He debuted onscreen in The Blackbord Jungle (1955) as a sadistic high school student, and after several years he moved up to starring roles. He often played vicious bad guys. He starred in the '60s TV series Combat. In the mid '60s he directed several off-Broadway plays and a couple of short films, then directed, co-produced, and co-wrote the film Deathwatch (1966), adapted from a Jean Genet play; after directing another feature he returned to acting, having gone eight years between screen roles. In 1982 he was killed by the blades of a helicopter while filming an action sequence in the film Twilight Zone: The Movie. He was the father of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Vic Morrow
Active - 1955 - 1983 |
Born - Feb 14, 1929 in Bronx, New York, United States |
Died - Jul 23, 1982 |
Genres - Drama, War, Historical Film
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- Kicked out of several high schools before joining the Navy at 17.
- Originally wanted to be a lawyer because he admired their courtroom performance.
- Studied under Paul Mann at the Actor's Workshop in New York.
- In 1982, he and child actors Renee Chen and Myca Dinh Le died in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).
- As a result of the accident, his children filed a wrongful death lawsuit and it ushered in a new era of safety requirements on movie sets.