The tragic Twilight Zone movie incident that resulted in the deaths of two child actors along with Hollywood star Vic Morrow stands out as one of the most devastating calamities in film history.
In 1983, a movie adaptation of the renowned science fiction anthology TV series, featuring actors like Vic Morrow who gained fame in the 1960s ABC drama Combat!, was being filmed when the catastrophic event occurred.
During filming of a segment directed by John Landis, Morrow, aged 53, was supposed to rescue two child actors, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, from an approaching helicopter, but things took a tragic turn.
The sequence involved pyrotechnic explosions, which unfortunately led to a fatal misjudgment causing the helicopter, flying just 25 feet above the actors, to get entangled in the pyrotechnics.
As a result, the helicopter pilot lost control, causing the death of six-year-old Chen, followed by the decapitation of both seven-year-old Dinh Le and Morrow.
The accident also left six other individuals injured as a horrified crew of around 100 people, including the parents of the young actors, witnessed the tragedy unfold.
To add to the horror, had the scene been completed successfully, Morrow’s character was supposed to utter the lines: “I’ll keep you safe, kids.
I promise.
Nothing will hurt you, I swear to God.”
Following the incident, Landis and four crew members faced charges of manslaughter, marking Landis as the first film director to be charged in connection with a death on a movie set.
However, he denied culpability for what became known as the ‘Twilight Zone accident’.
After a nine-month trial, Landis and his co-defendants, including the helicopter pilot Dorsey Wingo, were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, though the parents of the deceased children settled their lawsuit out of court.
In a chilling revelation, Morrow had expressed concerns about dying in a helicopter crash years before the tragedy occurred.
While filming Dirty Mary Crazy Larry in 1973, he insisted on a hefty life insurance policy before participating in helicopter scenes, stating his long-held premonition of a fatal crash involving a helicopter.
The shocking incident remains a haunting reminder of the dangers and risks involved in filmmaking, leaving a dark cloud over the legacy of the ill-fated Twilight Zone movie production.
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