Hollywood’s History of On-Set Safety Gives Clues to ‘Rust’ Trial Outcome

Available to WrapPRO members

Does the 1987 ‘Twilight Zone’ accident trial give indications of whether Alec Baldwin’s career can recover?

Rust Shooting
From left, Cecil Demille, Alec Baldwin and John Landis. (Getty Images)

Since the days of silent pictures, the American film industry has grappled with on-set accidents and tragedies. Among the earliest was in 1914, when director Owen Carter and actress Grace McHugh drowned while shooting a sequence of a bandit’s daughter crossing the Rio Grande (in this case, the Arkansas River in Cañon City, Colorado, was subbing for the real thing) for the silent feature “Across the Border.” On-set deaths have shadowed the movies ever since, from the accidental shooting of Brandon Lee on “The Crow” set in 1993 to the 2014 death of “Midnight Rider” assistant camerawoman Sarah Jones on a Georgia train trestle.

Comments