Twilight Zone movie accident saw a child actor decapitated and 3 deaths in one of the worst ever tragedies in film
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros./Wikimedia Commons
There is a long list of horrific filming accidents to have taken place while shooting but the tragedy that befell on the set of the Twilight Zone: The Movie was by far the worst.
In 1982, a popular science fiction anthology TV series was being adapted into a film by Warner Bros. that is understood to have had a budget of $10 million.
Actor Vic Morrow, who became a household name after starring in the ABC 1960's drama series Combat!, led the cast but on July 23, 1982 at around 2.30am, he tragically lost his life alongside two child actors - seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
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During the filming of a segment directed by John Landis, a helicopter that was being used for a scene being filmed at Indian Dunes, in Valencia, California, crashed - killing Morrow, Chen and Le and injuring a further six people.
The film was set during the Vietnam War and the scene was meant to resemble the Southeast Asian country, with Morrow's character being a loudmouth racist called Bill Connor.
The night scene called for Connor to carry the two children out of a deserted village and across a river while being chased by American soldiers in a hovering helicopter.
But the sequence was ‘poorly planned’ and ‘barely rehearsed’, The New York Times reports, which led to one of the explosions damaging the rotor blades on the aircraft, causing the pilot to lose control - all of which was witnessed by the crew and Chen and Le's parents.
The helicopter crashed into the river and decapitated Morrow and Le, while crushing Chen to death. It led to years of civil and criminal action against the personnel overseeing the shoot, including Landis.
Landis and four other defendants, including the helicopter pilot Dorsey Wingo, were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter after a nearly nine-month trial.
The parents of Le and Chen sued and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Prior to his death, Morrow had an eerie suspicion that he would be involved in a helicopter crash years before it happened.
While filming Dirty Mary Crazy Larry in 1973, he insisted on having a one million dollar life insurance policy before he would shoot any scenes involving the helicopter he was meant to ride in.
When asked, he reportedly said: "I have always had a premonition I was going to die in a helicopter crash!"
Shortly before filming the scene that would ultimately claim his claim, he allegedly told a production assistant: "I must be out of my mind to be doing this.
"I should've asked for a stunt double. What can they do but kill me, right?!"
Twilight Zone: The Movie was later released in June 1983 to mixed reviews.