History Main / FatalMethodActing

* Film/PennAndTellerGetKilled is built around ''teasing'' this trope, unsurprisingly, as Penn and Teller love doing this in their live stage shows.

* Happened when British comedian Tommy Cooper had a heart attack on live TV in 1984. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital shortly afterward, although going by the video recording on [=YouTube=] it (thankfully) seems like he died pretty much within seconds. Since part of Cooper's stage routine involved frequent minor technical mishaps, the audience continued to laugh even as Cooper collapsed, assuming it was [[AllPartOfTheShow just another gag]].

* In an episode of ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}'', Lina and Co are performing a play when they are attacked by Zangulus and Vrumugun, who adlib lines to make it seem like their attack is part of the play. Lina adlibs some lines that justify them fighting back, starting a battle that blows up the stage, kills Vrumugun (again) and several mooks, and gets them presented an award for best original production (since nobody had seen the play before, the only people to realize that they had deviated from the script were people working for the theater troupe).

* Wrestling/OwenHart 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 Wrestling/HulkHogan parody character 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 Wrestling/{{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. According to rumor, this was because he was ''supposed'' to end the stunt by coming off the rig a few feet above the ground and falling on his face (on the mat, not the top rope), in keeping with his character persona of being bumbling and incompetent. To do this stunt safely, he would have needed a rig that could be released quickly on command while also having safeguards to ensure it ''wouldn't'' release when it ''wasn't'' supposed to; however, rather than strike this balance, the riggers seemingly failed to consider the latter half of the equation entirely, and what Hart ended up with was a rig that was ''so'' easy to release that it was an accident waiting to happen (Hart's family would later allege that the WWE hired unqualified riggers in order to save on costs rather than pay top dollar for qualified experts who would have known better). He ended up falling nearly seventy-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.

* Creator/SteveIrwin was filming his own documentary, ''Ocean's Deadliest,'' when he was fatally stabbed in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. Irwin was completely unaware of the stingray's presence until it stabbed him. The episode being filmed wasn't about stingrays. And stingrays aren't even all that dangerous; they're usually quite docile unless you step on one. Even then, while painful, the sting isn't deadly. It just happened to stab him in the heart, and on top of that Irwin instinctively pulled the stinger out, leading him to bleed to death.

* Roy Kinnear died from complications of a broken pelvis after accidentally falling from his horse on the set of ''Film/TheReturnOfTheMusketeers''.

* Wrestling/OwenHart 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 Wrestling/HulkHogan parody character 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 Wrestling/{{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. According to rumor, this was because he was ''supposed'' to end the stunt by coming off the rig a few feet above the ground and falling on his face (on the mat, not the top rope), in keeping with his character persona of being bumbling and incompetent. To do this stunt safely, he would have needed a rig that could be released quickly on command while also having safeguards to ensure it ''wouldn't'' release when it ''wasn't'' supposed to; however, rather than strike this balance, the riggers seemingly failed to consider the latter half of the equation entirely, and what Hart ended up with was a rig that was ''so'' easy to release that it was an accident waiting to happen; Hart's family would later allege that the WWE cheaped out and hired unqualified riggers rather than pay top dollar for qualified experts who would have known better. He ended up falling nearly seventy-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.

* Wrestling/OwenHart 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 Wrestling/HulkHogan parody character 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 Wrestling/{{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. According to rumor, this was because he was ''supposed'' to end the stunt by coming off the rig a few feet above the ground and falling on his face (on the mat, not the top rope), in keeping with his character persona of being bumbling and incompetent. To do this stunt safely, he would have needed a rig that could be released quickly on command while also having safeguards to ensure it ''wouldn't'' release when it ''wasn't'' supposed to; however, rather than strike this balance, the riggers seemingly failed to consider the latter half of the equation entirely, and what Hart ended up with was a rig that was ''so'' easy to release that it was an accident waiting to happen. (Hart's family would later allege that the WWE cheaped out and hired unqualified riggers rather than pay top dollar for qualified experts who would have known better.) He ended up falling nearly seventy-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.

* Wrestling/OwenHart 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 Wrestling/HulkHogan parody character 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 Wrestling/{{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 seventy-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.
** Morbidly and sadly ironic in that, rumor has it, he was ''supposed'' to fall and look like a doofus as part of the work, except from a much shorter and safer height (and falling on the mat, not the top rope). This required him to have a rig that would release quickly on command, but in creating a system that would meet that need, the riggers failed to take into account that they also needed to ensure it ''wouldn't'' release when it ''wasn't'' supposed to. Hart's family would later allege that the WWE cheaped out and hired unqualified riggers rather than pay top dollar for qualified experts who would have known better.

** Morbidly and sadly ironic in that, rumor has it, he was ''supposed'' to fall and look like a doofus as part of the work, except from a much shorter and safer height (and falling on the mat, not the top rope). This required him to be able to release the line quickly on command, only the riggers failed to consider that they also needed to include some kind of safety mechanism to prevent it from releasing when it ''wasn't'' supposed to. Hart's family would later allege that the WWE cheaped out and hired unqualified riggers rather than pay top dollar for qualified experts who would have known better.

** Morbidly and sadly ironic in that, rumor has it, he was ''supposed'' to fall and look like a doofus as part of the work, except from a much shorter and safer height (and falling on the mat, not the top rope). However, the riggers were under-qualified and weren't able to strike the right balance between a rig he could release easily ''when he wanted to'' in order to perform the staged fall and one that wouldn't be in danger of releasing prematurely, and ended up erring on the side of making one that was easy to release for the stunt

** Morbidly and sadly ironic in that, rumor has it, he was ''supposed'' to fall and look like a doofus as part of the work, except from a much shorter and safer height (and falling on the mat, not the top rope). Sadly, to accomplish this, a harness without safety backups had to be used, otherwise, the stunt could not be performed properly.

* Redd Foxx died of a heart attack on the set of his sitcom ''The Royal Family'' in 1991. His best-known role was on ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', which had a RunningGag about his character faking heart attacks; ''and'' the working title for the show he was filming had been ''Chest Pains''. Due to his role as Fred Sanford, the rest of the cast [[AllPartOfTheShow thought he was just faking it]] until it was too late. The show tried to continue without Foxx (with Jackée replacing him), but the series was canceled shortly thereafter with several post-Foxx episodes unaired.

* In 1986, a man named Michael Lush fell to his death while rehearsing a bungee stunt for Creator/TheBBC's VarietyShow ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late,_Late_Breakfast_Show The Late Late Breakfast Show]]'', which included an item called "the Whirly Wheel" in which audience members were trained to do a different stunt each week. The death followed at least two potentially fatal screw-ups involving earlier contestants, which had been covered up or {{played for laughs}} (one woman was injured doing a human cannonball act, and a car jumping act led to one vehicle crashing into a crowd, and a second landing on its roof and leaving the contestant with multiple injuries). The show was canceled immediately and the scandal nearly ruined presenter Noel Edmonds' career. Lush's death prompted a serious tightening of safety regulations for all stunt sequences on BBC shows and a total ban on dangerous stunts involving members of the public.

* In 2015, during the filming of a French "wilderness survival" RealityShow called ''Dropped'', three contestants - all French [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames Olympic medallists]], Florence Arthaud (sailing), Camille Muffat (swimming), and Alexis Vastine (boxing) - and seven crew members were killed when two helicopters taking them to a filming location collided with each other and crashed with no survivors. The show was immediately canceled with the completed first episode never broadcast.

* On November 29, 2016, Olivier Rochette, Creator/CirqueDuSoleil technician and son of company co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix, was fatally struck by a telescoping lift during the pre-set of ''Theatre/{{Luzia}}'' in San Francisco, leading to that night's performance being canceled.

* Near the end of ''AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', Pietro Rossi had taken part of a passion play re-enacting the crucification of UsefulNotes/JesusChrist. The [[UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderXI Roman Rite]] of [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar Templar Order]] planned to invoke this trope had it not been for protagonist Ezio Auditore learning about the plot and sneaking in for the rescue.

** In ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice Spirit of Justice]]'', the second case has [[spoiler: Trucy Wright]] being accused of pulling this.

The audience knowing what is going on isn't unknown. Throughout the Pax Romana period of Ancient Rome the Romans would use this as a form of execution. The most typical fashion would be for a professional actor to play the role up to the point of death for the character, and then the condemned would be substituted in as a macabre stuntman. More on this here: [[https://www.strangehistory.net/2014/08/05/roman-killing-theatre/ Roman Killing Theatre]].

* During the late 50s, the British Creator/{{ITV}} series of one-off plays ''Series/ArmchairTheatre'' was broadcast live on Sunday night; during a play called ''Underground'' about survivors from a nuclear attack hiding in the London Underground one of the actors, Gareth Jones, had a fatal heart attack when he was just about to make an entrance. The play continued with the other actors covering for his failure to appear, and they managed to improvise right up to the end, with some plot discussion with the director during a commercial break. The actors were not told that Jones had actually died until after the play had finished, but were told only that he was too ill to continue. Sadly, no recording of the play survives, so we can't be sure exactly how this was worked around.

* Robert Buchel, a participant on Creator/{{TLC}}'s ''My 600 lb Life'', died of a heart attack during filming of his story on November 15, 2017, making him the series' first in-episode fatality. On February 15, 2019, Kelly Mason, due to heart failure, became the second patient to die during production of their episode.

* Delayed example: Jackie Wilson, who collapsed during a concert from a heart attack, September 29, 1975. He suffered a severe blow to the head and fell into a coma. Despite some bouts of regaining consciousness, he never fully recovered and died eight years later. He was singing his big hit, "Lonely Teardrops," when he suffered the heart attack. Specifically, the line "My heart is crying, crying..." When he fell, the audience thought it was AllPartOfTheShow for a minute.

* Legend has it that the famous playwright Molière died on stage, poisonned by the green dye of his costume, which is why [[TheScottishTrope superstition]] will not let any actor wear green onstage. Molière actually died of tuberculosis, and while his last performance was indeed interrupted by his illness, he died in bed a few hours later.

* British comedian Creator/SidJames is rumored to haunt a dressing room at the Sunderland Empire Theatre after he had a heart attack and died onstage while performing there in 1976. The rest of the cast thought he was messing around when he failed to deliver his next line, and ad-libbed to cover. Then, when the truth was discovered, the initial request "Is there a doctor in the house" was met with a round of laughter.[[note]]Incidentally, Les Dawson once used that dressing room and then refused to ever play the venue again.[[/note]]

* Beloved Danish film and theater actor Dirch Passer suffered a heart attack at age 54 in 1980, during a performance at the Tivoli's Revue, and passed away a couple of hours later at the local hospital. According to stories, he asked for someone to turn up the dim lights shortly before he collapsed on the scene. Rather tragically, after decades of being known as the hardest working man in Danish showbiz, often working 2 or 3 theater or movie productions at the same time, he had finally given in and agreed with his then-girlfriend that [[{{Retirony}} he would take the summer off and relax]].

* Creator/RogerDelgado, during the filming of ''Film/BellOfTibet'' in Turkey, was killed with two Turkish film technicians while riding in a car that plunged off the road into a ravine. This deeply affected his close friend Creator/JonPertwee, who was the [[TheNthDoctor Third Doctor]] on ''Series/DoctorWho'' at the time of the accident, with Delgado playing his archenemy {{the Master}}. Two years later, Pertwee left the role and Creator/TomBaker took over. However, Delgado's untimely demise made it difficult to bring back the Master, and he did not return for several more years until his role was eventually recast to Peter Pratt, with the Master returning as a decrepit husk of his former self.

* On October 26, 1993, Jesús Javier Hernández Silva aka Oro took a stiff clothesline and landed on his head. He tried to get up but collapsed. He was loaded on a stretcher, but died of head injuries on the way to the ambulance.

* In 2017, the then-upcoming ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' stage play was cancelled [[http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2017-04-11/attack-on-titan-stage-play-acrobat-dies-after-accident/.114633 after one of the acrobats fell 10 meters (about 30 feet) from the fifth to second floor]] of the theater while inspecting the equipment for [[WireFu wire action sequences]] and suspended himself in mid-air using the equipment. He suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest and was pronounced dead when he arrived in the hospital.

* On August 20, 1994, elephant trainer Allen Campbell was crushed to death and another handler severely injured when they lost control of one of their elephants during a performance at Circus International in Honolulu, Hawaii. (A publicist was also injured while trying to close a gate to prevent the elephant escaping the venue.) The elephant subsequently made a break for freedom, briefly getting loose on the streets of Honolulu before she was tracked down and killed by police. The shocking incident and the subsequent revelation that the elephant had snapped after years of horrific abuse (with Campbell himself being among the worst culprits) led to massive public outcry and ultimately a statewide ban on the use of performing animals in circus acts.
* Czech-Canadian stuntman Karel Soucek successfully went over the Niagara Falls in a barrel of his own design in July 1984, earning fame for performing the infamously dangerous stunt. Tragedy stuck months later on January 20, 1985, when Soucek attempted to recreate his feat at a stunt show held at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, despite legendary daredevil UsefulNotes/EvelKnievel begging him not to attempt a stunt he considered to be the most dangerous he'd ever seen. Sadly, Knievel's concerns were founded: Soucek's barrel was to drop 180 feet into a tank of water, but it was released prematurely and hit the rim of the tank instead of the center. Soucek was alive when he was released from the barrel, but he was mortally wounded, and he succumbed to his injuries while the stunt show was still ongoing.

* In 1974, a young woman named Deborah Stone was performing as a hostess on the Ride/{{Disneyland}} attraction ''America Sings!'' when she was crushed to death in-between a wall and one of the attraction's moving stage dividers.

* Very narrowly averted by [[spoiler:Angela Carpenter]] in ''Anime/CaroleAndTuesday''. After the one-two punch of [[spoiler:her StageMom letting slip she's a DesignerBaby and not her biological daughter, and then dying of a heart attack straight afterwards]], she shows up to the Mars Grammys drugged out of her mind, performs an uncharacteristically depressing song, and then collapses on stage from an overdose. She survives, but spends multiple episodes recovering.

* In ''Fanfic/DirtySympathy'' for [[Franchise/AceAttorney Klavier's]] rock concert, one of their acts require him to be [[ChainedByFashion covered in chains.]] He nearly dies in his concert when his lover, Daryan deliberately tangles the chains with the moving platform's winch for his infidelity, causing the chains to tighten around his neck and asphyxiate him.

* ''Days of Tomorrow'' revolves around Creator/AndyLau's protagonist, an actor engrossed in his art, eventually delivering his ultimate performance by ''killing'' himself onscreen. His in-universe character is supposed to commit suicide by jumping off a roof, where he performs the stunt without using any doubles, and in his final scene he deliberately unhooks the safety cable attached to his collar before taking the plunge (with the credits superimposed on his broken body).

** Criss Angel did similar with a wood chipper escape stunt that appeared to fail and lead to him being shredded, only for him to emerge in one piece afterward.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'': In "Icarus", an episode which centers around a Broadway musical of the same name, the actor playing the title character has his flying rig sabotaged so that it gives out mid-scene, causing the actor to fall to his death.
* Comes up a couple of times in ''Series/JonathanCreek''. On one occasion it happens offscreen and is only mentioned briefly; Jonathan's employer, egomaniac and dim stage-illusionist Adam Klaus, had some sort of inner-ear infection that messed up his balance and led to him falling off the stage and breaking his leg. The second and most memorable one involved a live python and Adam's new bodyguard... It has to be seen to be believed.

--> ''I want to die on stage''
--> ''Right in front of the spotlight''
--> ''Yes, I want to die on stage''
--> ''My heart open, in full color''
--> ''To die without any trouble''
--> ''The last time I meet the crowd''
--> ''I want to die on stage''
--> ''Singing until the very end!''

* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'' episode "Abracadaver", a magician named [[PunnyName Al Lusion]] was disrupted during his act by a little girl who accidentally caused him to fall into an iron maiden. Al comes BackFromTheDead as a zombie to exact his revenge and selects out Blossom, to whom the little girl bore an uncanny resemblance.

* Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius was murdered in April 2022 while filming his war documentary ''Mariupolis 2'' amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His widow Hanna Bilobrova [[Main/PosthumousCollaboration completed the documentary]] using the footage that Kvedaravičius had filmed. A month and a half after his death, the finished ''Mariupolis 2'' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

* On September 21, 1978, stuntman AJ Bakunas, doubling for Creator/GeorgeKennedy on the film ''Steel'', attempted a record-breaking freefall from the top of the Kincaid Towers in Lexington, Kentucky, but was fatally injured when the airbag ruptured on impact.

* On September 21, 1978, stuntman AJ Bakunas attempted a record-breaking freefall from the top of the Kincaid Towers in Lexington, Kentucky, but was fatally injured when the airbag ruptured on impact.

* During production of Creator/SamuelFuller's 1969 film ''Caine'', stuntman Jose Marco was mauled to death by a great white shark that had broken through the production crew's protective netting. The attack was recorded on camera, and against Fuller's wishes, the studio chose to include the footage in the completed film, re-titling it ''Shark!'' in an attempt to cash in on the ensuing controversy. Fuller was so disgusted by this turn of events that he attempted unsuccessfully [[AlanSmithee to have his name removed from the credits]].
* Stuntwoman Heidi Von Beltz was rendered paraplegic after a stunt failed on the set of Film/TheCannonballRun, eventually dying in 2015 at the age of 59 due to health issues bought on by the accident. It didn't help that she was thoroughly ScrewedByTheLawyers and received a ridiculously small payout after she sued the production company, leaving her in poverty and pain for the rest of her life.

* On August 2, 1920, during the filming of the silent film ''Film/TheSkywayman'', stunt pilots Ormer Locklear and Milton "Skeets" Elliott were flying a biplane during a nighttime shoot. At the end of the scene, they were supposed to make it look like they crashed the plane. The sky was lit with several floodlights. Locklear had instructed that, because he would not be able to see the ground at night, the floodlights had to be turned off as they approached the ground so he would know to pull up. For some reason, this instruction was ignored. Locklear and Elliott died when the plane hit the ground going at full throttle.

* A comedienne in ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' dies onstage, via electrocution by mike.
** And a stripper who is actually a diminished goddess commits suicide by channeling all her power into one last dance--which makes the audience die of pleasure and then blows up the building.
* In ''ComicBook/TheDarkKnightReturns'', ComicBook/TheJoker [[HesBack makes his grand comeback]] by murdering his handler, the Creator/DavidLetterman {{expy}} and the entire audience.

* At the end of the Music/MarioLanza film ''The Great Caruso'', the ailing title character collapses just as the curtain falls on his final performance in the {{Opera}} ''Martha.'' This is followed by a final scene showing [[DueToTheDead mourners laying a wreath in front of his bust]], implying that he died on the stage. This is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. The real Caruso had a massive throat hemorrhage in full view of the horrified audience during the first act of ''L'Elisir d'Amore'' in December 1920, about a week after his left kidney was injured in a stage accident. Amid cries for him to stop, he kept singing, but the show was cancelled after Act I. He did three more performances and seemed to recover after several operations, but died in bed in August 1921, in a Naples hotel. This was nearly a year after his last performance (which was ''La Juive'', Christmas 1920, not ''Martha'').[[note]]A song from ''Martha'' did figure as a HopeSpot after Caruso had had part of a rib removed in surgery to relieve a massive infection. He believed he would never sing again. Sometime later a nervous young beginner came to audition. Caruso thought of himself as a has-been and was exhausted from a lengthy outing with his family the day before. The boy had chosen the ballad from ''Martha'', "[[https://youtu.be/x5Bk68iIEnw M'appari]]". As always, Caruso was patient with the kid, they went over it a couple of times, with Dorothy Caruso listening from the next room. She heard her husband say "No, no, try it like this," and sing it through, sounding perfect. He spent the last few weeks of his life believing he would just rest and come back better than ever.[[/note]]

* At the end of the Music/MarioLanza film ''The Great Caruso'', the ailing title character collapses just as the curtain falls on his final performance in the {{Opera}} ''Martha.'' This is followed by a final scene showing [[DueToTheDead mourners laying a wreath in front of his bust]], implying that he died on the stage. This is VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory. The real Caruso had a massive throat hemorrhage in full view of the horrified audience during the first act of ''L'Elisir d'Amore'' in December 1920, about a week after his left kidney was injured in a stage accident. Amid cries for him to stop, he kept singing, but the show was cancelled after Act I. He did three more performances and seemed to recover after several operations, but died in bed in August 1921, in a Naples hotel. This was nearly a year after his last performance (which was ''La Juive'', Christmas 1920, not ''Martha'').

* On August 20, 1994, elephant trainer Allen Campbell was crushed to death and another handler severely injured when an elephant turned on them during a performance at Circus International in Honolulu, Hawaii. (A publicist was also injured while trying to close a gate to prevent the elephant escaping.) The elephant subsequently made a break for freedom, briefly getting loose on the streets of Honolulu before she was tracked down and killed by police. The shocking incident and the subsequent revelation that the elephant had snapped after years of horrific abuse (with Campbell himself being among the worst culprits) led to massive public outcry and ultimately a statewide ban on the use of performing animals in circus acts.