1:28 pm - 04/27/2012
The Final Destination franchise has taken the “I’ve cheated death” story to a comical level. Characters in the film escape death and then are taken out one by one in increasingly more elaborate and cartoony fashion. But when these kinds of things happen in real life, it’s not nearly as enjoyable. But the stories behind them are incredibly interesting. Here’s a list of celebrities who should be dead…but aren’t.
Gary Busey
Cause of (almost) Death: Motorcycle
It’s hard to picture now, but the overly eccentric, wacky, and recently bankrupt Gary Busey was once a respected, Oscar-nominated actor. In December of 1988, however, the actor was involved in a helmet-less motorcycle accident that fractured his skull. Since then, doctors have become convinced by Busey’s often-erratic behavior that he probably suffered a more serious brain injury that originally thought.
Johnny Depp
Cause of (almost) Death: Airplane
While he was filming his recent film, The Rum Diaries, Johnny Depp went on a private plane
ride with director, Bruce Robinson. Somewhere in mid-flight, the engines simply stopped prompting to Depp and the director in a fit of hysterics to joke about it being how they were going to die. The engines started back up and they were able to truly laugh it off. The experience created a unique bond between the actor and the director and also gives Depp the opportunity to make fourteen more Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.
Rachel Bilson
Cause of (almost) Death: Car
When she was just 16, Rachel Bilson was in a serious car crash that she says changed her life.
The actress and three of her friends were speeding down Pacific Coast Highway when they slammed head on into a truck. The Jaws of Life had to be used to cut Bilson and Co. out of the vehicle and she was in a coma for a while, but when she came to, she had a new outlook on life that she claims is the reason she’s been as successful as she has.
Hugh Hefner
Cause of (almost) Death: Choking…on sex toy?!
In what may be the best way to go out if you’re going to die, Hugh Hefner had his near death
experience while he was having sex with four playmates. The Playboy legend revealed that he once choked on a sex toy and almost died. He said his life flashed before his eyes. That had to have been the most entertaining life flash in the history of life flashes.
There are others not mentioned here. Off the top of my head I know of at least four or five others
Lucille Ball
Cause of (almost) Death: Drowning
The actress nearly drowned in the "shower" episode of The Lucy Show. Vivian Vance saved her by literally pulling her up by her hair, then ad-libbed altered dialogue as Ball gasped for breath. The live audience, unaware of her close call, found it all hysterically funny.
Margaret Hamilton
Cause of (almost) Death: Third Degree Burns
The 'Wizard of Oz' actress suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland, in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks after the accident before returning to the set to complete her work on the now-classic film, and refused to have anything to do with fire for the rest of the filming. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition — no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while she recuperated at home.
Seth MacFarlane
Cause of (almost) Death: Plane Crash
On the morning of September 11, 2001, MacFarlane was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston, Massachusetts. Suffering from a hangover from the previous night's celebrations, and with an incorrect departure time (8:15 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m.) from his travel agent, he arrived at Logan International Airport about ten minutes too late to board the flight as the gates had been closed. Fifteen minutes after departure, American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked, and at 8:46 a.m. it was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, obliterating the airplane, and killing everyone on board. In an interview with TVShowsOnDVD.com, MacFarlane said the following about his close call: “ The only reason it hasn't really affected me as it maybe could have is I didn't really know that I was in any danger until after it was over, so I never had that panic moment. After the fact, it was sobering, but people have a lot of close calls; you're crossing the street and you almost get hit by a car... this one just happened to be related to something massive. I really can't let it affect me because I'm a comedy writer. I have to put that in the back of my head.
Nikki Sixx
Cause of (almost) Death: Heroin Overdose
Nikki almost died of a heroin overdose right after the very short “Girls, Girls Girls” tour back in 1987. He was brought back to life with a couple of shots of adrenaline to the heart, hence the song, “Kickstart My Heart.”
Minnie Riperton
Cause of (almost) Death: Lion
Minnie was promoting her album 'Adventures in Paradise' and even is shown sitting next to a lion on the album cover. During the shoot, the lion lunged at Minnie without any provocation. Fortunately, the animal’s tamer was on the set and the lion was quickly sedated. A film clip of the incident was aired on Sammy Davis Jr’s talk show Sammy & Company when Minnie was a guest, and can now be found on Youtube.
Gloria Estefan
Cause of (almost) Death: Bus Accident
While touring in support of her album Cuts Both Ways on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Estefan was critically injured, suffering a fractured spine when a speeding semi-truck crashed into the tour bus she was in during a snowstorm. She was taken to Community Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit and the next day was flown by helicopter to New York City, where surgeons at the Hospital for Joint Diseases at NYU Langone Medical Center permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her vertebral column. Her rehabilitation required almost a year of intensive physical therapy by Michael Klepper, but she achieved a complete recovery. She returned to an international tour ten months after the accident.
SOURCE
Celebs Who Cheated Death
The Final Destination franchise has taken the “I’ve cheated death” story to a comical level. Characters in the film escape death and then are taken out one by one in increasingly more elaborate and cartoony fashion. But when these kinds of things happen in real life, it’s not nearly as enjoyable. But the stories behind them are incredibly interesting. Here’s a list of celebrities who should be dead…but aren’t.
Gary Busey
Cause of (almost) Death: Motorcycle
It’s hard to picture now, but the overly eccentric, wacky, and recently bankrupt Gary Busey was once a respected, Oscar-nominated actor. In December of 1988, however, the actor was involved in a helmet-less motorcycle accident that fractured his skull. Since then, doctors have become convinced by Busey’s often-erratic behavior that he probably suffered a more serious brain injury that originally thought.
Johnny Depp
Cause of (almost) Death: Airplane
While he was filming his recent film, The Rum Diaries, Johnny Depp went on a private plane
ride with director, Bruce Robinson. Somewhere in mid-flight, the engines simply stopped prompting to Depp and the director in a fit of hysterics to joke about it being how they were going to die. The engines started back up and they were able to truly laugh it off. The experience created a unique bond between the actor and the director and also gives Depp the opportunity to make fourteen more Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.
Rachel Bilson
Cause of (almost) Death: Car
When she was just 16, Rachel Bilson was in a serious car crash that she says changed her life.
The actress and three of her friends were speeding down Pacific Coast Highway when they slammed head on into a truck. The Jaws of Life had to be used to cut Bilson and Co. out of the vehicle and she was in a coma for a while, but when she came to, she had a new outlook on life that she claims is the reason she’s been as successful as she has.
Hugh Hefner
Cause of (almost) Death: Choking…on sex toy?!
In what may be the best way to go out if you’re going to die, Hugh Hefner had his near death
experience while he was having sex with four playmates. The Playboy legend revealed that he once choked on a sex toy and almost died. He said his life flashed before his eyes. That had to have been the most entertaining life flash in the history of life flashes.
There are others not mentioned here. Off the top of my head I know of at least four or five others
Lucille Ball
Cause of (almost) Death: Drowning
The actress nearly drowned in the "shower" episode of The Lucy Show. Vivian Vance saved her by literally pulling her up by her hair, then ad-libbed altered dialogue as Ball gasped for breath. The live audience, unaware of her close call, found it all hysterically funny.
Margaret Hamilton
Cause of (almost) Death: Third Degree Burns
The 'Wizard of Oz' actress suffered a second-degree burn on her face and a third-degree burn on her hand during a second take of her fiery exit from Munchkinland, in which the trap door's drop was delayed to eliminate the brief glimpse of it seen in the final edit. Hamilton had to recuperate in a hospital and at home for six weeks after the accident before returning to the set to complete her work on the now-classic film, and refused to have anything to do with fire for the rest of the filming. After she recuperated, she said, "I won't sue, because I know how this business works, and I would never work again. I will return to work on one condition — no more fireworks!" Garland visited Hamilton while she recuperated at home.
Seth MacFarlane
Cause of (almost) Death: Plane Crash
On the morning of September 11, 2001, MacFarlane was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston, Massachusetts. Suffering from a hangover from the previous night's celebrations, and with an incorrect departure time (8:15 a.m. instead of 7:45 a.m.) from his travel agent, he arrived at Logan International Airport about ten minutes too late to board the flight as the gates had been closed. Fifteen minutes after departure, American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked, and at 8:46 a.m. it was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, obliterating the airplane, and killing everyone on board. In an interview with TVShowsOnDVD.com, MacFarlane said the following about his close call: “ The only reason it hasn't really affected me as it maybe could have is I didn't really know that I was in any danger until after it was over, so I never had that panic moment. After the fact, it was sobering, but people have a lot of close calls; you're crossing the street and you almost get hit by a car... this one just happened to be related to something massive. I really can't let it affect me because I'm a comedy writer. I have to put that in the back of my head.
Nikki Sixx
Cause of (almost) Death: Heroin Overdose
Nikki almost died of a heroin overdose right after the very short “Girls, Girls Girls” tour back in 1987. He was brought back to life with a couple of shots of adrenaline to the heart, hence the song, “Kickstart My Heart.”
Minnie Riperton
Cause of (almost) Death: Lion
Minnie was promoting her album 'Adventures in Paradise' and even is shown sitting next to a lion on the album cover. During the shoot, the lion lunged at Minnie without any provocation. Fortunately, the animal’s tamer was on the set and the lion was quickly sedated. A film clip of the incident was aired on Sammy Davis Jr’s talk show Sammy & Company when Minnie was a guest, and can now be found on Youtube.
Gloria Estefan
Cause of (almost) Death: Bus Accident
While touring in support of her album Cuts Both Ways on March 20, 1990, near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Estefan was critically injured, suffering a fractured spine when a speeding semi-truck crashed into the tour bus she was in during a snowstorm. She was taken to Community Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit and the next day was flown by helicopter to New York City, where surgeons at the Hospital for Joint Diseases at NYU Langone Medical Center permanently implanted two titanium rods to stabilize her vertebral column. Her rehabilitation required almost a year of intensive physical therapy by Michael Klepper, but she achieved a complete recovery. She returned to an international tour ten months after the accident.
SOURCE
QUEEN!
& haha, same here.
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:07 pm (UTC)
glad you're ok, bb.
I had the stomach flu, regular flu and a migraine all at once over a year ago and went to sleep in my room and went into a coma. I'm not sure I have ever felt worse but waking up a few days after I fell asleep in a different place was really confusing and scary.
Then a few months ago (2011 was awesome) I got into a bad car accident the front end was completely smashed in. I was with my mom and was so concerned about her being alright that I didn't figure out that something wasn't right in my chest. I got out of the car and passed out from lack of oxygen. This happened during hurricane Irene so everyone was already freaking out trying to evacuate and there was a lack of ambulances and the hospitals were shut down. I had to get transported an hour away and luckily I lived but had to spend two months getting breathing treatments and it took me an hour to walk half a block at the start. I also had cramps in my chest so bad (still get them) that I would fall over on the floor and cry. I'm better now but still scared of driving.
The last one is recently, I went to hang out with this guy who I had met during the day at night. I got into his car. He drove to a deserted area and sexually assaulted me...slammed my head into his door. I begged him to bring me back and told him I gave my cousin all his information before I left the house and told her if something happened to me where to find him. He stopped and brought me back home and I did actually tell my cousin that. I suggest not going out with a guy alone at night immediately after that experience. But the way he choked me and was acting made me think it could have ended a lot worse than it did and I'm grateful I got to go home.
Those are a few, probably nothing drastic but it's been a shit two years.
And no, I won't go anywhere near moving water anymore (all three took place in various rivers). I'm not taking any chances.
The person eventually recovered I believe or at least hope,but seeing as how it wasn't their fault at all just the misfortune of being the car that was turning at that moment it makes me unnerved.
I hate saying that,because it makes me sound like one of those people that makes it all about themselves.
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:37 pm (UTC)
By the time I finally went to the doctor, she called an ambulance straight away and I was rushed to hospital. When they did the operation to remove the appendix they said it was only hours away from bursting (which would have probably killed me by blood poisoning) and the surgery was so complicated that my body has been 'traumatised' by it. If I had waited just a few more hours... :/
I will never again wait so long to go to the doctors. Now I'm mega paranoid when there's the slightest thing wrong with me.
Then I've been in several car accidents and had several close calls while driving and I'm also another clumsy one - I've had so many falls, it's really a miracle I'm not a paraplegic or dead. Most of the falls were from two-story or more heights too. I got in some many accidents as a kid my little sister, who watched me have all these accidents, never wanted to do anything at all because she was so afraid the same thing would happen to her! I used to joke and say I was like Wolverine - fast-healing with adamantium bones - so she didn't need to worry. That was how I finally convinced her to learn to ride a two-wheel bike at the age of 9 haha
Really though, I'm apparently quite lucky to have only ever broken one bone in my life and not died 0_o
Unfortunately it hasn't helped me to be more careful. I'm too absent-minded for constant vigilance!
Edited at 2012-04-27 06:54 pm (UTC)
After returning home, I went to bed normally, but woke up in the middle of the night. I very clearly remember that I threw up an awful lot in my cot and screamed for my parents. They came, cleaned everything and allowed me to sleep in their bed.
They didn't think that anything was wrong (just that I might have eaten something bad), so they didn't take me to the doctor.
A few days later, friends of my parents went to visit and one of them, a children's doc herself, was shocked to see me. She said that I looked "like death" and should go to the hospital immediately. In the hospital, my parents were told that if they had just waited 1-2 hours more, I would have died for sure.
I was dehydrated and in serious danger of falling into a coma... Funny enough, I can also remember having a near death experience at that time...
we were biking to the traditional part of town when we stopped at a crossing at a red light. we crossed once it turned green - a split second later a car ran straight through the crossing, killing seven people. looking back at it though, it feels trivial to think about almost dying, compared to how upsetting it is to think that the old woman we tried to help died...
edit: wait come to think of it i apparently almost drowned in a pool when i was maybe a year old? i have zero recollection of it at all, but my mom's told me a few times.
Edited at 2012-04-27 07:06 pm (UTC)
and another time i was on my way to my college exhibition, i got into a taxi and the taxi drivers here r the worst driver. i wasnt paying attention that he was speeding cos i was too busy looking at my stuff to make sure that i have everything in check, and i didnt even think of wearing a seatbelt cos it was 5 mins away. but suddenly he just stopped , i hit my head against the front seat and when i looked up we were like literally inches away from the car infront, i was like wtf.
At the time, I thought I had cheated death.
I was also almost stabbed by my ex boyfriend, but that was more of a "near miss by me moving out of the way" and he never got to land the weapon so I hesitate to claim that.
Years later, I never understood my irrational hate for ATvs until my mom told me about this and I remembered. tbh, some of the details are still fuzzy, but I remember being carried into the house.
Edited at 2012-04-27 07:52 pm (UTC)
I got swept maybe a couple hundred feet down the river. I remember thinking "oh fuck, I could die." I struggled madly and tried to keep my head above water. I finally hit a boulder full-on with my chest and didn't care; I dug my nails into it and pulled myself out. I'd hit a bunch of rocks really hard and was covered in bruises and lost a shoe, but otherwise I was just scared.
It REALLY made me evaluate some shit in my life.
My mom found my shoe several miles downstream where the river is more of a creek, incidentally, while she was riding her bike.
Edited at 2012-04-27 08:05 pm (UTC)
But when i was born? I dont know if that counts, i was born 10 weeks early (Back in '84, so it was a big deal). Born not breathing, i was resuscitated, and in the neonatal intensive care.
At 2 weeks old and still in hospital i had to have surgery on my bowel due to Necrotizing enterocolitis (i had to google the correct term, but its the condition where portions of the bowl die?. So, part of it was removed and i had a colostomy). I made it to 9 weeks still in hospital, but got an infection so the colostomy was reversed.
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When i was 18 i drunkenly feel off a roof and had to have surgery on my back. Wasn't really deathly serious. But had to have surgery all the same. Still suffer back issues to this day.
I was choking on something weird. They took me away before my parents could hold me.
So my dad followed me into the NICU and they told my mother that they weren't gonna let her see me because that way it will be easier for her to handle my death.
But obvs I didn't die in the end.
When I was a few months old I got pneumonia and was hospitalized, so my baby photos have me with a shaved head because I had to have tubes put in, heh.
When I was something like 5 or 6 I was out by my grandpa's horses and one of them apparently grabbed me by the pants and was going to whip me around but my uncle grabbed me away from it (I don't really know the WHOLE story on that one :P).
Same age-ish I happened to just walk up to a rattlesnake on a barrel and my (same) uncle snatched me away when it started to rattle, and possibly killed it too. :C
When I was 6 I almost drowned in my grandpa's pool. I jumped in without a life jacket, no adults were around, so I started drowning and somehow managed to pull myself out of the pool. A couple seconds later the adults realised what happened and my mom came sprinting outside screaming and with a towel, haha.
...I think that's about it. :D
Turns out the fluid in my body accumulated in my lungs and I was drowning internally.
When I was 10 years old, I had strep. None of the antibiotics worked and my fever got to 105.9 and when I returned I was hospitalized for 1 week with septic shock (like toxic shock syndrome except the bacteria mutated inside the body, not outside like a tampon can do)
My mom told me I had a 50% chance of dieing but I made it through.
Thank God I was with a bunch of friends and they went in when I never came back up and an adult performed CPR. These days I avoid underwater tunnels :\
Edited at 2012-04-27 09:47 pm (UTC)
I couldn't really do much since the waves kept bitch slapping me down it was so scary but I was so drunk that I kind of didn't even realize I was drowning. luckily a guy saw it all happen and went in and got me out. It traumatized me so much that I've cut down significantly on my drinking since.
I've had a couple of car near-misses but hasn't everyone? It always makes me realise when I've fallen into bad driving habits.
It was a head-on collision, the taxi looked like an accordion. The taxi driver had to be pulled out with the jaws of life and airlifted to the hospital because the entire windshield got pushed into him. I remember my glasses getting knocked off my face, and when I found them they were completely drenched in the taxi driver's blood.
I walked away without so much as a bruise. Not a scratch on me, not even from all the shattered glass. I was not wearing a seatbelt. I later found out I was about 6 weeks pregnant at the time.
I tend to wade in water but there was a sudden dip in the ocean floor and I couldn't find my footing. The current carried me out and waves were crashing over my head. I was swallowing water and struggling to stay afloat. I remember screaming for help and the babysitter standing on the shore with her hands in the air like "what?" My rescuer was a guy with a surf board. I don't even remember what he looked like, but he swam out to get me and brought me back.
The babysitter was all "how was I supposed to know she was drowning?"
My mom (heartless bitch) just blew it off, but I was legit traumatized by it for a long time. My whole life felt surreal and I remember listening to Pink's new CD that night and thinking that maybe I had died and I was in the afterlife that was a lot like my live one.
I almost drowned in a wave pool at King Dominion when I was about 9. I slipped off my friends inflatable tube, took in water, and sank to the bottom. After having a few seconds of a weird flashback sequence I managed to push myself off from the bottom and grabbed some random persons float before going to the shallow end.
When I was 19 I was driving from North Caroline to Maryland during the 2010 epic snow storm, spun out, and barely dodged getting hit by an 18 wheeler and a white van.
Most recently on my 21st birthday I got alcohol poisoning. When I arrived at the hospital I had a B.A.C of .5 and apparently someone slipped Benzos into my drink. Since I'm female, about 5'5, and around 125 pounds the odds of me surviving that were slim to none, so I'm pretty fucking lucky!
So, she goes in the house, and I somehow manage to flip over. My legs got all twisted and stuck, and I was so light that the thing was still floating, but upside down. And I didn't have the strength to flip over. I lost consciousness. Apparently, not a single one of these grown women noticed, it took the fact that my brother happened to glance over and see that I was fucking just...hanging there underwater to save my life. He jumped out of the other pool, pulled me out, and did cpr that he just learned in his swimming class to make me start spitting up water and all. He was fucking NINE. And he was screaming and crying for my mom, but he apparently didn't freak out until AFTER I was awake. Brave little guy. :(
I mean, he also tried to legit drown me and kill me himself not in a joking way many times afterwards, but he saved me that time, lol.
I stopped breathing while under anesthesia and they couldn't resuscitate me for like 15 minutes and it took me a really long time to come out of it, which was terrifying because the next time I went under a few days later, I stopped breathing as I was going under but couldn't call out. I thought to myself "This is it" as everything went dark. I still have a hard time being in the dark and going to sleep 2 years later.
I was 6 months old in the 1989 Earthquake and I was at the Giants game in Candlestick Park... if I was at home in my crib, I would have been crushed to death by my parents' new TV.
I was in the hospital for dehydration when I was 3.
I nearly choked to death on a piece of candy while my mom was driving when I was 4. I attempted to scream/make a sound but I couldn't because my throat was blocked... luckily my mom my purple face in her car mirror, pulled over, and did the Heimlich.
When I was a teenager my clueless friend and I were driving around, a bit lost. We were stopped at a light.. I didn't know we were between two train tracks. All of a sudden, two trains went by at the exact same time (and FAST). If I was one foot forward or one foot backwards, we would have been crushed by one of the trains. I still don't know why that area wasn't better marked... I know a kid who got hit by a train and died.
I've lived in California but when I lived in New Mexico I felt like I was cheating death almost every day. I know lots of kids that died tragically.
and my csb contribution to this post as far as close death calls goes is when I almost died when I accidentally went rock climbing. Accidentally, in that my friend and I were hiking off trail in the mountains, and we were going to shimmy around a patch of rock on the side to continue, but...the rocks never ended. They just got steeper. And flatter. And we soon realized we were half a mile up in the air, above a freezing river, and we couldn't turn around.
AND I WAS WEARING FUCKING CLOGS.
somehow we managed to climb up past the rocky part and got to the soil-y part of the mountain side (and by "climb" I mean crawling upward digging our hands in the dirt trying not to die). We smoked a cigarette, then slid down the other side of the mountain on our asses to the bottom.
Needless to say, we were a hot fucking mess when we got back to the campsite. We were stuck on that damn mountain for 3 hours.
Edited at 2012-04-27 05:52 pm (UTC)
but my friend likes to go off trail (and knows I do too) so yeah, he started it lol
it really was...what was funny was that everyone in the camping group thought we were making out on the mountain, cause they all knew he wanted me (he was a cool guy but could never develop feelings for him...good thing, turned out he had genital warts, oop @ him). So they saw us coming down the trail like "ooOooOoOoohh bet you guys were busy..." then they saw us completely covered in dirt and blood and it quickly turned into HOLY SHIT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!?"
have you ever gone rock climbing again?
(that's all I got)
it was like a city made one
that was a bad night
And still can't help being amazed that he remembers that. Confirms a lot of things to me.
I'm still amazed he didn't die from partying w/ motley crue.
I'm convinced he's secretly a superhero or something. He's an X-Man.