Topics: Film and TV, True crime, Celebrity
Actor Vic Morrow had chilling last words before he died in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
In 1982, production on a film adaptation of the popular science fiction anthology TV series was underway. Morrow, who rose to fame in the ABC drama series Combat! in the 1960s, was cast in one of the lead roles.
During the filming of a segment directed by John Landis, on July 23, 1982 at around 2:30 a.m., Morrow was killed along with two child actors, Myca Dinh Le, seven, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, six, when a helicopter that was being used in a scene being filmed at Indian Dunes, in Valencia, California, crashed.
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Six passengers were injured in the accident.
The helicopter crash led to years of civil and criminal action against the personnel overseeing the shoot, including Landis. The scene was meant to be set during the Vietnam War in which Morrow’s character, a loudmouth racist named Bill Connor, is transported back in time. The night scene called for Morrow’s character to carry the two children out of a deserted village and across a river while being chased by American soldiers in a hovering helicopter.
The sequence was ‘poorly planned’ and ‘barely rehearsed’, The New York Times reports, which led to one of the explosions damaging the rotor blades on the aircraft, causing the pilot to lose control. The helicopter crashed into the river and decapitated Morrow and Le, while crushing Chen to death.
Morrow had an eerie suspicion that he would be involved in a helicopter crash years before it happened. While filming Dirty Mary Crazy Larry in 1973, he insisted on having a one million dollar life insurance policy before he would shoot any scenes involving the helicopter he was meant to ride in. When asked, he reportedly said: "I have always had a premonition I was going to die in a helicopter crash!"
Shortly before filming the scene that would ultimately claim his claim, he allegedly told a production assistant: "I must be out of my mind to be doing this. I should've asked for a stunt double. What can they do but kill me, right?!"
Morrow was the father of two children, daughters Carrie Ann Morrow and actor Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Landis and four other defendants, including the helicopter pilot Dorsey Wingo, were acquitted of involuntary manslaughter after a trial that lasted nearly nine months. The parents of Le and Chen sued and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Twilight Zone: The Movie was released in June 1983 to mixed reviews.
