15 Times Hollywood Stars Nearly Lost Their Lives While Trying To Perfect Their Film Roles

Hollywood is famous for glamour, but some of its biggest performances came with near-death chaos. Jason Statham’s action hero swagger almost ended in disaster on The Expendables 3, and Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly moment in Back to the Future nearly turned into a real-life suffocation problem.

Then you’ve got Johnny Depp getting stomped and dragged after a horse mishap on The Lone Ranger, Daniel Day-Lewis pushing method acting so hard on Gangs of New York that pneumonia nearly became the end of him. Even Jennifer Lawrence got caught in a horror-style accident when a malfunctioning fog machine threatened to choke her during The Hunger Games, and the situation snowballed fast.

These weren’t movie magic moments, they were “hold your breath” incidents, and the details are way more terrifying than the final scenes.

1. During the shooting, Jason Statham barely died on the sets of The Expendables 3

Luckily for Statham, the actor knew how to swim and managed to get out of the truck and swim back to safety. His co-stars Sylvester Stallone and Terry Crews panicked during the incident and both applauded Statham’s ability to handle the dreadful situation.

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2. Michael J. Fox nearly died while portraying his most famous role, Marty McFly, in the Back to the Future series

He was definitely suffocating when Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen hanged his character. Due to the misplacement of his hands during the stunt, Fox was actually hung by a noose.

And the film crew didn’t realize the unfortunate predicament until he passed out for about 30 seconds.

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3. Johnny Depp barely escaped death while shooting The Lone Ranger

The actor fell off a galloping horse and was stomped and dragged for nearly 30 yards through the desert. Fortunately, he didn’t suffer any severe injuries.

The director, Gore Verbinski, revealed to the New York Post that Johnny Depp suffered one of the scariest accidents he’s ever seen.

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4. Daniel Day-Lewis, undoubtedly the most outstanding method actor, nearly ended his life while filming Gangs of New York

Set in 1846, the movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio, but supporting actor Day-Lewis stole the spotlight. Daniel Day-Lewis would stay in character while hanging out in bars with sharp knives even when he was not on set.

He didn’t wear a warm jacket during the rain because it was not period-accurate, and he developed pneumonia. Because of his method, Day-Lewis refused to take medications for it since they were not available in 1846.

Luckily, he was finally persuaded to undergo medical treatment once he learned he would die without it.

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5. Jennifer Lawrence was on the verge of being choked to death by a malfunctioning fog machine while filming the first installment of The Hunger Games

Unfortunately, the fog machine broke, and the subsequent overload created dense smoke that made the cast members scarcely visible. All the actors, including Lawrence, began coughing aggressively but narrowly survived suffocation.

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6. During Isla Fisher’s drowning scene in Now You See Me, she unfortunately got stuck and was in the water tank for about three minutes

The actress hit the water tank to signal the crew about her situation, but they did not react since that was exactly what her character was supposed to do. Fortunately, Fisher managed to get out of the tank without any injuries.

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7. When it comes to Sylvester Stallone, he has also experienced a dreadful situation

To bring the scene of the boxing match between his character Rocky and Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago in Rocky IV to life, he requested the latter to punch him as hard as possible. Lundgren struck Stallone in the chest, causing his heart to swell.

After that, Stallone struggled to breathe, and his blood pressure reached 200. The actor was later flown to Saint John’s Regional Medical Center in Santa Monica, where he spent eight days recovering in intensive care.

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8. The 2005 sci-fi movie Æon Flux scarcely favors the career of Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron

Still, the actress suffered a gruesome injury during the shooting. While performing a backflip for a stunt, she sadly landed on her neck and was nearly paralyzed.

The film crew was halted for eight weeks so that Theron could recover from her injury.

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Speaking of deadly sets, Todd Meadows, a Deadliest Catch star, passed away at 25 during a filming incident.

9. Margaret Hamilton played one dramatic set in Munchkinland, which could have been fatal

The flames required for the scene reacted with the actress’s green-colored, copper-based face paint, causing disastrous results. Hamilton suffered second and third-degree burns on her face from the flames and had to spend three months recovering from the catastrophic injury before returning to the movie.

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10. Martin Sheen had a nervous breakdown and a near-fatal heart attack when he was on set

Apocalypse Now was regarded as one of the movies infamous for its troubled production. The harsh shooting conditions took a tremendous toll on leading movie star Martin Sheen.

“I completely fell apart. My spirit was exposed. I cried and cried. I turned completely gray; my eyes, my beard, all gray. I was in intensive care.”

Sheen had to take a rest for the following six weeks, and his brother Joe Estevez took the role as a replacement.

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11. Eli Wallach almost died three times while filming The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Sergio Leone is a brilliant director, but he has been criticized for putting his actors in danger. It required Wallach to have his neck in a noose, sitting on a horse, with his hands tied behind his back.

Unfortunately, the loop broke, and the horse ran off a mile away. The actor had to balance himself on the horse without the use of his hands.

Wallach accidentally drank acid from a bottle placed near his soda by a crew member. Later, he was taken to the hospital.

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12. Tom Cruise has had numerous near-death experiences since he started his acting career

One of them occurred during a scene in Mission: Impossible - Fallout. He nearly killed himself while filming an iconic helicopter scene. In that scene, Cruise was required to lose his grip on a helicopter.

Later, he fell onto the cargo lifted by it. Although he had a safety harness, it was a challenging stunt that could have ended the actor’s life.

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13. Jackie Chan is always willing to perform his own stunts.

While shooting Armour of God, he jumped from a wall to a tree branch that snapped, resulting in a nasty fall of five meters. His head collided with a rock, breaking his skull and requiring immediate surgery.

Due to the unfortunate stunt, Chan has slight hearing loss in one of his ears and a permanent hole in his head associated with a plastic plug.

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14. Viggo Mortensen, best known for his character Aragorn in The Lord of The Rings, barely survived many times during his challenging shoot

Mortensen broke two toes when he kicked a helmet, literally drowned due to his overly heavy armor, and swung his sword to block a real knife when a fellow actor accidentally threw it straight at him.

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15. Ed Harris nearly drowned during the shooting of The Abyss in 1989

It was only when a cameraman intervened that he saved Harris’s life. Due to the strenuous shooting, he later had a breakdown and cried.

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Statham’s truck-soaked panic on The Expendables 3 set the tone, because the next close call is just as physical but somehow even more personal.

Right after you think Michael J. Fox’s noose stunt is the worst part of Back to the Future, Johnny Depp goes and gets launched off a galloping horse on The Lone Ranger.

And while Depp’s desert stomp was brutal, Daniel Day-Lewis nearly paid the ultimate price for method acting on Gangs of New York, all because he refused to break character.

Then Jennifer Lawrence takes the spotlight in The Hunger Games, when the fog machine malfunction turns a controlled set effect into a suffocation threat.

Many well-known actors and actresses have come dangerously close to losing their lives while creating art, whether it was due to actors who overdid their performances, simple blunders with set props, or unpredictably bad accidents. In fact, accidents can occur in peculiar and unanticipated ways, making it impossible for anyone to ensure the complete safety of actors.

Hollywood didn’t just risk their careers, it risked their lives for the shot.

After Todd Meadows died during filming on Deadliest Catch, his mother demanded answers from producers.