the list of 9 for october 2, 2006:
NINE MOVIE STARS WHO DIED DURING PRODUCTION
It's never too early to start celebrating Halloween, and this list is a spooky tribute to those famous Hollywood actors who, while plying their craft, kicked the bucket - sometimes even while the cameras were rolling. (And while Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin would be a good addition to this list, I'm not technically considering him a film actor.)
- John Candy. The lovable fat funnyman leaves behind ananemic number of good films: perhaps when all is considered, only Stripes, Splash andPlanes, Trains & Automobiles will be remembered as fondly as Candy is. He died while makingthe execrable Wagons East! - not the best legacy.
- Brandon Lee. More poignant - and horrifying - is theaccidental shooting death of Lee during filming of a scene in The Crow, which was ironicallyabout a murdered man coming back from the dead to seek vengeance on the bad guys.
- Bela Lugosi. Much mirth has been made out of Ed Wood'sridiculous attempts to "replace" his old friend Lugosi with a stand-in during production of Plan9 from Outer Space, after the pathetic drug addict from Hungary died after filming just onescene. It took Martin Landau's fine performance as Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood to returna degree of humanity to this once-great star's final days.
- Natalie Wood. Wood died after her scenes for the 1983 scifi drama Brainstorm were filmed, in a drowning accident that still carries with it a whiffof mystery and suspicion. More irony: the climax of Brainstorm was of a dying woman (notplayed by Wood but by Louise Fletcher) recording her own transition to the afterlife for others toexperience. A weird note: I have actually visited the graves of these first four names on this list.
- Oliver Reed. The hard-partying actor succumbed to aweakened heart while filming Ridley Scott's Gladiator; reportedly it cost the production $3million to digitally recreate Reed's face in scenes he hadn't shot yet; his own salary hadbeen a third of that.
- Vic Morrow. Sadly, Morrow is probably best known today forhis gruesome death - decapitation by helicopter - during the filming of Twilight Zone: TheMovie. While the bulk of his work was for TV, however, his best performance remains his first:as the sadistic teenage thug in the 1955 feature Blackboard Jungle. Daughter Jennifer JasonLeigh inherited his acting chops.
- Gloria Foster. As the charismatic "Oracle" character in The Matrix, Foster had almost completed all her scenes in The Matrix Reloaded when diabetes took her. She was replaced by actress Mary Alice in the third Matrix installment. Coincidentally, another Matrix-related death was that of rising star Aaliyah, who was set to appear in The Matrix Reloaded before she was killed in a plane crash - just a month before Foster died.
- Jean Harlow. One of the silver screen's most luminousstars, Harlow died well before her time (at the age of 26) while filming Saratoga - herdeath, at the height of her fame, made Saratoga the biggest hit of 1937.
- Tyrone Power. Another legend from Hollywood's golden age,Power was appearing in Solomon and Sheba (opposite Gina Lollobrigida) when he collapsedduring a dueling scene with future suicide George Sanders. He was replaced by Yul Brynner - whohad to wear a wig in order to match Power's already-filmed scenes - and it is Brynner who iscredited in the film, not Power.
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