15 Times Hollywood Stars Nearly Lost Their Lives While Trying To Perfect Their Film Roles

Many potential hazards are difficult to assess and have nearly killed some of our beloved actors

Maryjane

• Published in Film & TV
• February 10, 2023

Many people believe that acting is a lucrative profession that only requires performers to learn a few lines, get their makeup done, and then take their big, fat paycheck home after a few months of labor. Some accuse them of earning outrageous sums of money while purportedly having one of the "easiest" and most enticing professions in the world.

Acting, however, might not be as simple as it seems, and some performers might really put themselves in danger more than you might like to think if you take a deeper look at it. They might be fortunate enough to win the most prestigious Hollywood awards, which would make them famous and wealthy in the future.

Some individuals even believe that if these performers can pull it off, anyone can do so gracefully. Being a Holly Star, nonetheless, is harder than most people realize.

While the actors are filming, there will undoubtedly be many difficulties to overcome, including a close encounter with death. In reality, a lot of Hollywood celebrities have passed away while being filmed in the past.

Paul Walker is a notable example of this. Stunt people, who perform the perilous scenes for actors, therefore, play a crucial part in a film crew.

Here are a few Hollywood celebrities who almost died while on set.

1. During the shooting, Jason Statham barely died on the sets of The Expendables 3

Luckily for Statham, the actor knew how to swim and amazingly got out of the truck and swum back safely. His co-stars Sylvester Stallone and Terry Crew got a panic during the incident, and both applauded Statham’s ability to deal with the dreadful situation.

2. Michael J. Fox nearly died while portraying his most famous role Marty McFly in the Back to the Future series

He was definitely suffocating when Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen hanged his character. Because of the misplacement of his hands during the stunt, Fox was hung by a noose for real.

And the film crew didn’t realize the unlucky predicament until he passed out for around 30 seconds.

3. Johnny Depp barely escaped death while shooting The Lone Ranger

The actor who fell off a galloping horse was stomped and dragged for nearly 30 yards through the desert. Fortunately, the actor didn’t suffer any severe injuries.

The director Gore Verbinski revealed to New York Post that Johnny Depp suffered one of the scariest accidents he’s ever seen.

4. Daniel Day-Lewis, undoubtedly the most outstanding method actor, nearly ended his life while filming Gangs of New York

Set in 1846, the movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, but supporting actor Day-Lewis stole the spotlight. Daniel Day-Lewis would stay in character while hanging out in bars with sharp knives even when he was not on set.

He didn’t wear a warm jacket during the rain because it was not period-accurate, and he got pneumonia. Because of his method, Day-Lewis refused to take medications for it since they were not available in 1846.

Luckily, he was finally persuaded to undergo medical treatment once he learned he would die without them.

5. Jennifer Lawrence was on the verge of being choked to death by a malfunctioning fog machine while filming the first installment of The Hunger Games

Unluckily, the fog machine broke, and the subsequent overload made dense smoke that caused the cast members scarcely visible. All the actors, including Lawrence, began aggressively coughing but narrowly survived suffocation.

6. During Isla Fisher’s drowning scene in Now You See Me, she, unfortunately, got stuck and was in the water tank for about three minutes

The actress hit the water tank to signal the crew about her situation, but they did not react since that was exactly what her character was supposed to do. Fortunately, Fisher managed to get out of the tank without any hurt.

7. When it comes to Sylvester Stallone, he has also experienced a dreadful situation

To bring the scene of the boxing match between his character Rocky and Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago in Rocky IV to life, he requested the latter to punch him as vital as possible. Lundgren struck Stallone in the chest, and his heart started to swell.

After that, Stallone felt challenged to breathe, and his blood pressure reached 200. The actor was later flown to Saint John’s Regional Medical Center in Santa Monica, where he spent eight days recovering with intensive care.

8. The 2005 sci-fi movie Æon Flux scarcely favors the career of Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron

Still, the actress suffered a gruesome injury during the shooting. While performing a backflip for a stunt, she sadly landed on her neck and was nearly paralyzed.

The film crew was immediately halted for eight weeks so that Theron could recover from her injury.

9. Margaret Hamilton played one dramatic set in Munchkinland, which could have been fatal

The flames required for the scene reacted with the actress’s green-colored, copper-based face paint, causing disastrous results. Hamilton suffered second and third-degree burns on her face from the flames and had to spend three months recovering from the catastrophic injury before returning to the movie.

10. Martin Sheen had a nervous breakdown and a near-fatal heart attack when he was on set

Apocalypse Now was regarded as one of the movies infamous for its troubled production. The harsh shooting conditions took a tremendous toll on leading movie star Martin Sheen.

“I completely fell apart. My spirit was exposed. I cried and cried. I turned completely gray; my eyes, my beard, all gray. I was in intensive care."

Sheen had to take a rest for the following six weeks, and his brother Joe Estevez took the role as a replacement.

11. Eli Wallach almost died three times while filming The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Sergio Leone is a brilliant director, but he has been criticized for putting his actors in danger. It required Wallach to have his neck around a noose, sitting on a horse, and his hands tied behind his back.

Unfortunately, the lop broke, and the horse ran off a mile away. The actor had to balance himself on the horse without his hands.

Wallach drank acid from a bottle placed near his soda by a crew member. Later, Wallach was taken to the hospital.

12. Tom Cruise has had numerous near-death experiences since he started his acting career

One of them is a scene in Mission: Impossible- Fallout. He nearly killed himself while filming an iconic helicopter scene.In that scene, Cruise was required to lose his grip on a helicopter.

Later, he fell onto the cargo lifted by it. Although he had a safety harness, it was a challenging stunt that could have ended the actor’s life.

13. Jackie Chan is always willing to play his stunts.

While shooting Armour of God, he jumped from a wall to a tea branch that snapped and had a nasty fall of five meters. His head collided with a rock that broke his skull and immediately required surgery.

Due to the unfortunate stunt, Chan has a slight hearing loss in one of his ears and a permanent hole in his head associated with a plastic plug.

14. Viggo Mortenson, best known for his character Aragorn in The Lord of The Rings, barely survived many times during his challenging shoot

Mortensen broke two toes when he kicked the helmet, literally drowned due to his too-heavy armor, and swung his sword to block a real knife when a fellow actor accidentally threw it straight at him.

15. Ed Harris nearly drowned during the shooting of The Abyss in 1989

It was only when a cameraman intervened and saved Harris’s life. Because of the strenuous shooting, he later had a breakdown and cried.

Many well-known actors and actresses have come dangerously close to losing their lives while creating art, whether it was due to actors who overdid their acting, simple blunders with set props, and unpredictably bad accidents. In fact, accidents can occur in peculiar and unanticipated ways, making it impossible for anyone to ensure the safety of actors completely.

Maryjane