13 Actors Who Actually Died While Filming A Movie

It’s hard to imagine an actor passing away while working on a movie, and the arrangements that follow must be very complicated. Many people don’t know which actors passed away during filming.

These movies are special because they capture the final moments of these actors, making them worth watching again. Some passed away from natural causes, while others had more mysterious or unusual circumstances that might need some explanation.

You might be surprised to learn that some of your favorite actors died while working on their last movie. Although these situations are very sad, their movies remain as a way to remember them, making those films even more meaningful.

Here, we’ll look at 13 actors who passed away during the making of their final movies, what happened, and the films they were working on.

1. Chris Farley: Shrek

In reality, Farley had died of a cocaine and morphine overdose on December 18, 1997. At the age of 33, he was discovered dead in his apartment.

Originally, he was going to be the voice of Shrek, but then he died, so they cast Mike Myers..

Here’s a look into Farley’s recordings for Shrek here:

2. Heather O’Rourke: Poltergeist III

Heather passed away on February 1, 1988, due to acute bowel obstruction and septic shock. Even though she had wrapped filming, the film was still in post-production when she died.

Director desperately tried to delay completing the film as he said it was in bad taste for her and her family, but he was locked in to continue the film shoot.

You can see the end of Poltergeist III here:

3. James Dean: Giant

On September 30, 1955, a 24-year-old James Dean died in a car accident. Technically Dean had completed all of his filming for the movie Giant but had to go in for what are called “sweetening” on the sound, something he couldn’t do following his death.

Here’s a popular scene from the movie Giant that he played in.

This scene is actually the one he was supposed to come back and fix the audio for.

4. Natalie Wood: Brainstorm

Natalie Wood died on November 29, 1981, drowning off Catalina Island, Calif. It should be noted that by the time Natalie died, she was in the midst filming her movie Brainstorm — the details and aftermath surrounding her death is littered with mystery.

Numerous suspects have been considered over the years including her actual spouse and the Brainstorm actor who portrayed her husband.

You can see the ending of Brainstorm here:

5. River Pheonix: Dark Blood

On October 31, 1993, Pheonix died from drug intoxication from the combination of cocaine and lethally high levels of morphine. Pheonix had approximately one month of filming remaining for Dark Blood and he had also just booked a role as a reporter in Interview With The Vampire

Here’s the trailer for Dark Blood.

6. Aaliyah: The Matrix Reloaded

In the Bahamas on August 25, 2001, Aaliyah died alongside eight others when their small plane crashed. Aaliyah had shot all of her scenes for The Matrix Reloaded but since Reloaded and Revolutions were a back-to-back shoot and she hadn’t shot any of Revolutions yet after her death, her role would have to be recast for that film.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes footage of Aaliyah here:

7. Heath Ledger: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Ledger passed away on January 22, 2008, from an “accidental overdose” of pain medications, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medications. And Johnny Depp among others had to take his place as he travelled through a dream world.

The actor died on January 22, 2008 from an ‘accidental overdose’ of pain medication, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs. Johnny Depp and many other actors filled in for him as he traversed a dream space in the film.

Here’s a look at behind-the-scenes of Health’s role:

8. Philip Seymour Hoffman: Hunger Games: Mockingjay

Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead on February 2, 2014, from a combination of heroin, cocaine, amphetamines and sedatives. Hoffman had wrapped on most of his work on The Hunger Games films, and the shooting days being shortened were done for a mourning period.

Hoffman passed away on February 2, 2014, due to a fatal combination of heroin, cocaine, crushed-up amphetamines and sedatives. Most of Hoffman was done for his scenes in the Hunger Games movies, and the shoots were being wrapped early to leave time to mourn.

Here’s an extended scene of Hoffman in Mockingjay here:

9. Oliver Reed: Gladiator

Updated with quote.Lookup the meaning of this word: toparchive.comClick here to read the full article. Reed died of a heart attack on May 2, 1999. According to†The Hollywood Reporter, Reed was shooting Gladiator when he died and the rest of his scenes were rendered with CGI.

Here’s a look into one of the scenes filmed using visual effects:

10. Brandon Lee: The Crow

On the set, he was shot with a gun that was supposed to shoot blanks; Lee died on 31 March 1993. During the mourning process, the director and crew decided that Lee would have wanted them to complete the film, so they did.

Like the last actor to die, they went ahead and finished the movie using computer trickery.

You can see one of the “digitally grafted” scenes here:

11. Bruce Lee: The Game of Death

Bruce Lee was found unconscious on the floor of his apartment before taken to Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital after he died on July 20, 1973. The film was written off as Lee had recently died, leaving only about 40 minutes of footage captured for the pictures around the film The Game Of Death.

However, a couple years later, when Golden Harvest was ready to release the piece anyway, they rewrote the story and simply reused the 40 minutes of footage that Bruce Lee filmed for them.

Here’s a scene in the movie dedicated to Bruce Lee’s passing:

12. Paul Walker: Fast & Furious 7

Walker, the star of the all the ‘Fast and the Furious’ movies to date, died on November 30, 201, in a single-car crash with Roger Rodas. As most of Walker’s pivotal scenes in the Fast & The Furious movie had not been filmed Walker’s scenes were completed with visual effects.

You can see a breakdown of the visual effects used to create Walker’s scenes here:

13. Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen: The Twilight Zone: The Movie

On July 23, 1982, Morrow, Le, and Chen lost their lives during the shooting of a Vietnam re-enactment. Morrow was 53, Le was 7 and Chen was 6. A helicopter was used to film one of the scene and that what killed all three of them.

For some reason the plane collided with 6-year-old Renee, the helicopter fell over and the blade sliced Morrow and 7-year-old Myca s*x.

Here’s a look into Segment One:

Now, some of these tales are absolutely off the wall, while others leave a body of mystery in their wake. I can’t be the only one noticing a trend here with movie actors dying in “apparent overdoses” or “lethal dosages” of drugs.

This appears to be a never-ending thing and very sad! I say this because he, like a lot of actors whose unfortunate fates caused a film to have thought it better just to continue on and patch together with CGI the roles of the dead actors.