10 Actors Who Didn't Realise They Were Seconds Away From Disaster
These actors had no idea how close to disaster they really were on set.
It may be the place where fantasy worlds come to life and stories are immortalised forever on film, but a movie set also has the potential to be a rather dangerous environment when all is said and done.
That's not to say that every day shooting a feature is as dread-filled and perilous as the next. Who wouldn't want to get paid to swing a sword around and scream "For Rohan!" at the top of their lungs? Yet, for every entirely safe capture of an iconic line set against a jaw-dropping backdrop, there's always another scene which requires a bit more care and attention to pull off safely.
Unfortunately, not everyone gets the memo about that last part and actors have routinely found themselves in the thick of an incredibly scary situation with next to no knowledge of the level of risk they're actually at.
From talented thespians dangling from objects not designed to hold a human body, to very nearly becoming a big cat's lunch on the turn of a dime, these stars of the big and small screen simply had no clue disaster was heading their way.
10. Eli Wallach, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly - Nearly Losing His Head
Eli Wallach's time shooting on Sergio Leone's legendary The Good, the Bad and the Ugly feature wasn't what you'd class as a dull affair by any stretch of the imagination.
If very nearly meeting his maker on the back of almost drinking acid on set wasn't bad enough, the actor drafted in to play Tuco was nearly left with a head very much separated from his body on the back of an ill-thought-out train stunt.
Instead of having a stunt performer execute the risky scene involving Tuco splitting a chain connecting him to a dead man thanks to an oncoming train, Wallach was brought in to do the scene himself. Only, no-one realised that said train had a pair of protruding steps attached to it, meaning that if Wallach's head had been in the wrong place, well, let's just say that trying to break free from some chains would've been the least of his problems.
Thankfully, Wallach survived the nutty stunt, and was also saved from an explosion during the shoot by Clint Eastwood. Someone really had it out for Wallach in this western, eh?