History Main / FatalMethodActing

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Morrow Vic Morrow]] (Jennifer Jason Leigh's dad) and two child actors named My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were killed when a stunt helicopter crashed near them during the filming of the ''TwilightZone'' movie. This led to nearly a decade's worth of lawsuits, changes in the law about child actors doing stunts, and fewer helicopter scenes in movies thereafter until CGI made it possible to put them in digitally.

* ''TheSimpsons'' pokes fun at this trope and TheScottishTrope in one fell swoop, when the family meets Sir Ian McKellan and Homer doesn't catch on to the matter at all.

* During her intense boxing training for ''MillionDollarBaby'', Hilary Swank developed a serious staph infection at the bottom of her foot. She continued one with her training despite this, not telling anyone, until it ruptured and the pain became so severe she checked herself in. It turns out that the infection was that close to reaching her heart, meaning that had she not gotten help when she had, Swank might have been in the hospital for weeks. Director ClintEastwood had no idea until much later.

* In the first episode of ''{{The Wire}}'', the scene of McNulty urinating on train tracks and walking off while barely avoiding an oncoming train was done for real, as the last scene shot. In his commentary, David Simon talks about how worried everyone was that they'd finish filming their first episode by killing their star.

** DC101 radio show personality Bryan "Flounder" Schlossberg conducted a phone interview with wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts shortly afterward. Flounder mentioned Hart's death, with Roberts' reaction showing this was the first time he had heard; Roberts abruptly said goodbye and hung up at that point.

** Likewise, legendary wrestler "Iron" Mike DiBiase died in the ring from a heart attack. His death was later used to explain the gimmick of his son: "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase as the life insurance payout was what kick-started Ted's wealth.

*** Worst of all, given the general [[TemptingFate Fate-Tempting]] his usual actions around dangerous animals invokes, Irwin was completely unaware of the stingray's presence.

* Curly of TheThreeStooges suffered a stroke during the filming of the short ''Half-Wits Holiday''. He is notably absent from the final scene of the short because he had to be written out of it in order to complete it. His health had been declining for a long time, as evidenced by his frail condition in the shorts leading up to his final one. It was delayed, however, he didn't die for another few years.

*** Worst of all, given the general [[TemptingFate Fate-Tempting]] his usual actions around dangerous animals invoke, Irwin was completely unaware of the Stingray's presence.

* Steve Irwin was filming his own documentary, ''Ocean's Deadliest,'' when he was fatally stabbed in the chest by a stingray spine whilst snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. Kids, take animals seriously.

* ''TheSimpsons'' pokes fun at this trope and TheScottishTrope in one fell swoop, when the family meets Ian McKellan and Homer doesn't catch on to the matter.

* In ''TheBoondocks'', rapper Gangstalicious is shot on stage. Unfortunately, he was performing his hit single "I Got Shot" at the time, and it was [[AllPartOfTheShow forty-five minutes before anyone realized something was wrong]].

** This led to a series of disputes and lawsuits between Vince McMahon's company and the Hart family, who had previously been some of the most loyal employees for him, going back to when his father owned the company.

* ''TheDarkKnight'' is dedicated to two people: HeathLedger (who is not an example of this, he died of an overdose some time later), and a stuntman who crashed the Batmobile while preparing a stunt.
** It was Conway Wickliffe, a special effects technician, not a stuntman.

* Eli Roth and Omar Doom were almost incinerated during the filming of ''InglouriousBasterds''. ''QuentinTarantino'' is not one for special effects, so the fire you see in the theater sequence burned far hotter than anyone had anticipated (nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit!) and Roth collapsed from the sheer pain of being on the burning set. The fire marshals said that if filming had resumed for 15-20 seconds more, the whole structure would have collapsed. The giant swastika was not originally supposed to fall, but the steel fastening was liquefied. In Roth's words: "We were almost that swastika."

* ''TheBradyBunch'' episode where they visit Kings Island Amusement Park includes a scene of them on the roller coaster, which was filmed with a camera mounted onto the ride car. Robert Reed thought that the camera looked unsafe and made them do a test run first. When they did, the camera flew off and would have killed the actors if they had been on the ride.

* Owen Hart fell to his death in the Kemper Arena during WWE's Over the Edge pay-per-view show in 1999, while preparing for a big stunt entrance that would see him, as his recently-revived Hulk Hogan parody The Blue Blazer, being lowered in from the rafters. He had done so in a rehearsal earlier in the day with no problems, but unlike [[{{WCW}} Sting's]] harness circa 1997, which had multiple connection points and a full vest that took a good amount of time to remove once he actually landed, Owen's contraption was held with [[NoOSHACompliance a single release point around his chest]] that could be (and probably was) triggered simply by breathing too deeply. Regardless, he ended up falling nearly eight feet while being lowered, where his chest impacted the top rope. He managed to survive until arriving at the hospital, but was soon after pronounced dead from a severed blood vessel near the heart.
** Where are you getting your info? The Blue Blazer wasn't a Hulk Hogan parody, it was a superhero parody and Hart had played the character for a time in the late 80's. If you're thinking of Hogan's 'Mr. America" gimmick, check your dates - Owen died in 1999, Mr. America came about in 2003. And he fell from a height of SEVENTY-EIGHT feet, not eight feet.