17 Famous People Who Literally Almost Died In Real Life Or While Filming A Movie
Note: Some of the following stories include graphic descriptions.
1.Brendan Fraser passed out after almost accidentally hanging himself while filming a scene in The Mummy because he wanted it to look super realistic.
Brendan Fraser talked about how he "almost gave his life" to The Mummy while filming the close-ups for a moment when his character was supposed to get hanged. In this particular scene, he was standing on a platform and had a rope around his neck. As an actor, he obviously wanted it to look as real as possible, so he decided to go the extra mile, saying, "I remember the camera came around, and I thought, 'I'm gonna make this look really good,' so I sort of took a few deep breaths and kind of barred down. Then I realized I was on the balls of my feet and the rope was going up and I had nowhere to go. Then the world kind of dialed down."
Brendan passed out and ultimately woke up with the stunt coordinator hovering over him: "He's clapping in my face, going, 'Brendan! Brendan! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!' And I did, and he goes, 'Hey. Congratulations. You just joined the club with Mel Gibson. He got choked out on Braveheart, too.'"
Here's Brendan Fraser telling the full story:
2.Leo DiCaprio went skydiving one time, but BOTH of his parachutes didn't work, resulting in "one of the worst experiences" of his life.
In January of 2016, Ellen DeGeneres asked Leo DiCaprio about the daredevil activities he's interested in, like swimming with sharks and skydiving. Leo responded that he's only gone skydiving one time and will never do it again because he had a near-death experience when BOTH of his parachutes didn't work correctly: "I jumped out of the airplane, and then my first chute didn't open. It's tandem, so somebody's on your back. They cut that line. We started free-falling toward earth, and that's when you get the, you know, 8x10 glossies of your whole life flashing before your eyes."
Leo then added that his second chute didn't work as planned either. He said it got tangled for "about 20–30 seconds" before the instructor who was attached to him was able to untangle it, just before hitting the ground: "He untangled it, and then he told me, 'Oh, you're probably gonna break your legs now because we're going too fast." Leo said it was "one of the worst experiences of my life," and he'll absolutely never go skydiving again.
3.Leo DiCaprio was also on a plane when one of the engines burst into flames, and during the emergency landing, all of the tires exploded.
Leo DiCaprio told Ellen DeGeneres that the scariest moment of his life was when he was on a flight to Russia and the engine exploded: "I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball. I was the only person there who seemed to see this, but it was a flaming fireball...I kind of felt like I'd already died and gone to heaven 'cause no one said anything."
Leo said he immediately started screaming because he was so freaked out. The plane dumped fuel for 45 minutes before having an emergency landing, which caused all of the tires to explode.
Here's Leo DiCaprio telling both of those stories:
4.Jackie Chan has broken pretty much every single part of his body (and he even has a hole in his head), but one time he cracked his skull while filming a stunt for Armour of God.
In the movie, Jackie Chan's character chugs from a freshly opened beer can before leaping off a ledge and swinging from a tree. The movie was shot in the '80s, so they used a real beer can in the scene, rather than a prop. Everything went smoothly the first time he performed the stunt, but Jackie insisted that he could do it faster, "like a monkey." They went back to square one, and then Jackie opened a new beer and chugged from it before leaping onto the tree. This time, however, he slipped and plummeted to the ground.
Jackie landed on a rock and tried to get up but immediately felt a pain in his back. Everyone on set kept telling him to stay down, and that's when his body went numb. There was blood coming out of his ear. The crew had to carry him down the mountain to the hospital where "surgeons tended to his cracked skull and the bone that had penetrated his brain as a result of the fall." Jackie said he came very close to dying.
Here's Jackie Chan telling the full story about cracking his head, and below is the video of him talking about all of his other on-set injuries:
5.Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman were both on a flight when one of the engines exploded and then the other cut out, causing the plane to rapidly descend and make an emergency landing.
During the AFI Lifetime Achievement tribute to Meryl Streep, Tracey Ullman joked about their near-fatal experience on a flight. She said they were sipping champagne and "bitching" about an unnamed actor who they both absolutely hate, and all of a sudden, according to Tracey, "an engine blew on the plane and the other one cut out and we began to descend and the lights went out and a young air stewardess started crying, which is never a good sign."
Everyone on the flight was screaming, and then Tracey and Meryl turned to each other, held hands, and Meryl said, "Oh, damn. That woman who's writing that horrible unauthorized biography on me will have a terrific ending." Luckily the pilots were able to make an emergency landing in France, and everyone was okay.
Here's Tracey Ullman telling the full story:
6.Steve-O broke his skull after flying off a balcony at the University of Miami and landing on his face on the concrete.
On Hot Ones, Steve-O was asked about the wildest hold-my-beer stunt he ever tried in college. He immediately had a response, saying it was the time he jumped off a balcony and broke his skull: "I landed on my face on the concrete below. I broke my cheekbone, and I broke seven teeth, [needed] 10 stitches in my chin, [had] a concussion and a broken wrist, all in one fall." Steve-O said he was lying there in a pool of his own blood, not moving, and everyone around him thought he was dead. He was rushed to a hospital, and the next morning he called his friends to help him escape. He has no idea how he survived the fall.
The video is age-restricted, but you can watch Steve-O tell the full story here.
7.Michael J. Fox "swung unconsciously" after almost accidentally getting hanged while filming Back to the Future Part III.
Most actors typically wear harnesses while filming hanging scenes in movies, but things didn't go as planned in Back to the Future Part III. Here, Michael J. Fox's character was being hanged while he was trapped in the Wild West. While shooting the scene, the rope became too tight around his neck, which restricted his airflow. Fox wrote about the events in his memoir, saying, "I swung unconscious at the end of the rope for several seconds before Bob Zemeckis, fan of me though he was, realized even I wasn't that good of an actor.” Luckily, director Bob Zemeckis was able to stop the scene and save Fox.
Here's the full scene from Back to the Future Part III:
8.Betty Danko, aka Margaret Hamilton's stunt double in The Wizard of Oz, spent 11 days in the hospital after a pipe in the character's broomstick exploded, throwing her across the set.
There's a moment in The Wizard of Oz when smoke comes out of the Wicked Witch of the West's broomstick in a skywriting sequence. To make this happen, a pipe was attached to the bicycle seat saddle on the broomstick. However, during one of the test runs, the pipe exploded.
According to Danko, it "felt as though my scalp was coming off. The explosion blew me off the broomstick." Among other injuries (like damage to her internal organs, which required a hysterectomy), there was also a "two-inch-deep wound that nearly circled Danko's leg, which was full of bits of her costume." Danko made only $35 for completing the broomstick stunt and $790 for everything else she did in the movie.
9.Jason Statham almost drowned at the bottom of the Black Sea while filming a driving stunt for The Expendables 3.
Statham and the rest of the cast were filming at the Black Sea in Bulgaria. In the stunt, he had to drive a massive three-ton truck, and the rest of the cast was supposed to climb aboard. Statham wanted to test the stunt before everyone got on, but the brakes didn't work. After hitting two cameramen, the truck went over the nine-foot edge of the dock and quickly started sinking into the water: "We start sinking fast, straight to the bottom. So, like, 60 feet at the bottom of the Black Sea, stuck in the mud, and I'm thinking, 'How am I gonna get out of this?'"
Statham tried to compose himself, pulled himself out of the truck's window, and started swimming to the surface as quickly as possible. When he got to the surface, Sylvester Stallone was on the edge of the dock with his iPhone out, capturing the whole thing on camera. Thankfully no one was injured.
Here's Jason Statham telling the full story:
10.Angus Cloud accidentally fell into a construction ditch when he was younger and broke his skull, along with multiple fingers, and then he had to climb out after waking up 12 hours later.
Angus Cloud recounted the 2013 event, saying he was by himself at night while walking through downtown Oakland and "didn’t notice the construction pit in front of him until he was already falling." He apparently woke up at the bottom of the ditch 12 hours later: “I was trapped. I eventually climbed out after — I don’t know how long. It was hella hard to climb out, because my skull was broken, but my skin wasn’t, so all the bleeding was internal, pressing up against my brain."
Angus somehow managed to climb out, even with a few broken fingers, and he took a bus to his mom's house. His vision was blurry and his speech was stunted, so she thought he was high on something: "I was 14 or 15. She thought I was on drugs ’cause my pupils was hella dilated. I was trying to tell her what happened, but I could only start a sentence — I couldn’t finish it. So I was like, ‘I’m just gonna go sleep in my bed.’”
Thankfully, she refused to let him sleep and instead gave him water, which caused him to throw up "hella mouthfuls of crimson red blood," before taking him to the hospital: "That’s what the scar’s from. They cut my head open, they put some screws and a plate over where I broke my skull and — sh*t, sealed me back up, and that was that.”
11.Sylvester Stallone was hit so hard in the chest by Dolph Lundgren while filming a boxing scene in Rocky IV that he had to stay in the ICU for nine days.
During the shoot, Stallone pulled Lundgren aside and said, "Forget what we've been practicing, Dolph. I want you to get out there and just try to clock me. Knock me out." Lundgren listened, and later that day Stallone knew something was wrong. He played back the footage and realized one of Lundgren's uppercuts did him in. According to the doctors, the punch was so powerful that it "caught the ribs and hit the heart against the ribcage."
Here's Sylvester Stallone telling the full story:
12.Harrison Ford has been flying planes and helicopters for years, and he's survived multiple crashes and injuries, including a broken back.
Harrison Ford has been flying since the '60s, and he's had licenses for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircrafts. In 1999 he was doing flight training with an instructor and crash-landed the helicopter, which flipped over upon landing. Luckily neither he nor the instructor were seriously injured.
However, his worst crash was in 2015 after needing to land on a golf course. Ellen DeGeneres asked him about the injuries he sustained from it, to which he joked, "A dislocated right ankle, a shattered pelvis, a broken back, and a serious bump on the head with major lacerations. Other than that, nothing."
Ford has also used his pilot's license to volunteer over the years. For example, in 2001, he joined a group in Wyoming to search for a Boy Scout who had gone missing in Yellowstone National Park. Ford ended up spotting the boy and rescuing him.
Here's Harrison Ford telling the full story of his 2015 crash:
13.Buddy Ebsen was the original Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz, but the aluminum dust from the makeup nearly killed him, so he was replaced by Jack Haley.
Ebsen, who's famous for playing Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies, was ultimately hospitalized and forced out of Oz's production because of the makeup: "They put aluminum dust into my makeup, and this aluminum dust got into the air, and pretty soon my lungs were coated with it. One night I took a breath, and nothing happened. They got an ambulance for me and got me down to the hospital."
Ebsen spent months trying to get better but was replaced by MGM without an explanation, which he considered "the worst personal and professional disaster" of his life. Jack Haley took over as the new Tin Man, and they replaced his aluminum dust makeup with safer aluminum paste. Ebsen claimed to have breathing problems for the rest of his life because of "that damned movie."
Here's Buddy Ebsen telling the full story (from 16:41–17:49):
14.Isla Fisher almost drowned in front of the entire cast and crew while filming an underwater "magic trick" scene in Now You See Me.
In the scene, Fisher was chained and submerged in a tank of water. Her handcuffs had quick-release magnetic chains, which should have given her an easy escape, but "the chain that went between my legs couldn't be broken, and it got stuck." Fisher said that the crew didn't catch on right away because they all just thought she was great at acting.
Several precautions were in place in case of an emergency: aside from the quick-release chains, there was a button that could empty the giant tank of water in 70 seconds, and there was also a man standing off to the side with an air tank for her. However, no one thought to come up with a hand signal beforehand to alert the crew if she needed help. Luckily someone caught on and was able to save her.
Here's Isla Fisher telling the full story:
15.Oliver Robins' character in Poltergeist was supposed to get choked by a clown doll, but he ~actually~ got choked while filming the scene, which literally caused him to turn purple.
Oliver Robbins played Robbie in the 1982 film Poltergeist. In this particular scene, Robbie's clown doll comes to life, wrapping its arm around his neck several times. While shooting, the mechanical clown malfunctioned and gripped Oliver way too hard around his neck. He started screaming that he couldn't breathe, but everyone on set thought he was just improvising his lines.
Oliver almost choked to death and literally turned purple, and that's when Steven Spielberg noticed that something was off. Spielberg ran up to Oliver and pried off the clown's arm from his neck, saving him.
Here's the full scene with the clown doll from Poltergeist:
16.Dylan O'Brien was severely injured in a stunt gone wrong while filming the final Maze Runner movie, leaving him with a facial fracture and brain trauma.
Filming for Maze Runner: The Death Cure halted in March of 2016 after an incident where Dylan O'Brien was hit by a stunt car. He sustained several injuries, including a concussion, brain trauma, and a facial fracture. O'Brien spent about six months recovering from his injuries, and throughout that time he even questioned if he wanted to give up acting altogether: “I really was in a dark place there for a while, and it wasn’t an easy journey back. There was a time there where I didn’t know if I would ever do it again … and that thought scared me, too.”
The studio was hoping to resume filming in May of 2016, but they didn't pick up production until March of the following year. O'Brien hasn't gone into detail about the actual incident (and he has no desire to), but throughout the years he's been vocal about its long-lasting effects, saying this in 2020: "I had a rough and long road back from that, probably more than people realize. It was a very private and personal thing for me. I was going through that sh*t for a long time."
Here's Dylan O'Brien briefly talking about the incident:
17.And Jessica Lange was on a flight with Ryan Murphy when the power shut off and the pilot's control panel broke down, causing everyone to sob and scream for their lives...except Jessica.
While honoring Jessica Lange with a tribute award in 2014, Ryan Murphy recounted the story of their near-death experience on a small plane. Basically, they were flying to Los Angeles while playing a game to pass the time: "We were playing a game we'd often played before called 'Stump Lange.' It is a game show where I'm the host, and I say things like, 'Jessica Lange, for $1 million, name one Taylor Swift song. And she always loses.'" But then the plane lost all electrical power and started making "clunk, clunk, clunk" noises: "We could see that the pilot's control panel was also black, and everybody was instantly frantic and a wreck."
Ryan Murphy turned to the flight attendant and said, "You really need to prepare me if I'm going to die," and everyone on board started sobbing...except Jessica Lange. Instead, Ryan said she was casually on her email: "She was very still. She was elegant in doom, even. I was so amazed that I finally said, 'Jessica, what the hell?! How can you be so calm?!'" Jessica took a beat, shrugged, and replied, "What the hell...it's been a good run." A true legend!
