for better safety protocols on set. He claimed in an interview with the Observer (via The Guardian) that the accident that killed his father was entirely avoidably, saying that he was not a trained horseman and even acknowledged to his wife in a letter shortly before shooting that he was about to embark on a very dangerous stunt. Additionally, Rory Kinnear explained that the sand that was placed on the cobblestones to ensure the horse’s grip actually had the opposite effect, making it more slippery for the animal. He poignantly concluded, “No one has ever seen a shot and thought, ‘that is worth the death of whoever made it.'”

Tyrone Power was one of the most charming, agile swashbucklers of the 1940s, but by the time he was cast in the swords-and-sandals historical epic “Solomon and Sheba,” the type of physical performance he was known for had become too much for the chain-smoking movie star. While shooting one of the film’s swordfights — a duel that had to be repeated several times for the camera — he suffered a heart attack at the age of just 44. From here, reports differ about when he actually died, but most believe that he was driven to the hospital in his co-star Gina Lollobrigida’s car, and died upon arrival. 

His health crisis was kept under wraps, with the press and even his wife out of the loop until it was clear that the situation was dire, according to an interview given by Mike Steckler at a 2008 screening of the film at American Cinematheque. Although “Solomon and Sheba” had already been in the process of shooting for two months by the time of Power’s death in November 1958, the studio quickly recast him with Yul Brynner, a close friend of the actor. Sadly, Power’s death mirrored that of his own father, Tyrone Power Sr., who also died of a heart attack that he was stricken with while filming — he passed away in 1931 at the age of 62, when the younger Power was just 17 years old.

The death of Brandon Lee on the set of “The Crow” has gone well beyond a mere tragedy, giving him some sort of mythical status over the years. This is partially because his father, beloved martial artist Bruce Lee, also died at a young age, passing away under undetermined circumstances a few months after suffering from a cerebral edema when he was just 32 years old. “The Crow” was meant to be a breakout film for Brandon Lee, who had made a strong impression in supporting roles and was just now getting the chance to headline a major motion picture. 

Disaster struck in the scene where his character was supposed to be shot at by the man who just assaulted his fiancee. The prop gun had been used in the previous scene with dummy rounds when one of the bullets got stuck in the gun barrel. Although it had been loaded with blank rounds, which replicate the sound and flash of a fired gun without an actual bullet, the dummy round was shot straight into Lee’s abdomen at fairly close range. The actor was unconscious and without a pulse on set, and although he was rushed to the hospital for six hours of emergency surgery, he was declared dead shortly thereafter and later buried next to his father. Brandon Lee was only 28 years old at the time of his death on March 31, 1993.

In 2024, a long-awaited remake of “The Crow” was released, although the 1994 film’s director Alex Proyas was none too thrilled about the prospect. “[‘The Crow’] is not just a movie,” he said. “Brandon Lee died making it, and it was finished as a testament to his lost brilliance and tragic loss. It is his legacy. That’s how it should remain.”

Some have gone as far as to describe “Twilight Zone: The Movie” as cursed, as the film’s production saw one of the most notorious and heartbreaking examples of on-set negligence in cinematic history. John Landis’ segment of the anthology film tells the story of a bigoted man (Vic Morrow) who is ironically transported back in time to experience being a Jewish person in Nazi-occupied France, then as a Black man in 1950s rural Alabama on the verge of being lynched, then as a Vietnamese person being fired upon by American forces during the Vietnam War, and finally back to France, where he is arrested and taken to a concentration camp. While filming the sequence in Vietnam on July 23, 1982, Morrow was involved in a shoot where he was meant to be rescuing two Vietnamese children from an American attack. 

But from the very start, it was clear that the scene was not being handled ethically — or indeed legally. The two child actors, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were hired under the table, because California law prohibits underage performers from working on night shoots — or within the vicinity of explosives, for that matter. While Morrow was carrying the two children across a river, a mortar effect detonated and inadvertently hit the helicopter that was hovering above the actors, sending it out of control. It struck Morrow and the two children — Morrow and Le were decapitated by the helicopter blades, while Chen was fatally crushed by the weight of the helicopter. 

Landis and members of his crew were acquitted of manslaughter charges after a prolonged trial, but most regard the devastating events of that day as the result of appalling negligence on the part of the filmmaker. Ultimately, “Twilight Zone: The Movie” — already a mediocre film — struggled under the weight of its dark legacy.