Sometimes movies can be very dangerous to make. A very good example of this is the movie “The Conqueror”, made in 1956. Scores of people died after the movie was finished including Wayne himself and these people were said to have died from making the movie. How is this possible? There were 220 people who worked on the set and as of the early 1980s 91 already had cancer. The producers of the movie needed sand and lots of it, so they has sand shipped in from Nevada. No one bothered to check if the sand had any radioactive material in it. Nevada was where atom bomb tests had been conducted. It is said tons of radioactive sand contributed to many if not all of these deaths. On top of this the movie was very bad and many call it the worst movie John Wayne ever made.

When a movie is made, realism is one of the main goals. Today CGI or Computer generated imagery is used in most modern movies to depict dangerous scenes such as asteroid hits, planets blowing up and even dams bursting. There was no CGI in the 1920s and film makers wanted to make a film about Noah’s Ark and that was the name of it. You couldn’t have a movie about this without the great flood could you? Hundreds of thousands of gallons of water were ordered for the great flood scene. Unfortunately it was far too real and three extras died and many others had to be treated. Dozens of ambulances had to be called to the lot.

All you Vin Diesel fans probably remember the XXX films. A third one is being made. Some are very surprised at the prospect since there was a death during the filming of XXX. Vin Diesel’s stunt double was Harry O’Connor a very well-known skydiver who was also a stuntman. During a scene where Diesel paraglides under a bridge in Prague, O’Connor was said to hit his head when he went into the Palacky bridge at high speed. He died immediately.

A famous movie from the early 1940s was “They Died With Their Boots On”. Errol Flynn starred in it and was a famous action hero of the period. The movie was about George Armstrong Custer. It was historical inaccurate, but was a box office hit. The movie featured a cavalry charge and one extra was riding on a horse next to Flynn. The horse tripped and the extra realizing he was going to fall tossed his sword in front of him, but unfortunately it landed handle first and stuck in the ground. When the extra fell forward he was impaled on the sword. Two other extras died during the making of this film.

Even Walt Disney movies have had their share of deaths and injuries. In 2000 an animated film was produced named “Dinosaur”. The film also was coupled with backdrops from the real world which caused a disaster. As the backdrops were being filmed the camera boom hit a power line electrocuting the cameraman.

In 1974 H.B. Halicki had started to film “Gone In 60 Seconds”. Yes this is way before the Nicholas Cage movie. Halicki had been known for the amount of car crashes in his films. A scene was being prepared where a car would knock down a water tower. There was cables holding the tower up and one of them snapped allowing the tower to tumble over. The tower hit a nearby telephone pole which in turn fell on Halicki killing him instantly. The movie was never finished.

When the movie “Top Gun” was being filmed a famous stunt pilot was hired. His name was Art Scholl and he had filmed stunts in many famous movies such as “The Right Stuff” and others. He was performing an aerial stunt when his plane experienced a problem. He shouted over the radio he had a real problem and then his plane crashed into the sea and was never found.

The movie “Midnight Rider” had its problems, not the least of which was a crew which had been responsible for a tragedy. One of the scenes was on a railroad track. The crew was said to have never applied for permission to film on the railroad’s property, but even worse only one minute of warning was given when a train was coming and it wasn’t enough to save the life of a young actress. This disturbed so many people including Gregg Allman who the movie was about that he withdrew his permission to make it and the movie was cancelled.

Brandon Lee was the son of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee died young and so did Brandon. While filming the movie “The Crow” in 1994 he was starring in a scene where he gets shot. There has been a lot said about this scene. Some say a real gun with bullets in it was mistakenly in with the props while other claim a gun firing blanks caused the death. They claim the gun was not cleaned properly and there was a piece of metal in the barrel which flew into the chest of Brandon Lee killing him. Whatever the reason Brandon Lee's death was a tragedy.

“Catch 22” was a famous book which was later turned into a movie. The movie was made in 1970 and in one scene the second unit director named John Jordan was directing from a vintage airplane. You know what those planes looked like, they had open cockpits. Jordan had been told to use a harness, but he refused. Big mistake, because he was sucked right out of the plane and died.

There are plenty of movies I could have listed and maybe will in the future, but movies don’t have a monopoly on people dying during production. People have died recording television shows and even on the stage. Guess what, people have even died during radio shows.