Vic Morrow

Infobox actor
name = Vic Morrow


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birthdate = February 14, 1929
birthplace = New York City, New York, United States
deathdate = death date and age|1982|7|23|1929|2|14
deathplace = Indian Dunes, Ventura County, California, United States
othername =
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Victor "Vic" Morrow (February 14, 1929 – July 23, 1982) was an American actor.

Biography

Early life

Morrow was born in the Bronx, New York to a middle class Jewish family. [ [http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/personnel/morrow_BIO.html About Vic Morrow ] ] His father was an electrical engineer. Morrow dropped out of high school and joined the U.S. Navy at age 17.

Career

Morrow's first movie role was in "Blackboard Jungle" (1955). After this movie, he went into television and was cast in the TV series "Combat!" (1962-1967), in which he also worked as a television director. After "Combat!" ended, he worked in made-for-TV movies and several films. Morrow appeared in two episodes of Australian-produced anthology series "The Evil Touch" (1973), one of which he also directed. He memorably played the homicidal sheriff alongside Martin Sheen in the 1974 TV film "The California Kid", and had a key role in the 1976 comedy "The Bad News Bears".

Death

Morrow, along with two young children My-Ca Dinh Le (aged 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (aged 6), died on the set of "" (1982). At the time of his death, Morrow was playing the role of Bill Connor, a bigot who was taken back in time and placed in various situations where he would be a persecuted victim: a Jewish Holocaust victim, a black man about to be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan, and a Vietnamese man about to be killed by United States soldiers.

Vic Morrow, My-Ca Dinh Le, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were shooting a scene for the Vietnam sequence of "Twilight Zone: The Movie". They were running from a pursuing helicopter. The helicopter was flying at a low level when pyrotechnic explosions caused the helicopter to lose control and crash on top of the three. [Ventura County Coroner Department autopsy reports] Morrow and Le were both decapitated by the blades; Chen was fatally crushed underneath the helicopter's landing skid. The helicopter crew received minor injuries.

Morrow is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. [ [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1902 Vic Morrow at Findagrave.com] ]

The "Twilight Zone: The Movie" controversy

Due in part to the deaths of Morrow, Le, and Chen, the children's illegal hiring to circumvent child labor laws, and the nighttime schedule during which the children were worked without supervision, child labor laws were reformed, as were safety regulations on movie sets in the state of California. Litigation over the deaths lasted well over a decade. Director John Landis and other defendants, which included producer Steven Spielberg and pilot Dorsey Wingo, were ultimately acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. The parents of My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen sued and settled out of court for $2 million each. Morrow's children, Carrie Morrow and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, also sued and likewise settled for an undisclosed amount.

elected filmography

Award nominations

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0607558|name=Vic Morrow
* [http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/personnel/MORROW_credits.html Filmography]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/not_guilty/twilight_zone/1.html Twilight Zone Tragedy at crimelibrary.com]
* [http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/Vic%20Morrow/vic_morrow.htm Find A Death - Vic Morrow]
* [http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/personnel/Peabodys_Place-4.html Article on Twilight Zone tragedy, written by friend and COMBAT! co-star Dick 'Little John' Peabody]
* [http://www.keropiansculpture.com/vicmorrow.html Sculptural Tribute to Actor Vic Morrow]
*

Persondata
NAME= Morrow, Vic
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Morrow, Victor
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= February 14, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH= New York City, New York
DATE OF DEATH= July 23, 1982
PLACE OF DEATH= Indian Dunes, Ventura County, California