What’s the best stunt you’ve ever seen in a film? What’s the one moment you would pick that left you the most on the edge of your seat?
▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Buddy Ebsen
01:34 - Jack Haley
02:02 - Ray Bolger
02:33 - Margaret Hamilton and Bett Danko
04:57 - John Wayne
06:34 - Michael Landon
08:08 - Outro
Like this content? Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/factsverse?sub_confirmation=1
Or, watch more videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkXAntdjbcSJlJnpP4FgdU0swKbnkNgJj
Become a Facts Verse member and get access to all videos that contain mature content. Use the link below to get access to even more videos, ad-free.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXZpQgX1897wYDLtvzmgyIA/join\
Viewers must remember that actors don’t have to jump out of a plane to do something dangerous. Sometimes, especially in the days of Old Hollywood, even the costumes they wore could be life-threatening.
The production of the classic Wizard of Oz was full of cruel and unsafe practices. Buddy Epsen’s Tin Man costume was made with aluminum paint. He had such a violent reaction to the material that he had to be hospitalized for days after his lungs began to fail. He continued to feel the effects afterward.
His replacement Jack Haley faired only slightly better. He got an eye infection that lasted for days from the next attempt at the Tin Man costume.
Margaret Hamilton, a likable character actress, was brought on to play the Wicked Witch of the West. Bett Danko was one of her stunt doubles. They put their bodies on the line as well. Playing with fire in many of the film’s most memorable scenes left them with major burns.
It isn’t always the way scenes were filmed that left actors with lasting physical effects. It’s also where they were filmed.
69 people died on the set of The Conqueror and many more got cancer. It may have even contributed to the death of Johnny Cash. They filmed too close to a nuclear testing site.
The same thing happened during Litte House on the Prairie. It’s not definite if the radiation caused the death of Michael Landon, but it couldn’t have helped.
Like and subscribe to FactsVerse for more stories of disastrous productions. Watch our video to learn about actors who were left with lifelong disabilities due to filming.
Actors Who Were Left with Lifelong Disabilities Due to Filming
▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:30 - Buddy Ebsen
01:34 - Jack Haley
02:02 - Ray Bolger
02:33 - Margaret Hamilton and Bett Danko
04:57 - John Wayne
06:34 - Michael Landon
08:08 - Outro
Like this content? Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/factsverse?sub_confirmation=1
Or, watch more videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkXAntdjbcSJlJnpP4FgdU0swKbnkNgJj
Become a Facts Verse member and get access to all videos that contain mature content. Use the link below to get access to even more videos, ad-free.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXZpQgX1897wYDLtvzmgyIA/join\
Viewers must remember that actors don’t have to jump out of a plane to do something dangerous. Sometimes, especially in the days of Old Hollywood, even the costumes they wore could be life-threatening.
The production of the classic Wizard of Oz was full of cruel and unsafe practices. Buddy Epsen’s Tin Man costume was made with aluminum paint. He had such a violent reaction to the material that he had to be hospitalized for days after his lungs began to fail. He continued to feel the effects afterward.
His replacement Jack Haley faired only slightly better. He got an eye infection that lasted for days from the next attempt at the Tin Man costume.
Margaret Hamilton, a likable character actress, was brought on to play the Wicked Witch of the West. Bett Danko was one of her stunt doubles. They put their bodies on the line as well. Playing with fire in many of the film’s most memorable scenes left them with major burns.
It isn’t always the way scenes were filmed that left actors with lasting physical effects. It’s also where they were filmed.
69 people died on the set of The Conqueror and many more got cancer. It may have even contributed to the death of Johnny Cash. They filmed too close to a nuclear testing site.
The same thing happened during Litte House on the Prairie. It’s not definite if the radiation caused the death of Michael Landon, but it couldn’t have helped.
Like and subscribe to FactsVerse for more stories of disastrous productions. Watch our video to learn about actors who were left with lifelong disabilities due to filming.
Actors Who Were Left with Lifelong Disabilities Due to Filming
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Getting into the minds of a character is why many actors do what they do. There's something
00:16powerful about inhabiting another person, even if they're not real. It can have major mental
00:21impacts, but many actors have had physical effects as well. Keep watching to learn about
00:25the actors who were left with lifelong disabilities due to filming.
00:30Buddy Ebsen
00:48The immortality that the classic provided everyone in it is undeniable,
00:52but it came at a price. Buddy Ebsen is well known as the patriarch of the Beverly Hillbillies TV
00:58show. Before that, he had a film contract with MGM. He was originally cast as the Tin Man in
01:03the classic film The Wizard of Oz. Everything seemed fine at first. He recorded all of his
01:08songs, finished four weeks of rehearsal, and got into costume. That's when tragedy struck.
01:13They tried tin, silver paper, and silver cloth-covered cardboard, but nothing looked quite
01:18right. Buddy had an allergic reaction to the aluminum makeup that they settled on. It was
01:23so strong that after nine days, he began to get short of breath and experienced severe cramps.
01:29His lungs started to fail, and he had to leave and spend nine days straight in an oxygen tent.
01:34Jack Haley
01:36Jack Haley came on to replace Buddy as the Tin Man. He wore a metallic paste instead. He did
01:42miss four days of filming though when it caused an eye infection, but it didn't cost him the job.
01:47He doesn't remember it fondly. He was asked if making the film was fun and said,
01:51like hell it was, it was work. He still managed to become a major part of the film's charm.
01:56He said that he used the same soft tone in the part that he used telling bedtime stories to
02:01his children. Ray Bolger
02:04The stories of tragedy and injuries from The Wizard of Oz are unfortunately not over with
02:09the Tin Man. Ray Bolger was originally set to play the Tin Man. He moved on to the Scarecrow.
02:14His costume left him with permanent scars and lines on his face.
02:18The poppy field scene is known for its use of toxic asbestos to replicate fake snow.
02:23There was reportedly also asbestos in Ray's Scarecrow costume. It was meant to keep him
02:28safe during several scenes in which his character comes in contact with fire.
02:34Margaret Hamilton and Brett Danko
02:36Speaking of fire, The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch suffered from it as well. Margaret and her stunt
02:42woman, Brett Danko, were filming a scene where the witch disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The
02:46crew had constructed a hole beneath the set covered in a piece of aluminum. That was meant to appear
02:52out of it and then catapult into the smoke. A crew member fell into the hole and landed on her
02:57shoulder. She could barely drive or raise her arm afterwards. The director, Victor Fleming,
03:02was demanding and wouldn't let anything take away his vision. He wanted Margaret's famous line,
03:07I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too, and her famous exit to be shot together.
03:12That meant she had to do her own stunt. The first take went fine, but the director wanted to do it
03:17a few more times just in case. They kept going wrong, and he started losing his patience.
03:22Margaret remembers being told, I want this shot done right and done right now.
03:26In the next take, the flames and smoke came out before she was below set. She got second-degree
03:32burns on her face and third-degree burns on her hand. It even burned off the toxic
03:37green copper-based paint on her body. Her raw flesh had to be cleaned with acetone.
03:42She said, quote, I'll never, as long as I live, have anything that takes my breath away like that
03:47pain. Margaret returned to filming six weeks later, but the nerves in her hand were still exposed.
03:52It was time to do the skywriting scene. She didn't want to take any more chances with fire,
03:57even though they assured her that it was safe. Bette had to be brought back as a stunt double.
04:01She remembers everything. The scene started fine. Her cape covered a pipe that was mounted
04:06to her broom and produced smoke. Victor insisted that he also wanted the cape to blow in the wind,
04:12with the pipe still hidden underneath her. They mounted it under the broom's bicycle seat.
04:16The third take was a disaster as the pipe exploded. Bette said, quote, I felt as though
04:21my scalp was coming off. I guess that's because my hat and my black wig were torn loose. They
04:26found them, days later, at the top of the stage. The explosion blew me off the broomstick. I
04:31managed to grab it with both hands and throw my leg over it. I hung upside down while the
04:36handling the wires lowered the broomstick to the floor and put me face down on the stage.
04:40While I lay there on the floor, waiting for the ambulance, the wardrobe woman came running in and
04:45she said, what did you do with the hat? I have to turn it in, you know. She had to spend 11 days in
04:50the hospital due to a two-inch deep burn on her leg. The studio brought in another stuntwoman
04:55to finish the scene. John Wayne
04:59It's arguable about whether making a movie so beloved as The Wizard of Oz was worth all the
05:04horrible things that happened. But what about a film plagued with tragedy but widely considered
05:09the worst one in an actor's catalog? 1956's The Conqueror seemed like a sure hit. Epic desert
05:16stories were all the rage, and this cast was full of A-listers. It had too many problems to be
05:21anything but a flop, though. John Wayne was a poor fit for Genghis Khan. The film was too long and
05:26too serious at too long hours. Howard Hughes blew $6 million on the film, but that wasn't the worst
05:32part. It was the filming location. Any desert would've been difficult to work on. They faced
05:37the expected problems such as dried-up water sources and heat stroke. What made The Conqueror
05:42notable was that they didn't just film in any desert. They filmed near a nuclear testing site.
05:46They were in the Escalante Desert, only 137 miles from the Nevada test site. The shoot began only a
05:53year after 11 nuclear tests had been performed there. 91 of the 220 cast and crew members
05:59developed cancer in the next decades. 46 of them died, including Dick Powell, Susan Hayward,
06:05Pedro Armendariz, and even John Wayne himself. He was keenly aware of it in his final interview.
06:19Not all cancer cases may have been directly related to the nuclear tests
06:24many of the crew members smoked, for instance. Having so many of them develop it after filming
06:28so close to a nuclear test site seems a bit too difficult to dismiss as coincidence.
06:34Michael Landon Michael Landon died of pancreatic
06:38cancer at the age of 54 in 1991. A show called Autopsy, The Last Hours Of, looks into the final
06:44hours of celebrities, especially if they had mysterious deaths. One episode focused on Michael
06:49and found that he may have also experienced the ill effects of nuclear exposure. The little house
06:54on the prairie set was only 15 miles away from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. It experienced a
07:00partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1959. Everyone on the show spent nine years filming
07:06in this dangerous location. Michael's co-star Karen Grassel, who played Caroline, admitted
07:12that at first it seemed like the perfect location. That was until the area began experiencing a
07:17cancer epidemic. Studies found that the lab was the spot of one of the worst radioactive events
07:22in history. It was responsible for over 2,000 cancer deaths and led to a 60% increase in several
07:28types of cancers. Does that mean that Michael was part of these statistics? The California
07:32Department of Health Services released a report on March 27, 1992, that there was no risk of cancer
07:38due to radiation exposure. Michael's condition worsened in his final days. He spent his last
07:43weekend with his wife, all nine of his children, and his friend and business partner, Kent McRae.
07:48All he wanted to do was spend time with loved ones. In one of his final interviews, he said,
08:06they kept watch over him in his final moments.
08:08Now it's time to hear from you. What's the best stunt you've ever seen in a film?
08:12Let us know in the comments section below.