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.
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