Ben-Hur stuntman death
David Barnes
Sorry if this is a tired UL. I've tried to find this in the FAQ and
elsewhere, and can't, so I'm posting here.
A friend said (and I'd heard this before) that a stuntman died during
the filming of Ben-Hur and that it's in the film. I thought it was just
an urban legend and he said no, there's even a comment at the end about
the film dedicated to someone, which he claims was the stuntman.
Could someone direct me to a source that can resolve this? Thanks.
-- Dave Barnes
Bo Bradham
We've had some threads about his lately, and some really good
information was posted. Rather than try to remember what the
outcome was I'll recommend you go to dejanews and find the old
articles. Look for the ones by Judy Johnson, she posted stuff she
found in some books.
The short answer is there was more than one Ben Hur film, and
someone did die while filming one of them (which is not all that
unusual in the action-movie bidness, and even more so 50 years
ago) but the final cut did not include footage of someone buying
the proverbial farm.
Bo Bradham
--
"If it's their mistake, tough. If it's our mistake we negotiate."
- Overheard
Judy Johnson
On Wed, 02 Apr 1997 15:10:19 -0800, David Barnes <david_...@hp.com>
wrote:
>Sorry if this is a tired UL. I've tried to find this in the FAQ and
>elsewhere, and can't, so I'm posting here.
>
>A friend said (and I'd heard this before) that a stuntman died during
>the filming of Ben-Hur and that it's in the film. I thought it was just
>an urban legend and he said no, there's even a comment at the end about
>the film dedicated to someone, which he claims was the stuntman.
You can find some research into this legend at:
http://www.best.com/~bmikkels/spoons/fracture/benhur.htm
Quick summary: no stunt deaths occurred in the 1959 version staring
Charlton Heston, but a chariot driver was killed [1] during filming of
the 1926 silent version in Rome. However, as far as I could tell,
none of the Rome footage was used in the final cut.
Judy the Stunted
[1] Plus dozens of poor horsies
snopes
David Barnes <david_...@hp.com> wrote:
> A friend said (and I'd heard this before) that a stuntman died during
> the filming of Ben-Hur and that it's in the film. I thought it was just
> an urban legend and he said no, there's even a comment at the end about
> the film dedicated to someone, which he claims was the stuntman.
> Could someone direct me to a source that can resolve this? Thanks.
The short answer is that yes, a stuntman died, but it was in the
1926 silent version, not the more famous 1959 epic.
Judy Johnson wrote a fine article about this which you can find at
http://www.snopes.com/spoons/fracture/benhur.htm
- snopes
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wal...@dnvn.com
> Sorry if this is a tired UL. I've tried to find this in the FAQ and
> elsewhere, and can't, so I'm posting here.
>
> A friend said (and I'd heard this before) that a stuntman died during
> the filming of Ben-Hur and that it's in the film. I thought it was just
> an urban legend and he said no, there's even a comment at the end about
> the film dedicated to someone, which he claims was the stuntman.
>
> Could someone direct me to a source that can resolve this? Thanks.
>
> -- Dave Barnes
No
But the Ben Hur death occured in the original film -- in black and white
and maybe silent not in the more recent version with Heston. A stuntman
was supposedly killed during the chariot race in that early film. Don't
know if it is supposedly in the film, but I doubt it.
k
JEL
Bo Bradham wrote:
>
> David Barnes <david_...@hp.com> wrote:
> >Sorry if this is a tired UL. I've tried to find this in the FAQ and
> >elsewhere, and can't, so I'm posting here.
> >
> >A friend said (and I'd heard this before) that a stuntman died during
> >the filming of Ben-Hur and that it's in the film. I thought it was just
> >an urban legend and he said no, there's even a comment at the end about
> >the film dedicated to someone, which he claims was the stuntman.
> >
> >Could someone direct me to a source that can resolve this? Thanks.
>
> information was posted. Rather than try to remember what the
> outcome was I'll recommend you go to dejanews and find the old
> articles. Look for the ones by Judy Johnson, she posted stuff she
> found in some books.
> The short answer is there was more than one Ben Hur film, and
> someone did die while filming one of them (which is not all that
> unusual in the action-movie bidness, and even more so 50 years
> ago) but the final cut did not include footage of someone buying
> the proverbial farm.
>
> Bo Bradham
> --
> "If it's their mistake, tough. If it's our mistake we negotiate."
> - Overheard
During the filming of the movie "How the West Was Won", one of the stunt
men was killed during the scene when the train with all the logs on it
broke free.
This scene IS shown in the movie. This is not a UL, either.
Barbara Mikkelson
JEL (jo...@mail.ime.net) wrote:
> During the filming of the movie "How the West Was Won", one of the stunt
> men was killed during the scene when the train with all the logs on it
> broke free.
I don't recall hearing of such a death. A stuntman by the name of Bob
Morgan did lose a leg during one of the train scenes and that was widely
reported -- could you be confusing this with that?
Barbara "stunted" Mikkelson
--
Barbara Mikkelson | I am unaware of any case in which questioning a
bmik...@best.com | dead accident victim created a conflict of interest.
| - snopes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
View a random urban legend --> http://www.snopes.com/cgi/randomul.cgi
Judy Johnson
On Thu, 03 Apr 1997 17:17:21 -0500, JEL <jo...@mail.ime.net> wrote:
>
>During the filming of the movie "How the West Was Won", one of the stunt
>men was killed during the scene when the train with all the logs on it
>broke free.
>
>This scene IS shown in the movie. This is not a UL, either.
Not quite. The stunt man was not killed, but injured severely, and
the accident occurred AFTER the scene was shot. Here's what I had the
last time we had this come up:
[begin repost]
According to John Baxter's "Stunt: The Story of the Great Movie Stunt
Men" (1973), the stunt man in this highly publicized incident was Bob
Morgan, husband of actress Yvonne de Carlo. Morgan was doubling for
George Peppard, and had completed his shots in the scene. He was
resting on the edge of the flat car used in the scene, and the
fibreglass logs suddenly shifted, dumping him on the tracks. His
injuries occurred when the axles rolled him under, but was able to
push the truck bodily off the rails. Morgan lost a leg, bones from
his spine and had his face disfigured. I'm not sure if he ever was
able to get back into actual stunt work with these injuries, maybe he
did a lot of pirate movies.
[end repost]
I've found little evidence that any accidental stunt deaths have ever
made it to the screen, at least in talkies. During the silent era,
deaths of stunt performers were hushed up, so it's not as easy to
research.
Judy "cinemaniac" Johnson
Bob Church
In article <5i1g3t$aj8$1...@nntp1.ba.best.com>
bmik...@best.com (Barbara Mikkelson) writes:
>
> I don't recall hearing of such a death. A stuntman by the name of Bob
> Morgan did lose a leg during one of the train scenes and that was widely
> reported -- could you be confusing this with that?
>
> Barbara "stunted" Mikkelson
I wonder if Joe Svec's death would count in this category? In the movie
'The Right Stuff', just after Yeager has punched out of the F104 there
are scenes where smoke is coming from his helmet and scenes where it
isn't as he freefalls towards a cloud layer. In reality, Yeagers helmet
was breached and had a nasty fire from being hit by the molten end of
the ejection seat.
The scenes with the smoke were Svec. For reality, he wasn't wearing an
altimeter, had unfamiliar gear and, of course, a smoke cannister hooked
to his helmet. He went into the clouds and his body was found with no
apparent attempt to deploy his canopy. They needed more than the one
shot, and BJ Worth finished the shooting. He passed on the smoke
cannister.
So, Svec died on the jump, but I'm not sure if it counts as being in
the film since you don't see him after he enters the clouds.
Bob Church
Bret Latshaw
In article <33442C...@mail.ime.net>, jo...@mail.ime.net says...
>During the filming of the movie "How the West Was Won", one of the stunt
>men was killed during the scene when the train with all the logs on it
>broke free.
Nope, he wasn't killed.
>This scene IS shown in the movie.
Nope, the scene isn't in the movie.
>This is not a UL, either.
I wouldn't presume to judge such a thing.
The stuntman was Bob Morgan, the husband of actress Yvonne DeCarlo.
The flatcar of logs was rigged with a device called a "fifth wheel",
which allowed the special effects crew to mechanically swing the logs in
and out of place during filming.
Got a tissue handy? Here's some melodramatic eyewitness testimony:
Ours was the last action shot filmed. We finished, and the train
began to back slowly down the ravine.
"I'm walking back," I called to Bob, and jumped off the flatcar.
"Suit yourself," he waved, and rode past still standing on the
log car. That was the last I saw of him in one piece.
The logs were still off-center, and someone up front was unaware
that Bob was still on the car. No one ever admitted pushing the
button to the fifth wheel, but the fact remains that I looked away
for an instant, and when I looked up again, the logs were shifting
back into a straight position. Bob never knew what hit him.
[...several paragraphs of grisly details omitted...]
I called Yvonne. "How's he doing?" I asked. "They had to take his
leg, you know." She choked up for a moment, took a deep breath, and
continued. "He's strong, Chuck, you know how strong he is. He'll
live, but I just don't know how he will take it when he knows he's
lost his leg." She cried then, and all the things I wanted to say
just left me.
-- Stuntman "Bad Chuck" Roberson's autobiography, _The Fall Guy :
30 Years as the Duke's Double_, ISBN 0-88839-036-X.
I don't normally read those trashy Hollywood biographies, but this was
in the bargain bin.