Building a Billion: do you Know how to make Serious Money?
Ironically, Power died almost literally with a sword in his hand. It was Nov. 11, 1958. After the eighth take of a fight scene in “Solomon and Sheba,” he began to tremble, complaining of aches and chills. Chaibancha stayed in boxing shape and took pride in performing his own stunts. Although he appeared in romances and musicals, it was as an action-adventure hero that he became a Thai household name, and a national treasure. Even the queen of Thailand declared herself a fan. Strikingly tall, dark and handsome, he landed his first role in his early 20s. Movie magic quickly ensued. Mitr Chaibancha first found fame as a champ of Thai boxing.
Locklear’s celebrity quickly led to stardom in another burgeoning entertainment field: motion pictures. Either blinded by the lights or losing his bearings, Locklear crashed and was killed on impact. The movie studio rushed the film into release, including footage of the fatal crash. Searchlights, needed for filming in the dark, were to have been turned off so that Locklear would be able to see and safely pull out of the dive. It was Thanksgiving Day 1923 on location in San Antonio, Texas, and Martha Mansfield (born Martha Erlich, also known as Martha Early) had a lot to be thankful for. But for some reason, they were not. He was 28 years old.
Brandon Lee was just 8 years old when his father, the martial artist and actor Bruce Lee, died at the age of 32. Lee grew up to be an actor but, like his father, died young. The real-life story behind his death while filming 1993’s “The Crow” reads like skillfully plotted fiction: a chain of minor lapses in judgment ends in the death of an innocent victim. It began when the prop crew, untrained in firearms, rigged up homemade “dummies” – harmless, disarmed bullets used for close-up shots of a loaded gun – because they didn’t have any proper ones on-set. The crew removed bullets, emptied the gunpowder and then placed the now-empty bullets back in the gun.
Filmmakers employ stuntmen and expensive digital effects to make the onscreen action seem harrowing and dangerous, but sometimes that danger is all too real. Filmmakers have long courted disaster to create a dramatic scene. The sequence in “Forrest Gump,” for instance, in which Forrest flees the strafing of enemy choppers in Vietnam, was digitally created at a fraction of the cost and risk to human life. Fortunately, technology is increasingly reducing or eliminating the need to stage such too-close-for-comfort calculations. Like any profession, working in film presents its own unique risks.
What’s more, both Landis and the Warner Bros. The movie was released in 1983 and was a box-office success. It was a fateful decision. Still, he accepted the challenge. Kinnear’s family sued the production company, and witnesses’ testimony revealed the pressure actors and crew members felt to cut corners and keep quiet regarding safety on the set. Kinnear died in the hospital one day later. Like Vic Morrow’s death six years earlier, the accident shone a spotlight on the darker side of moviemaking. Though not life-threatening, the injury was complicated by internal bleeding. Kinnear was thrown from his horse and fractured his pelvis.
