The stories behind 12 actors who couldn’t complete their roles in their
last feature films
Many individuals may believe that acting is one of the poshest professions in the world due to red carpets, accolades, celebrity friendships, and million dollar salaries. Meanwhile, some individuals believe that acting is a risky profession.
Considering the dangers that actors who play brave adventurers, soldiers, or fictional heroes in movies may encounter, including death. Then, to help performers overcome the hazards, the producers use special effects or hire stuntmen. However, occasionally the movie’s compelling atmosphere cannot be captured by special effects or stuntmen. As a result, protagonists arrive and go to work.
Additionally, actors’ final scenes could have a personal motivation. In any case, these mishaps make it difficult to complete the film. The development of the film is directly impacted by these happenings. Today, we’ve put together a list of famous people who unfortunately passed away while they were making their last movies, along with the tales behind each one.
#1 James Dean: Giant
Actor James Dean passed away on September 30, 1955, when he was 24 years old, close to Cholame, California.
James Dean had only appeared as the lead in one theatrically released motion picture when he passed away unexpectedly on September 30, 1955, at the age of 24. Due to his tragic death in a car accident that made international news headlines, he would go on to become a cinema star.
To complete the vocal performance of Dean’s character, Jett Rink, the movie’s editor sought for Nick Adams, a young actor who was Dean’s best friend and former roommate.
You can see the banquet scene from Giant here:
#2 Heather O’Rourke: Poltergeist III
After the unexpected passing of a 12-year-old actress, a 1980s favourite was dubbed Hollywood’s most “cursed” movie. An abrupt intestinal obstruction caused Heather O’Rourke to pass away on February 1st, 1988 at the Children’s Hospital and Health Center in San Diego, California.
She underwent surgery for a congenital blockage. From another local hospital, an urgent flight was taken to the hospital.
The studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, informed the filmmaker that they had a legal obligation to complete the project. The cast and crew resisted having to keep shooting without O’Rourke. Sherman said that it felt disrespectful to her family and the memory of her recently deceased mother. Finally, a body was hired, and the movie was done.
You can see the ending of Poltergeist III here:
#3 River Pheonix: Dark Blood
At the age of 23, River Phoenix passed away on October 31, 1993, in West Hollywood, California, from “acute multiple drug intoxication involving fatal doses of cocaine and morphine.”
Phoenix had returned to Los Angeles to finish filming the remaining inside sequences for “Dark Blood,” a thriller with Judy Davis and Jonathan Pryce that was being directed by George Sluizer and was about 80% complete when Phoenix passed away that evening outside The Viper Room.
The “Dark Blood” footage was seized by an insurance firm after Phoenix passed away and kept in a vault for many years. 2012 saw the completion and publication of Dark Blood.
You can see the trailer for Dark Blood here:
#4 Chris Farley: Shrek
The voice of Shrek was going to be provided by Chris Farley, who passed away on December 18, 1997, at the age of 33 after accidentally taking too much speedball.
Before his terrible passing, he virtually finished recording his dialogue in the role of the original green ogre. Dreamworks Studios, however, made the decision to recast the part with Mike Myers.
If he had lived to finish his role in Shrek, the prickly yet endearing green ogre would have sounded very different. The producer chose to recast the character, which resulted in the movie’s production costing millions of dollars.
You can see “lost footage” of Chris Farley’s recordings for Shrek here:
#5 Aaliyah: The Matrix Reloaded
Aaliyah, a singer and cast member of The Matrix Reloaded, perished when the plane she was in crashed in the Bahamas. When the twin-engine Cessna crashed 200 feet from the end of the runway on its way to Florida, the 22-year-old actress and seven other passengers perished.
One of the most significant films of the 1990s was The Matrix, but its sequels almost had pop diva Aaliyah in them. Here’s why her part was changed.
The part of Zee- Link’s (Harold Perrineau) wife had been assigned to Aaliyah. She completed all the senses for Reloaded before the movie’s filming even began in March 2001. However, Aaliyah had not yet completed any Revolutions-related filming. Finally, filmmakers Lilly and Lana Wachowski chose Nona Gaye to replace Zee (daughter of Marvin Gaye).
You can see behind-the-scenes footage of Aaliyah on set here:
#6 Natalie Wood: Brainstorm
At the age of 43, Natalie Wood drowned off the shore of Catalina Island in California on November 29, 1981.
Natalie Wood her away on a boat cruise, just as director Douglas Trumbull was about to wrap up the tense and problematic 1981 filming for his movie Brainstorm. In order to finish the movie, Wood’s sister Lana filled in for a few “long shots and shaded profiles.”
Ironically, Louise Fletcher’s character, who records her own death on the device, was the third individual whose death the plot of the movie revolved around. Wood’s performance was nearly finished, so Trumbull was eventually able to make minor adjustments, reshoot a few scenes, and release the movie in 1983.
You can see the ending of Brainstorm here:
#7 Philip Seymour Hoffman: Hunger Games: Mockingjay
Hoffman passed away on February 2, 2014, in a Greenwich Village apartment. At the age of 46, Hoffman died from a lethal combination of narcotics that also included heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and sedatives.
Watching a movie with an actor who passed away while filming and anticipating their absence has become a common experience. The shooting schedule was altered following Hoffman’s passing. To hide his absence, a minor amount of digital trickery was done with the actor’s previously shot video.
You can see an extended scene with Hoffman from Mockingjay here:
#8 Brandon Lee: The Crow
Halyna Hutchins’ terrible death on the set of “Rust” from an incident with a toy gun has been compared to Brandon Lee’s tragic death on the set of “The Crow” 29 years prior. He passed away on March 31, 1993, at the age of 28.
The Oakland native had already acted in the successful film “Legacy of Rage,” where he played Detective Johnny Murata opposite Oscar-winning actor Dolph Lundgren, whose acting career was cruelly cut short.
Numerous special effects were employed to complete Lee’s work, and his death was found to have been an accident because of negligence. For instance, “For a few sequences, like the one where Eric dons his spooky makeup for the first time … (stunt performer) Chad Stahelski stood in for Lee during shooting.”
You can see one of the “digitally grafted” faces scenes here:
#9 Heath Ledger: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Ledger passed away on January 22, 2008, in a Soho flat (London- England). He allegedly passed away from “an unintentional overdose of prescription pharmaceuticals, including painkillers, sleeping aids, and anti-anxiety drugs,” according to the chief medical examiner. Age-wise, he was 28.
Finding a replacement for Ledger in the remaining sequences was of utmost importance to the film’s creator, director, and co-writer Gilliam. They ultimately decided on not one, but three replacements: Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell. He recalls adding that there was “no one actor who could replace Heath and what he’s doing in the film.” Depp joined the project afterward, portraying “transformations” of his role to finish the movie.
You can see behind-the-scenes footage of Heath:
#10 Oliver Reed: Gladiator
At the age of 61, Oliver Reed passed away in Malta on May 2, 1999, from a heart attack.
Reed was given a part in the Gladiator movie. He reportedly fell while drinking with his wife and friends in a tavern in Valetta, Malta. One of them, screenwriter David Franzoni, recalled that Reed had challenged a group of sailors to a drinking contest in a Malta pub just before he passed away.
“Two scenes were shot that would finish Proximo’s storyline,” claims Looper. The first prisoner that Proximo sees is Maximus, whose Commodus uncovered plan to flee and rejoin his still-faithful legions. … During the shot, a stand-in was utilised, and after the fact, special impact house The actor’s face was digitally grafted onto the stand-body in’s by The Mill using additional video of Reed.
In the second scenario, Proximo stands by while Maximus is attacked and slain by the Praetorian Guard. For this sequence, alternate footage of Reed from an earlier scene was digitally manipulated and added to the frame for one section, and another stand-in was photographed from behind for another.
You can see “digital Proximo” here:
#11 Bruce Lee: The Game of Death
The Game of Death, Bruce Lee’s final motion picture, is an unfinished Hong Kong martial arts film that was shot between August and October 1972. Bruce Lee directed, wrote, produced, and starred in it. Lee passed away while the movie was being made.
The New York Times reports that brain edema was first suspected as Lee’s cause of death. Other hypotheses, like one put out by historian Matthew Polly who thinks Lee passed away from heatstroke, have emerged over time, though.
Before his passing, Lee had begun work on a movie called Game of Death but had taken a short break to begin work on Enter the Dragon, his first Hollywood-produced movie (which would also become his only Hollywood film). Soon after his return to Game of Death, Lee passed away, and although though Lee had only shot about 40 minutes of the film, Screen Rant reports that “The project was abandoned…but a few years later, Golden Harvest chose to release the movie nonetheless.” In order to get around this reality, the plot of the movie was changed, stand-ins for Lee were played by actors, and footage from some of Lee’s earlier movies was reused.
You can see the Game of Death funeral scene with Lee’s face in the casket here:
#12 Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen: The Twilight Zone: The Movie
On July 23, 1982, Morrow, 53, passed away when he was filming a mock battle scenario in Vietnam close to Santa Clarita, California.
Slate claims that the actor was driven into a river by the Dorcey Wingo’s chopper as the cameras started rolling. The child who was present when this scene occurred was killed by the aircraft’s right skid. The chopper then overturned, and Morrow was cut in half by its main blade.
Morrow’s character then went back to Nazi. John Landis, the director, tried to incorporate a lot of special effects and altered the pilot (Wingo) for the tragic incident.
You can watch the beginning of Segment One here:
#13 Finally, Paul Walker: Fast & Furious 7
Walker and his driving companion Roger Rodas perished in a single-car collision in Valencia, California, on November 30, 2013. He was in his forties.
Because the brothers were so similar in style and demeanour when Paul portrayed his character, Letteri claims that the producers chose to use older video of Walker as a reference the most. Adding to the difficulty, many of these shots featured dialogue, which the film’s sound editors had to add by using already-recorded dialogue by Walker. Letteri also discussed the creation of Walker’s CGI face and how the movie’s VFX artists had to be particularly careful to avoid the result ending up in the “uncanny valley” (for example, when a digitally produced human seems uncannily similar to its real-life counterpart) is nearly accurate, but just off to make it unconvincing rather than creepy). Even if the end result wasn’t perfect, it was still incredibly impressive when you consider the significant challenges the movie’s VFX artists had to face.
It all came to a climax in the climactic sequence of Fast & Furious 7, as Dom and Brian have one more “race,” but are much more interested in just enjoying their time riding together, shortly before coming to a fork in the road and going off in different directions. Walker had an unquestionably moving send-off, which Diesel even went so far as to call “the best moment in movie history.”
You can see a breakdown of the VFX used to complete Walker’s performance here: