# Have any actors ever gotten seriously injured by melee weapons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492 "2009-11-30T17:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/21 "2009-12-02T03:10:04Z")
ISTR reading a story that [Bill Macy](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0534409/) (Bea Arthur’s husband on Maude) stabbed himself onstage doing some Shakespeare play. His character was committing suicide, and he got carried away, so to speak. Since the story was referring to his stage work before the TV series, I assume he lived. Okay, not nun-chucks or a mace, but he himself was Macy. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/22 "2009-12-02T03:33:43Z")
One of the acting artillery men in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, lost a hand to a premature cannon. This was as the show suffered some decline, starring the totally white haired Annie Oakley, who had supposedly been shocked white by a 40 minute scalding bath at a popular Health Resort ala Dr. Kellogg in treatment of spinal injuries from being smashed back first into the opposite wall of a sleeper train during a railroad accident. She wore a curly fawn wig forever in public apearences after that, for some weird vanity. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/23 "2009-12-02T03:57:18Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed in 1982 filming “Twilight Zone” movie by a helicopter. Not really sure if this fits. Well, it was set in Vietnam and since three people got killed, it was a melee massacre! ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/24 "2009-12-02T04:22:29Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > Wow, there really is a web site for everything! Not to mention fromt he same site: [Exhumation Celebration!](http://www.who2.com/ExhumationCelebration.html) Don’t know about you, but I’ve got a new bookmark. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/25 "2009-12-02T04:25:21Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, it was set in Vietnam and since three people got killed, it was a melee massacre! You…just went on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/26 "2009-12-02T15:04:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > You…just went on the list. What, _again?_ ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/27 "2009-12-02T15:09:52Z")
Anyone else read the title and thought first of the Shock Promotion to get 25% bonus? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/28 "2009-12-02T15:18:35Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > What, _again?_ Yep. Two more listings and we send a elderly Asian gentleman to your home to menace you with a rutabaga. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/29 "2009-12-02T22:39:02Z")
In high school, the actor who came in to do stage violence for a production of \*Hamlet \*I was in (and later ended up directing one of the two casts) made sure to point out a scar on his forehead from a stage fight that went poorly 'cause someone hadn’t learned their choreography. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/30 "2009-12-03T00:15:10Z")
When filming a climactic fight in _Scream 3_, Neve Campbell stabbed… the killer in the back; she was supposed to hit a vest, but missed. The killer’s scream of pain was in the final cut, and is quite, quite genuine. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/31 "2009-12-03T00:38:17Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I have read that Jackie Chan has been injured MANY times doing the stuntwork for his films. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that a few of those injuries were caused by melee weapons. **Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow**. His arm was accidentally slashed by a sword. The final cut of the film (heh) shows his actual blood coming out of the wound. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/32 "2009-12-03T00:45:10Z")
Didn’t Jackie Chan fall off the front of a bus once when it screeched to a stop, or was that a stuntman (or a henchman)? ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/33 "2009-12-03T01:28:26Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Didn’t Jackie Chan fall off the front of a bus once when it screeched to a stop, or was that a stuntman (or a henchman)? Wow, I’ve ridden a melee weapon to school back in the day! Who knew? I got whacked in the head with a staff during a theatre production when some idiot took a picture with a flash camera and my combat partner and I both missed our marks. I got clocked a good one in the back of the head, which sent me reeling , and my staff swung like a baseball bat. If not for his helmet, he would’ve been knocked right out. As it was, he sort of wobbled around the stage for a bit seeing stars, looking like a toddler just learning to walk. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/34 "2009-12-03T16:09:56Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > I got whacked in the head with a staff during a theatre production when some idiot took a picture with a flash camera and my combat partner and I both missed our marks. So… The moral of the story is, “Flash photograph + stage combat = wacky hijinx”? Cool! I’ll bring a camera next time. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/35 "2009-12-04T00:55:13Z")
I happened to be looking at the Wiki page for Bruce Lee’s [Enter the Dragon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Dragon), and it mentions Lee getting cut in one scene by a guy who was holding a real glass bottle instead of one of the normal sugar prop ones. > [@](#): > > During the fight scene with Wall, Lee cut himself on glass bottles that were not the sugar glass props normally used in the film industry. > > \< snip \> > > During the making of ‘Enter the Dragon’, it has been said that Lee had developed a grudge against Wall due to the cut injury he had sustained when Wall had held onto the “real glass” bottle during their fight scene (where O’Hara smashes the bottles). ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/36 "2009-12-04T05:07:05Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Didn’t Jackie Chan fall off the front of a bus once when it screeched to a stop, or was that a stuntman (or a henchman)? Opening sequence of “Police Story” and it was several stuntmen. Just after the 3 minute mark in this clip: ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/eWKP3mswr9k/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/eWKP3mswr9k?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/37 "2009-12-04T14:57:44Z")
**By the Sword** by Richard Cohen has a chapter on movie and stage swordplay; if I remember correctly it talks aboout some actors who were seriously injured in duelling scenes. I’ll look it up whan I get home, unless somebody else has it handy. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/38 "2009-12-05T23:15:50Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > **By the Sword** by Richard Cohen has a chapter on movie and stage swordplay; if I remember correctly it talks aboout some actors who were seriously injured in duelling scenes. I’ll look it up whan I get home, unless somebody else has it handy. Here we go: Bob Anderson, who played Darth Vader in the fight scenes for _The Empire Strikes Back_ and _Return of the Jedi,_ pierced Errol Flynn in the thigh during the filming of _The Master of Ballantrae_. For years afterwards film crews warned new cast members “watch out for Anderson - he’s the one who skewered Flynn!” Actor Bill Mead was killed on the set of the 1941 film _They Died With Their Boots On_. He was thrown from his horse and threw his sword away for safety, but it stuck in the ground hilt down and impaled him. Among a long list of injuries accrued while acting, Lawrence Olivier included “Untold slashes including a full thrust razor edged sword wound in the breast.” Errol Flynn nearly cut Chritopher Lee’s thumb off duing the filming of the 1955 film _The Warriors_. During the filming of _The Sword of the Avenger_ (1948), Ralph Faulkner tripped and almost put his opponent’s sword through his eye. David Niven says he once tripped and put his sword into an extra’s leg; fortunately, it was wooden. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/39 "2009-12-06T01:33:33Z")
In _My Best Fiend_, an extra from Werner Herzog’s _Aguirre, the Wrath of God_ shows off a scar where an out-of-control Klaus Kinski hit him on the head with a (real) broadsword; the extra’s helmet is the only thing that stopped him from getting hurt far more seriously. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492/40 "2009-12-06T03:58:19Z")
Horror movie actress Debbie Rochon took a severe cut to her hand while filming a movie (never completed, if my memory is correct) in Tennessee. She got cut by a real machete that someone thought was just a prop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-any-actors-ever-gotten-seriously-injured-by-melee-weapons/519492.md?page=3)