Actors Who Died During Production

Aug 09 2020

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When an actor dies during filming, the project will forever serve as a memorial to the performer. Whether these fallen stars were at the height of their fame or had yet to become screen legends, here's a look at the tragic loss of actors who passed away during production. Beloved television and film actor John Ritter died of an aortic dissection at a Burbank, California hospital in 2003 after falling ill on the set of ABC's 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. He was 54. The son of film star and country musician Tex Ritter, John Ritter effortlessly shifted throughout his career between comedies like Bad Santa and independent dramas like Sling Blade. However, John Ritter first became a household name in the late '70s playing Jack Tripper, a working-class straight man pretending to be gay in order to share an apartment with two women, in the iconic sitcom Three's Company. In 1984, the performance earned Ritter an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series, as well as a Golden Globe. Ritter's Three's Company co-star, Joyce DeWitt, told People magazine in 2002, "John's all about not taking life too seriously. There were days we went home from rehearsal with our cheeks sore from laughing." Legendary comedian Redd Foxx rose to international fame as the outspoken junk dealer Fred Sanford in the groundbreaking '70s sitcom, Sanford and Son, where he was famous for faking massive heart attacks to get out of sticky situations. In 1991, he made a triumphant return to television in the CBS sitcom The Royal Family. But during filming, Foxx tragically suffered an actual heart attack. A network representative told The Los Angeles Times, "They were rehearsing on the set and clowning around, and Redd was sort of breaking people up when he collapsed. They all thought he was joking around at first, and then they called the paramedics." Sadly, the heart attack proved fatal, and the series was cancelled. Foxx was 68. Watch this video to hear more about actors who died during production. #ActorDeaths #Actors John Ritter | 0:00 Redd Foxx | 1:14 Brandon Lee | 2:03 Vic Morrow | 3:04 Jon-Erik Hexum | 3:52 Roy Kinnear | 4:43 Eric Fleming | 5:50