10 Actors Who Didn't Realise They Were Seconds Away From Disaster

6. Harold Lloyd, Haunted Spooks - That Fake Bomb Looks Awfully Real

The Exorcist
By Rolin Films / Pathe Distributors [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The 1920's were a very different time in the world of moviemaking, evidenced in the fact that it somehow escaped everyone on set that what was supposed to be a fake bomb was actually very much the real deal.

This incident went down during a photoshoot for the silent feature Haunted Spooks which involved actor Harold Lloyd posing for shots in front of a photographer. In this moment, Lloyd spotted the nearby "fake bomb" and noted that for a fake, it sure was emitting a lot of real looking smoke.

Seconds later, his instincts about something not being quite right were proved to be correct. The bomb legitimately exploded, sending the photographer flying and leaving Lloyd without two fingers. He was also rendered temporarily blind by the explosion.

It's safe to say that absolutely nobody in the immediate vicinity had any clue they were stood so close to an armed explosive device, so the eventual eruption that took off the roof and also injured Lloyd's assistant was anything but an expected occurrence.

Contributor
Contributor

Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...