In the summer of 1914, filmmaker Charles Seeling traveled with a small production crew to Canon City, Colorado to film the silent western Across the Border. The movie starred a young actress named Grace McHugh. While shooting a scene on the raging Arkansas River, McHugh’s boat capsized and she fell into the rapids. Without hesitation, 33-year-old camera operator Owen Carter leaped into the whitewater to rescue the struggling actress. He succeeded in pulling McHugh to a sandbar but the riverbank gave way and both McHugh and Carter drowned.
This was the first known death to occur on a film set.
Filmmaking’s a dangerous business. It involves stunts, gunshots, high-speed car chases, explosions and risky camera shots. In the early days of Hollywood, live ammunition was used on film sets. Producers hired professional marksmen to shoot low-velocity bullets near actors to produce gunfire effects. Actor James Cagney was nearly shot while filming the 1932 film Taxi. He refused to work with live bullets again.
There is no known record of how many people have died on film sets since Thomas Edison introduced his Kinetoscope films in 1896. Early movies were filmed without industry regulation or unions to monitor safety conditions. Audiences were spellbound by dramatic stunts and exotic camera work. In the 1920 film The Skywayman, stunt pilot Ormer Locklear was blinded by powerful klieg lights shining into the sky. He crashed his plane and died in front of a horrified film crew.
In the 1930 film Hell’s Angels produced by Howard Hughes, three pilots were killed while filming dangerous aviation stunts. Hughes, a pilot himself, took over flying maneuvers that his stuntmen felt were too risky. While maneuvering a plane just 100 feet above a runway, Hughes crashed into an Inglewood field. He suffered a concussion and a fractured skull.
In the 1931 film The Viking shot in Newfoundland, filmmakers attempted to break sea ice with dynamite. The explosives accidentally ignited destroying the camera boat and killing 27 filmmakers. The incident remains the world’s deadliest movie accident.
Movie stars aren’t immune to on-set tragedies. Tyrone Power was one of the biggest action stars of his day. In 1958, he traveled to Spain to film Solomon and Sheba. He was 44 but insisted on doing his own stunts. While filming a knife duel with actor George Sanders, Power was stricken with a massive heart attack. He collapsed on set and died en route to the hospital.
Before Michael Curtiz directed Casablanca, he helmed a large-scale disaster film called Noah’s Ark (1928). The key scene involved recreating the Biblical flood of Noah. Curtiz wanted “a spectacle for the ages” and insisted on 600,000 gallons of water. Camera operator Hal Mohr told Curtiz that the flood would place extras in danger. Curtiz ignored the warning. The torrent was so severe that three extras drowned. One man had his leg amputated while dozens more suffered broken bones. (John Wayne was an extra on the film though he eluded injury.) The incident led to the first stunt regulations in Hollywood though they proved to be anemic.
The Screen Actors Guild was created in 1933. The union focused on reducing financial exploitation of actors. Language included fair compensation, elimination of oppressive contracts and collective bargaining rights. There was a demand for minimum work hours but no emphasis on maximum work hours. Concern for safety or on-set accidents was virtually ignored by SAG until the 1980s.
It took concern over animal deaths to bring about the first significant film safety regulations. During production of the 1936 movie The Charge of the Light Brigade starring Errol Flynn, 25 horses were killed while filming the charge sequence. Once again director Michael Curtiz was involved. The tragedy was taken up by the U.S. Congress who passed legislation ensuring animal safety on future movies. This led to the familiar “No Animals were Harmed in the Making of this Film” disclaimer.
In the 1950s and 60s, the term “safety” on sets referred to moral content as enforced by the Hays Code. Filmmakers were concerned with avoiding sexuality, profanity, and scenes of overt violence that might not pass muster with the conservative Motion Picture Production Code.
The first Film Industry Safety Bulletins appeared in 1965. Administered by a non-profit group called the CSATF (Contract Services Administration Trust Fund), these toothless safety tips addressed concerns involving stunts, pyrotechnics and the use of dummy rounds in prop guns. The first bulletin regarding firearms stated that “live ammunition is never to be used or brought onto a set” and “all firearms should be treated as if they are loaded.” The statements were suggestions and not mandatory or binding.
In 1971, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act creating OSHA. This new federal agency monitors workplace safety standards for all American businesses including motion pictures. When a death occurs on a movie set, production is halted immediately and the area is secured as a crime scene. OSHA sends safety officers to investigate the death and decides if production can continue. OSHA has the power to shut down a film or fine producers for safety violations.
The practical problem with OSHA is that it relies on cast and crew to report unsafe working conditions. Given the aura of silence around most movies, safety warnings are rare. Crew members fear they’ll be fired if they say anything. OSHA usually only gets involved after an accident occurs. OSHA death benefits in California are capped at $320,000 per family for workers killed on the job. Only families with three or more dependents qualify for this amount.
One of the worst film tragedies occurred in 1982 on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Director John Landis was shooting a Vietnam War sequence involved a low-flying helicopter and multiple explosions. Vic Morrow carried two child actors (Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen) through a shallow river while Landis shouted for the helicopter to “get lower.” One of the special effects explosions struck the helicopter tail-rotor causing it to detach. The helicopter spun out of control and landed atop the three actors. All three were killed instantly. Morrow and Le were beheaded.
The Twilight Zone tragedy triggered major film industry reforms. Studios established safety committees to oversee dangerous scenes involving pyrotechnics, gunfire and aerial stunts. SAG and the DGA (Director’s Guild) set up a 24-hour safety hotline for crew members to report on-set danger. Actors were granted the right of refusal to perform scenes they felt were unsafe.
Landis and four other filmmakers were criminally charged and sued for wrongful deaths. After a 10-month trial, all five filmmakers were acquitted. The trial revealed that the two child actors had been hired without required permits and were paid under the table to avoid child labor laws. The victims’ families filed lawsuits against Warner Brothers. The civil suits were settled out of court for unspecified amounts.
Prop weapons have a long history of on-set accidents. The first movie gun death occurred on the 1915 film The Captive directed by Cecil B. DeMille. After filming a master shot with live rounds to increase realism, DeMille prepared for a closeup. In his memoir he wrote that “he instructed all extras to reload their guns with blanks.” One live bullet remained in a gun chamber and an extra was shot in the head and killed.
Prior to the 1980s, prop masters were responsible for maintaining weapons on film sets. Prop guns were procured from a weapons supplier such as Stembridge Gun Rentals who began working with film studios in 1920. For war movies, Stembridge purchased actual weapons from US and foreign armories. The equipment was disabled and converted to fire non-lethal projectiles. But a disabled prop gun could still be dangerous.
In 1984 on the set of the television show Cover Up, actor Jon Eric Hexum was killed with a prop gun filled with blanks. He was joking around during a break in filming when he pointed a .44 magnum prop gun at his own head. He pulled the trigger and the force of the blank cartridge propelled a quarter-sized bone fragment into his brain. He was rushed to the hospital but suffered massive brain hemorrhaging. He was placed on life support and died six days later.
Another prop gun tragedy occurred on the 1993 film The Crow. Actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was filming a scene where he was shot by thugs. The gun was supposed to be filled with an empty cartridge but the prop department instead used a “dummy round.” A dummy round is a replica of a real bullet without gunpowder or explosive charge. A fragment of the dummy round broke off and lodged in the gun chamber. When the gun was reloaded with blanks, gunpowder propelled the fragment into Lee’s abdomen. He was rushed to the hospital but died after six hours of surgery.
Lee’s death was deemed an accident caused by negligence. OSHA fined the production company Carolco $84,000 for unsafe working conditions. The penalty was later reduced to $55,000. The Crow grossed more than $50 million. Lee’s mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit later settled out of court. Stricter gun prop protocols were instituted after Lee’s death.
Prop guns have been supervised by licensed armorers since the 1980s. Armorers work under the prop master but armorers are solely responsible for the maintenance, loading and handling of all weapons on sets. They teach actors and extras how to correctly operate firearms. They inspect guns to make sure live rounds are not involved. Before a weapon is handed to an actor, the armorer shows the actor, first assistant director, stunt department and prop department that the gun chamber and barrel are clear.
After Brandon Lee’s death in 1993, there wasn’t another gun-involved film death until 2021. That changed on the indie western Rust filmed in New Mexico. While rehearsing a scene, actor Alec Baldwin was given a real gun. Baldwin pointed the gun directly toward the camera and the gun went off (Baldwin claims he did not pull the trigger). Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded. The gun had been deemed “cold” and safe to handle. Somehow a live round got into the chamber.
The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Baldwin, the film’s co-producer, was charged with involuntary manslaughter but his case was dismissed after prosecutors withheld key evidence. First Assistant Director Dave Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
Authorities never conclusively determined how a live round entered the gun. It’s likely that Gutierrez-Reed inadvertently mixed live ammunition with a batch of dummy rounds. This was only her second film as armorer and crew members felt she lacked experience. Baldwin didn’t adhere to the unspoken film set rule that a gun should never be pointed at any person during rehearsals or filming.
Amazingly, there’s no prohibition on using live guns with blanks on film productions. Quentin Tarantino staunchly defends the practice. He said, “Using digital VFX for muzzles flashes is like adding digital erections to porno movies.” A recent petition from Change.org seeks to ban the use of real guns in movies. The petition garnered more than 19,000 signatures from union actors and crew members. There have been no reported gun-related deaths on a film or television set since Rust.
According to the Associated Press, the worst decade for film set deaths was the 1980s. During that period, 37 crew members were killed. 24 of these deaths involved the use of helicopters. In the next three decades (1990–2021), 43 people died on film sets.
One would think the deadliest job on a film is stuntman. This isn’t the case. Between 2011–2021, two stuntmen were killed while four camera team members were killed. Camera operators are particularly vulnerable since they work in front of the action with nothing to protect them. They’re directly in harm’s way during action scenes like car chases. They’ve been killed in plane and helicopter crashes or crushed to death in camera truck rollovers.
In 2014, director Randall Miller was shooting a biopic about Gregg Allman called Midnight Rider. During a dream sequence scene, a hospital bed was placed on railroad tracks over a narrow bridge. Crew members were told they had 60 seconds to run to safety if a train appeared. They would have to run toward the speeding train to escape. Suddenly they heard the blaring horn of an oncoming freight train. Miller yelled for everyone to “run.” A 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Jones, while trying to save equipment, was unable to make it off the bridge. She was struck by the train and killed.
Jones’ death was the film industry’s highest profile fatality since the Twilight Zone tragedy. The production didn’t have proper permits and the film was never finished. Randall Miller pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and spent a year in jail. Jones’ parents, Richard and Elizabeth, established a movement called Safety for Sarah to help film sets become safer places to work.
Midnight Rider was a low-budget indie film. Big-budget productions aren’t immune to on-set accidents. In 1985, veteran aerial cameraman Art Scholl was filming a scene where Goose dies in Top Gun. He was flying an S-2 camera plane and executing a spinning maneuver when he radioed, “I’ve got a problem.” He lost control of the plane and crashed into the ocean killing him instantly. His body and the plane’s wreckage were never found. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the incident was an accident rather than a workplace safety violation. OSHA did not fine the production.
In 2012, OSHA fined Paramount Pictures $21,000 for the death of a crew member during production of G.I. Joe: Retaliation. (The film grossed $122 million in North America.) That same year, OSHA fined Walt Disney Studios $745 for safety violations related to the death of a crew member on The Avengers. After the death of a diver who drowned during production of The Lone Ranger in 2013, OSHA penalized Disney $61,445.
Not all production related deaths occur on film sets. In 1997, Brent Hershman was second assistant cameraman on Pleasantville. After working a 19-hour day, he drove home to Long Beach, crashed his car and was killed. In 2024, cameraman Rico Priem worked two consecutive 14-hour days on the television series 9–1–1. He suffered a heart attack while driving home, crashed his car and was killed.
Camera crew members belong to IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Members). During 2024 contract talks, IATSE union members attempted to spur new industry regulations regarding maximum work hours and on-set safety. No meaningful new rules were passed.
Most film productions now employ on-set safety advisors. They read scripts and offer plans for scenes involving stunts and pyrotechnics. They ensure the crew follow OSHA standards and abide by union protocols. They have the authority to halt productions if they see immediate danger.
A $100 million dollar action film costs nearly $200,000 per hour to make. Safety advisors report directly to producers or production managers. The high cost of filmmaking leads to intense pressure to keep the shooting schedule moving. In this environment, it’s difficult for a safety advisor to maintain his or her autonomy without facing backlash from executives. This means on-set deaths will be an unavoidable reality for film production into the future.