As you may know, actor Vic Morrow was killed in 1983 while shooting
his segment for Twilight Zone: The Movie,
under director John Landis’ helm. Morrow and two young kids (who were working under
the table on the show) never saw another day after a bit involving “too big for
their own good” explosions and an a helicopter that went out of control sent
them to their doom. The outcome was: Morrow and one kid decapitated by the
copter’s rotor blade and the other child crushed by the vehicle.
After reading a book about the affair called
Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego, and the Twilight Zone Case, one that
I highly recommend BTW
(get it here) I semi became obsessed with the
whole Twilight Zone thing. So I checked out the movie again
(read my review of it here) and wound up finding the footage of the
accident within CHOPPER DOWN, a never aired look at copter mishaps on film sets,
that was produced by HBO in 1989. If morbid curiosity snaps at ya like it did me
– check it out below.
EERIE NOTE: When Morrow was acting in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, he had
to do an helicopter scene, and he said this to the filmmakers: “I’m not getting
up in the helicopter… I have a premonition that I’m going to get killed in a
helicopter crash.”