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Musicians / Actors / Artists Dying During Performances Or Productions

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On a topical note, the late actress/singer Aaliyah hits the cinema screens soon in the US starring as a vampire in Queen of the Damned. This seems to have resonances of Brandon Lee reappearing in The Crow as an undead character out for revenge. I was wondering if there are any other examples of this. I can think of three similar, though none of them played Fortean or undead characters - Vic Morrow who was decapitated filming Twilight Zone: The Movie yet still showed up in the first segment, Bruce Lee in the aptly titled Game of Death, and good old Ollie Reed in Gladiator.
I also note that the Matrix sequels have been hit not only by the death of Aaliyah, who had completed filming for the first of the two sequels, and also of Gloria Foster who played the Oracle.
I recall a story in FT recently of how people manage to stay alive for significant events - the release of Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, for example. After the first preview screening of the movie, he was dead just five days later.
 
Originally posted by Dark Detective
[BI recall a story in FT recently of how people manage to stay alive for significant events - the release of Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, for example. After the first preview screening of the movie, he was dead just five days later.
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Yes, didn't the guy who played Father Ted die a couple of days after completing the series?
 
Massimo Troisi, star of IL POSTINO, died that day after filming of the movie had completed.

There's also a persistent rumor that during the filming of THE THIN MAN, an actor died on set, but the body wasn't removed until he was propped up in order to get some shots of him from behind.
 
Probably getting all my facts mixed up, but didn't Bela Lugosi die during the filming of the superb Plan 9 from Outer Space. So he is in some scenes but in others he is replaced by the directors wife's much taller dentist who holds a cloak in front of his face.

Man, I love that film.......
 
Roy Kinnear died in a riding accident whilst filming (involved galloping over a bridge, I seem to recall).

Can anyone help me with the film please?
 
That's correct, Blueswidow. Lugosi conked out on "Plan 9" after only shooting a few scenes! Genius that he was, director Ed Wood was undeterred.

I too have an extraordinary fondness for that picture, as well as "Glen or Glenda?" I mean, Wood essentially telling his life story about being a cross-dresser in the early 50s is courageous. Split screen shots of Lugosi shouting "Pull the string!" and stock footage of buffalo and penguins is magnificent.
 
Papa Lazarou said:
Roy Kinnear died in a riding accident whilst filming (involved galloping over a bridge, I seem to recall).

Can anyone help me with the film please?
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That would be the Return of the Three Musketeers, or something like that. Also Marty Feldman snuffed it during the filming of the risible Yellowbeard, from which he somewhat unnervingly vanishes half way through.
 
There's also TV stars who snuff it during filming. Anyone seen the episode of Dad's army when they spend the night in a haunted house?

James Beck (Walker) died during filming so he is referred to in the first half of the show as having just gone out, you even glimpse his finger supposedly writing his name in the condesation of Jones' van. Then suddenly at the very end of the show there he is in an outside shot. The whole episode has a very eerie feel about it.
 
Ooh I didn't know that about Private Walker, I hope they repeat that one. my sister was with him when he died (as boringly mentioned on another thread). (She's a nurse, she didn't kill him or anything :rolleyes: )
 
More than a few actors or performers have died or been takenly mortally ill on stage or in the wings. Sid James collapsed on stage, as did Tommy Cooper, I believe (In his case, I think, the audience thought it was part of his act). Others? Leonard Rossiter.

And then there was that WWF wrestler a year or so ago who plunged 50ft to his death in the ring to the wild applause of the audience!
 
This is probably going to be a bit vague, as I'm at work, and haven't got any reference stuff to hand, but during the 50s or early 60s, an actor called Gareth Jones (?) died right in the middle of a live performance of an ITV play.

The play itself was set after a nuclear war, and concerned a band of buried survivors trying to escape. As they spent most of the play crawling through tunnels, during ad breaks the actors were dirtied up by make up bods. During one break, This unfortunate chap complained of feeling unwell, sat in a chair and promptly died!

Strangely, rather than stop the broadcast, the play was continued to the end, with the rest of the cast having to work around the lines of Mr Jones. I would imagine that no recording has survived, but the play itself doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs to be honest.

On a sort of related note, has anyone else noticed that TV detectives seem to have become an endangered species this month, What with Stratford Johns, John Thaw and that bloke out of Van der Valk all going within a couple of weeks?
 
Florida news anchor woman Chris Chubbock shot herself in the head on live TV back in the 1970s.

I believe a guest on the Dick Cavett show also died in the middle of a program.
 
Hermes said:
More than a few actors or performers have died or been takenly mortally ill on stage or in the wings. Sid James collapsed on stage, as did Tommy Cooper, I believe (In his case, I think, the audience thought it was part of his act). Others? Leonard Rossiter.

And then there was that WWF wrestler a year or so ago who plunged 50ft to his death in the ring to the wild applause of the audience!
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Tommy Cooper died on live TV during a performance on Live from Her Majesty's (or the Palladium, whichever) when he collapsed on stage, and the curtains closed over him leaving his feet sticking out whilst the audience chuckled with increasing uncertainty. I remember there was the sound of snoring too, as if some enterprising back stage staffer quickly thought of covering it up as part of the act before the show promptly went to a commercial break.

I also remember the unfortuanate game show contestant Michael Lush on The Late, Late Breakfast Show who was killed rehearsing a bungee rope stunt. Noel Edmonds has a lot to answer for (see "Facial Hair" thread).

*Though I acknowledge Mr. Edmonds had no liability for the unfortunate death above (inserted at the behest of Cheetham & Runn, Dark Detective Agency lawyers.)
 
And then there was that WWF wrestler a year or so ago who plunged 50ft to his death in the ring to the wild applause of the audience!
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That would be the late Owen Hart. It was part of an entrance stunt that went tragically wrong.

Erm not that I watch the wrestling you understand. :rolleyes:
 
Speaking of which, the famous Big Daddy splash did for King Kong Kirk, not on telly but at another wrestling event.

Not that I watch wrestling either.
 
She did survive, but Diana Dors contracted meningitis during the filming of a play where she played a nanny or nurse or something who was a servant of the devil - can't remember details though. I believe it was after this that she became a Catholic.

Bruce Lee fell into his mysterious coma three weeks after completing "Enter the Dragon".
 
Wasnt there a study done that showed that lots more people died just after the millenium than should have. As if they were holding on for the big party and once it was over, popped their clogs.
p.s. I didnt know John Thaw was dead. I thought it was just Inspector Morse. Any more info on this?
 
John Thaw died of cancer a few days ago.

Spike Milligan died this morning:(.
 
The Apotheis Of Spike

Blueswidow said:
:( :( :(

For Spike
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:) :D :cool: :p ;) :rolleyes: 4 Sp!ke

Spike isn't dead, like Peter Sellers he's just no longer producing any new stuff and is only playing to a rather exclusive audience!

He brought such joy and laughter to so many people, despite the burdens of his own spirit, that it seems almost offensive to be sad at his passing.

Spike lives on in us and in the mammoth cache of work he leaves behind.

Whenever we laugh in his memory, recalling some gag or gaff.
Whenever someone hears a recording of the Goons for the first time and is changed by the experience.
Whenever his comedic heirs bring joy to their audiences
Spike is there.

As so long as we remember him he has not gone; he has transcended his mortal form and ascended to the lofty heights from which he came, a Trickster God in a pantheon of luminaries.

Spike is Dead
Long Live Spike!
 
My favourite Spike Milligan poem:

'I saw a little worm
wriggling on it's belly
I thought he'd like to come inside
and see what's on the telly.'

On the subject of resurrecting dead actors etc, check this out:

Bruce Lee Lives! kinda
 
And Onimusha 2 has a lead character modelled on a hugely popular japanese star who died several years ago (He was in Black Rain as the main baddie I believe).
 
The late grate John Candy passed over during the filming of Wagons East, He just went into his tent lied down for a moment and had a hart attack.
Then after his funeral three movies of his came out.
Wagons East
Canadian Bacon
& Hostage for the day.
Leave it to a Canuck to go just that little further
 
Dark Detective said:
I recall a story in FT recently of how people manage to stay alive for significant events - the release of Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, for example.
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Yup, its a well documented phenomena. Thinking of films is it relevant that Phillip K. Dick missed the completion of Bladerunner by weeks through dying. Hmm, he'd probably have hated it anyway, it had little to do with his book and was especially bad with the awful Hollywood ending it originally had.

Come to think of it, would a mere film adaptation of one novel (of many) even constitute a significant event to a speed-addict, haunted by angels and suffering from acute paranoia?

Perhaps not. :)
 
IIRC, Dick actually saw several sections of Bladerunner before it was edited into one film, and approved of it.
 
CuriousIdent said:
Ghostwatch. The Paul Daniels Halloween Special. The Late Late Breakfast Show Bungie disaster. There was a lot of things which caused controversy for the Beeb around that time. And in many ways I think that sense of needless NIMBY outrage has continued through to the current day, increasingly driven by tabloids which just so happen to be owned by the same people who own alternate UK broadcast services...
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Absolutely. It's all about audiences and money.

The LLBS disaster was about a real death, though, whereas Ghostwatch and The Paul Daniels Halloween Special were elaborate and well-done hoaxes. Plus, we didn't see Michael Lush die. There's no footage of the accident. If there were, I'd expect it to have surfaced on the 'net at some point to haunt Noel Edmonds.

This happened with film of the death of Tommy Cooper, which you can find if you dig a bit. He died on stage and his collapse looks like part of the act.

Cooper's friends have said it wasn't so bad to die that way, as the last thing he'd have heard would have been the audience laughing.
 
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