Who's Had the Worst Injuries in Showbiz (Besides Cate Blanchett)?

The actor's stage accident could have been worse. As proof, we've compiled a list of 10 more-serious showbiz injuries

By Leslie Gornstein Sep 03, 2009 5:00 AMTags
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Is Cate Blanchett going to be OK? If set people aren't more careful someone is going to die one day.
—Shivas

Someone already has died one day, dear. And yes, I mean an actor. It's not Blanchett, though. She just got cut when a prop radio connected with her head during a stage play. She has said the show will go on. But movie, TV and stage acting has caused a plethora of bigger and badder accidents. Read on to get my top 10...

10. Everybody on Dancing With the Stars: Sex and the City's Gilles Marini (tendinitis), Jewel (tendinitis) Karina Smirnoff (meniscus surgery) Mark Ballas (groin strain)—can't anyone Lindy Hop with a little restraint?

9. Fine, Here's Your R.Pattz Fix: Robert Pattinson was reportedly injured while filming New Moon; a metal sign flew across an open field and clocked him on the head. (For the record, Pattz has denied that happened, but if it didn't, Twilight is still full of intrigue and danger; he has been quoted in British Cosmo as saying he tore a buttock muscle while filming Twilight.)

8. Indiana Jones and the Set of Doom: Somebody pulled a muscle on the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it wasn't the then 65-year-old Harrison Ford. "I pulled a rotator cuff in my hip," Shia LaBeouf was reported as saying. "It's the only time in my career I've ever been injured. What happened was, because the injury got worse and worse as the movie went on, I pulled my groin also. [The groin] is not a good thing to have anything happen to."

7. Don't Mention It, Really: Aerosmith megamouth Steven Tyler has actually apologized for accidentally slipping off stage during a concert, breaking his shoulder and resulting in the cancellation of the band's tour this summer. The singer had been dancing in an effort to entertain concertgoers while roadies wrested with a technical glitch. Really, dude, it's cool.

6. Until Somebody Loses a Goldeneye: Or, in the case of James Bond actor Daniel Craig, a finger. London papers reported the British actor accidentally sliced off the tip of one of his fingers while shooting Quantum of Solace last year. Craig had also cut his face the week before, requiring eight stitches.

5. Michael Jackson: An infamous accident on the set of a Pepsi commercial injured M.J. so badly that he was left with second-degree scalp burns and scars that needed further treatment. Pepsi paid Jackson a $1.5 million settlement; the late singer then donated the money to a medical center, which named a burn unit in his honor.

4. Death While Filming World War III: Boris Sagal, father of actress Katey Sagal, was killed while directing the TV miniseries World War III. He was nearly decapitated after walking into the rotor blades of a helicopter at the filming location.

3. Brandon Lee: The son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee and an actor in his own right, Lee was accidentally shot by a blank bullet in 1993, while filming a scene for the movie The Crow.

2. Madonna's Crew: Two people died and more than 30 were injured when a stadium collapsed on a stop of Madonna's Sticky & Sweet tour. Madonna said she was "devastated," and visited many of the injured while they were hospitalized.

1. The Twilight Zone: In 1982, John Landis was directing a segment of the Twilight Zone movie when three actors, two of them children, were killed: Vic Morrow, My-ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. The three were shooting a sequence in which they were running toward a helicopter. A pyrotechnic explosion caused the chopper to topple and kill the actors. Lawsuits over the deaths lasted more than 10 years, but there was one bright spot: Child labor laws were tightened in the wake of the fatalities.

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See other celebs who met untimely ends our Shocking Pop Star Deaths gallery.