Vic morrow death

American actor (–)

Victor "Vic" Morrow (néMorozoff; February 14, &#;– July 23, ) was an American actor. He came to prominence as one of the leads of the ABC drama series Combat! (–), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Series.

Vic morrow combat He and two children died when a stunt helicopter crashed on them during the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie. When he was 17, Morrow dropped out of high school and joined the U. Morrow's marriage to Barbara lasted seven years and ended in divorce in He did not remarry until , over a decade later, when he courted Gale Lester currently Gale Morrow Butler. They were married for five years and were separated just prior to Morrow's death.

Active on screen for over three decades, his film roles include Blackboard Jungle (), King Creole (), God's Little Acre (), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (), and The Bad News Bears (). Morrow continued acting up to his death during filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie () when he and two child actors were killed in a helicopter crash on set.^[2][3]

Early life

Morrow was born in the Bronx, New York City to Russian immigrants Grischa Morozoff, an electrical engineer, and Eugenia (née Barmaschenko).^[4][5] Morrow dropped out of high school when he was 17 and enlisted in the United States Navy.^[6] Morrow and his family lived in Asbury Park, New Jersey for many years.^[7]

Career

Morrow attracted attention playing Stanley Kowalski in a touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire.^[8] His first movie role was in Blackboard Jungle (), playing a thug student who torments teacher Glenn Ford.

It was made by MGM, who then put Morrow in Tribute to a Bad Man (). Morrow appeared on television, guest starring on shows like The Millionaire, Matinee Theatre, Climax!, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Restless Gun, Trackdown, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and Telephone Time.

Morrow had support roles in Men in War (), directed by Anthony Mann, and was third billed in Hell's Five Hours (). He starred alongside Elvis Presley and an all-star supporting cast including Walter Matthau and Carolyn Jones in the movie King Creole (), directed by Michael Curtiz.

Vic morrow biography All All. Sign In. Vic Morrow Actor Director Writer. Play trailer Twilight Zone: The Movie His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants.

Mann asked him back for God's Little Acre ().

A Man Called Sledge is a Italian Spaghetti Western film starring James Garner in an extremely offbeat role as a grimly hardened thief, and featuring Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins and Wayde Preston. The film was written by Vic Morrow and Frank Kowalski, and directed by Morrow in Techniscope.

However Morrow remained mostly a television actor, appearing in Naked City, Wichita Town, The Rifleman, The Lineup, Johnny Ringo, The Brothers Brannagan, The Law and Mr. Jones, The Lawless Years, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, General Electric Theatre, Target: The Corruptors, The Tall Man, Outlaws, Bonanza, and The Untouchables.

He was cast in the early Bonanza episode "The Avenger" as a mysterious figure known only as "Lassiter"&#;– named after his town of origin&#;– who arrives in Virginia City. He helps save Ben and Adam Cartwright from an unjust hanging, while eventually gunning down one sought-after man, revealing himself as the hunter of a lynch mob who killed his father.

Having so far killed about half the mob, he rides off into the night, in an episode that resembles the later Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter. Morrow later appeared in the third season Bonanza episode "The Tin Badge".^[9]:&#;44&#;

Mann used Morrow a third time in Cimarron (), again tormenting Glenn Ford.

He took on Audie Murphy in Posse from Hell ().

Morrow was cast as soldier-engineer Lt. Robert Benson in the episode, "A Matter of Honor", on the syndicatedanthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. The story focuses on Benson's fiancé, Indiana (Shirley Ballard), who tries to persuade him to boost their income by selling inside Army information to criminal real estate moguls like Joseph Hooker (Howard Petrie).

Trevor Bardette and Meg Wyllie were cast in the roles of Captain and Mrs. Warner.^[9]:&#;&#;

Morrow had his first leading role in Portrait of a Mobster () playing Dutch Schultz.^[10]

He continued as mostly a television actor, appearing in Death Valley Days, Alcoa Premiere, and Suspense.

Combat!

Morrow was cast in the lead role of Sergeant "Chip" Saunders in ABC's Combat!, a World War II drama, which aired from to ^[11] Pop culture scholar Gene Santoro has written:

TV's longest-running World War II drama (–) was really a collection of complex minute movies.

Salted with battle sequences, they follow a squad's travails from D-Day on&#;– a gritty ground-eye view of men trying to salvage their humanity and survive. Melodrama, comedy, and satire come into play as top-billed Lieutenant Hanley (Rick Jason) and Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) lead their men toward Paris The relentlessness hollows antihero Saunders out: at times, you can see the tombstones in his eyes."^[12]

His friend and fellow actor on Combat!, Rick Jason, described Morrow as "a master director" who directed "one of the greatest anti-war films I've ever seen".

He was referring to the two-part episode of Combat! entitled Hills Are for Heroes, which was written by Gene L. Coon.^[13]

Deathwatch and A Man Called Sledge

Morrow also worked as a television director. Together with Leonard Nimoy, he produced the film Deathwatch, an English-language film version of Jean Genet's play Deathwatch (title in French: Haute Surveillance), adapted by Morrow and Barbara Turner, directed by Morrow, and starring Nimoy.^[14]

After Combat! ended, Morrow played the lead in Target: Harry (), the pilot for a proposed series that was not picked up; Roger Corman directed.

In he set up his own company, Carleigh, which was named after his daughters Carrie Ann and Jennifer Leigh.^[15]

Morrow wrote and directed a spaghetti Western, produced by Dino DeLaurentiis, titled A Man Called Sledge () and starring James Garner, Dennis Weaver and Claude Akins.

After Deathwatch, it was Morrow's first and only big screen outing behind the camera. Sledge was filmed in Italy^{[citation needed]} with desert-like settings that were highly evocative of the Southwestern United States.

Morrow guest starred in The Immortal, Dan August, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Sarge, McCloud, and Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.

TV movies

In the s Morrow starred in some television movies including A Step Out of Line (), Travis Logan, D.A. () (playing the title role), River of Mystery (), The Glass House (), The Weekend Nun, Tom Sawyer (), and Nightmare ().

He guest starred in Ironside, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, Mission: Impossible, The FBI, Love Story, The Streets of San Francisco, and Police Story.

Morrow appeared in two episodes of Australian-produced anthology series The Evil Touch (), one of which he also directed.

He played the wily local sheriff in director John Hough's road classic Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, as well as the homicidal sheriff, alongside Martin Sheen, in the television film The California Kid (), and The Take ().

Morrow had the lead in Funeral for an Assassin (). He had key roles in Death Stalk (), Wanted: Babysitter (also called Scar Tissue; ), The Night That Panicked America (), Treasure of Matecumbe () and had a key role as aggressive, competitive baseball coach Roy Turner, in the comedy The Bad News Bears ().

In the late s Morrow worked increasingly in miniseries such as Captains and the Kings (), Roots and The Last Convertible (), as well as guest starring on shows like Bronc, Hunter, The Littlest Hobo and Charlie's Angels.

He returned to directing, helming episodes of Quincy, M.E. as well as Lucan and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

Final roles

Morrow had the lead in The Ghost of Cypress Swamp (), the Japanese film Message from Space () and The Evictors (). He was in TV movies The Man with the Power (), The Hostage Heart (), Curse of the Black Widow (), Wild and Wooly (), Stone (), and Paris ()

Morrow made Humanoids from the Deep () for Roger Corman and The Last Shark () and had a regular role in the series, B.A.D.

Cats ().

Vic morrow children: Victor "Vic" Morrow (né Morozoff; February 14, – July 23, ) was an American actor. He came to prominence as one of the leads of the ABC drama series Combat! (–), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Series.

Morrow's last roles included guest roles in Charlie's Angels, Magnum, P.I. and the films The Bronx Warriors () and Abenko Green Berets ().

Personal life

From to , Morrow was married to actress and screenwriter Barbara Turner.^[16] They had two daughters, Carrie Ann Morrow and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.

He married Gale Lester in ; they separated just prior to Morrow's death in July ^{[citation needed]}

Morrow fell out with his daughter Jennifer after his divorce from her mother. She changed her last name to Leigh and they were still estranged at the time of his death.^[17]

Rick Jason, co-star of Combat!, wrote in his memoirs that Morrow "had an absolute dislike of firearms.

He used a Thompson submachine gun in our series, but that was work. In any other respect he'd have nothing to do with them."^[13]

Death

Main article: Twilight Zone accident

In , Morrow was cast in a feature role in Twilight Zone: The Movie in a segment directed by John Landis.

Morrow was playing the role of Bill Connor, a racist who is taken back in time and placed in various situations where he would be a persecuted victim: as a Jewish man in Vichy France, a black man about to be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan and a Vietnamese man about to be killed by U.S. soldiers.

Vic morrow children

Vic morrow biography movie star

Rob morrow biography

In the early morning hours of July 23, , Morrow and two child actors, seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were filming on location in California in an area that was known as Indian Dunes near Santa Clarita. They were performing a scene for the Vietnam sequence, in which their characters attempt to escape out of a deserted Vietnamese village from a pursuing U.S.

Army helicopter.^[2] The helicopter was hovering about 24 feet (&#;m) above them when the heat from special effect pyrotechnic explosions reportedly delaminated the rotor blades^[18] and caused the helicopter to plummet and crash on top of them, killing all three instantly. Morrow and Le were decapitated and mutilated by the helicopter rotor blades, while Chen was crushed by a helicopter skid.^[19]

Morrow's daughters sued several parties for negligence and wrongful death and were each awarded an out-of-court settlement of $, by Warner Bros.

Studios.^[20] Landis and four other defendants, including the helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo, were charged with involuntary manslaughter but were ultimately acquitted after a ten-month trial.^[21] The parents of Le and Chen also sued and settled out of court for $2 million each.^[22]

Morrow's remains are interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.^[23]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
	Blackboard Jungle	Artie West
	It's a Dog's Life	Wildfire the dog	Voice, Uncredited
	Tribute to a Bad Man	Lars Peterson
	The Millionaire	Joey Diamond	Episode: "The Joey Diamond Story"
	Climax!	Ted	Episode: "Strange Hostage"
	Men in War	Corporal James Zwickley
	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Benny Mungo	Season 2 Episode "A Little Sleep"
	Richard Diamond, Private Detective	Joe Rovi	Episode: "The Ed Church Case"
	Hell's Five Hours	Burt Nash
	King Creole	Shark
	God's Little Acre	Shaw Walden
–	The Rifleman	Johnny Cotton	ABC-TV, 2 episodes
	Naked City	David Greco	ABC-TV, Episode: "The Shield"
	Johnny Ringo	Bill Stoner	CBS-TV, Episode: "Kid With a Gun"
	The Lawless Years	Nick Joseph	NBC-TV, Episode: "The Nick Joseph Story (pilot)"
	The Brothers Brannagan	Locke	Syndicated TV, series premiere, Episode: "Tune in for Murder"
	The Barbara Stanwyck Show	Leroy Benson	NBC-TV, Episode: "The Key to the Killer"
	Cimarron	Wes Jennings
–	Bonanza	Lassiter / Ab Brock	2 episodes
–	The Untouchables	Vince Shirer / Collier	2 episodes
	Posse from Hell	Crip
	The Law and Mr. Jones	Dr. Bigelow	ABC-TV, Episode: "A Very Special Citizen"
	Portrait of a Mobster	Dutch Schultz
	The Tall Man	Skip Farrell	NBC-TV, Episode: "Time of Foreshadowing"
	The New Breed	Belman	ABC-TV, Episode: "To Sell Another Human Being"
–	Combat!	Sergeant Chip Saunders	ABC-TV, episodes
	Target: Harry	Harry Black	Alternative titles: What's In it For Harry?, How to Make It
	A Man Called Sledge	Gold Guard Scout	Uncredited
	The Immortal	Sheriff Dan W. Wheeler	Episode: "The Rainbow Butcher"
	Dan August	Steve Harrison	ABC-TV, Episode: "The Union Forever"
	Hawaii Five-O	Edward Heron	CBS-TV, Episode: "Two Doves and Mr. Heron"
	Mannix	Eric Latimer	CBS-TV, Episode: "Days Beyond Recall"
	The F.B.I.	Porter Bent	Episode: "The Stalking Horse"
	Sarge	Lieutenant Ross Edmonds	TV, Episode: "A Push Over the Edge"
	McCloud	Richard	NBC-TV, Episode: "A Little Plot at Tranquil Valley"
	Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law	Andy Capaso	ABC-TV, Episode: "Eight Cents Worth of Protection"
	The Glass House	Hugo Slocum	TV movie
	Mission: Impossible	Joseph Collins	CBS-TV, Episode: "Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown"
	Love Story	Dave Walters	NBC-TV, Episode: "The Cardboard House"
	The F.B.I.	John Omar Stahl	Episode: "Desperate Journey"
	The Streets of San Francisco	Vic Tolliman	ABC-TV, Episode: "The Twenty-Four Karat Plague"
–	Police Story	Sergeant Joe LaFrieda	NBC-TV, 3 episodes
	The Evil Touch	Purvis Greene	TV, 2 episodes
	Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry	Captain Franklin
	The Take	Manso
	The California Kid	Roy Childress	TV movie
	Funeral for an Assassin	Michael Cardiff
	Wanted: Babysitter	Vic, the kidnapper
	The Night That Panicked America	Hank Muldoon	TV movie
	Captains and the Kings	Tom Hennessey	3 episodes
	The Bad News Bears	Coach Roy Turner
	Treasure of Matecumbe	Spangler	Disney movie
	Roots	Ames	ABC-TV miniseries, 2 episodes
	Hunter	CBS-TV, 2 episodes
	The Hostage Heart	Steve Rockewicz	TV movie
	Wild and Wooly	Warden Willis	TV movie
	Message from Space (Ucyuu karano messeiji)	General Garuda	Japanese (Toei) movie
–	Charlie's Angels	Lieutenant Harry Stearns	ABC-TV, "Angel In Hiding" 2 episodes, fifth-season premiere
	Greatest Heroes of the Bible	Arioch	TV, Episode: "Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar"
	The Evictors	Jake Rudd
	The Seekers	Leland Pell	TV movie
	Humanoids from the Deep	Hank Slattery	Alternative titles: Humanoids of the Deep, Monster
	B.A.D. Cats	Captain Eugene Nathan	TV, 9 episodes
	The Last Shark	Ron Hamer	Alternative titles: Great White
	Magnum, P.I.	Police Sergeant Jordan	CBS-TV, Episode: "Wave Goodbye"
	Fantasy Island	Douglas Picard	ABC-TV, Episode: "The Challenge/A Genie Named Joe"
	The Bronx Warriors	Hammer	Penultimate movie
	Abenko gongsu gundan	South Korean war movie. Directed by Im Kwon-taek
	Twilight Zone: The Movie	Bill Connor	Died in an on-set accident during filming (final film role)

Award nominations

References

External links