Over lunch today a group of us were talinking about TV shows. We reached the topic of actors who have died with guns.
I remembered and actor who was goofing off by placing a prop gun to his forehead and firing. Athough it did contain blanks the force pushed a piece of his skull into his brain and he was killed.
I vaguely remember the show he was on at the time. The plot had to do with him and a younger star travelling though time correcting problems in the timeline (similar to Quantum Leap). A plot point included a watch of some sort.
Does this ring any bells for anyone? I’ve tried database searched on some web sites to no avail.
The actor was Jon-Erik Hexum, and he was the star of “Voyagers!”. But it was on the set of a later show, “Cover Up”, where he killed himself with a blank-loaded gun.
What would Brian Boitano do / If he was here right now /
He’d make a plan and he’d follow through / That’s what Brian Boitano would do.
Jon-Erik Hexum carried a California Organ Donor’s card. When Hexum died, at least five people received transplants of his viable organs, including his heart.
A fan club for Hexum is still in existence. Please write: Jon-Erik Hexum Fan Club c/o Alan Carell 3003 NE Knott St.
Portland, OR 97212 USA
Accidentally shot himself in the head from A gun loaded with blanks on the set of “Cover Up”
Brandon Lee’s death was a little more complex. On the set of “The Crow” a scene was shot using a prop gun loaded with dummy bullets. If you notice in shots where an actor is pointing a revolver at the camera, you usually can see what look like bullets in the chamber. These are dummy bullets with the gunpowder removed. Back on “The Crow” set, after the dummy bullet scene was shot, the same gun was loaded with blanks. Somehow, one of the dummy bullets came apart, leaving the lead part of the bullet in the chamber. Loading a blank behind this made a functional bullet. The actor who fired the shot was supposed to aim away from Brandon; for whatever reason he aimed at him and pulled the trigger.
When movie propmasters make phony cartridges (the kind that are used to fill out a revolver and make it look loaded), they remove the bullet, empty the gunpowder, set off the primer, then reassemble the cartridge without gunpowder. One of the casings in one of the prop guns had an unspent primer. The force of the primer detonating, even without gunpowder, pushed the bullet out of its casing and into the barrel, where it stopped.
Why no one noticed the casing sans bullet when the gun was later emptied is anyone’s guess. The gun should have been inspected afterward anyway, but it wasn’t.
Later the gun was loaded with blanks, cartridges with gunpowder but no bullets. When the gun was fired, the force of the exploding powder shoved the bullet out of the barrel; the net effect was the same as if Brandon had been shot with a standard cartridge.
Apparently it happened on-camera, since I’ve heard that the studio destroyed the film without developing it out of respect for Brandon and his family. That implies to me that film was rolling when he was shot and killed.
Brandon Lee’s death was a freakish accident, preventable on many levels. Somehow, all of the checks and balances failed simultaneously.
End of hijack. Overall message: just because they’re blanks, that doesn’t make them safe.
