real life deaths on TV

[mleach]

Besides the suicides of Bud Dwyer and Chris Chubbuck are there any other examples of someone actually dying in front of the cameras?

Ever since that movie "We Are Marshall" came out I have heard that one of the Charleston/Huntington, WV TV stations ( I heard it was WSAZ, others say it was WOWK, well WHTN as the station was called back in 1970 ) anyway I heard that one of those stations actually has a tape/film in their archives showing the plane with the Marshall Football team slamming into a hill and bursting into flames. One story I heard even goes as far as says the plane crash aired live on local TV there. Any truth to any of this?

Also wasn't there some talk show back in the 70s where the guest bragged about being so healthy that expected to live to a ripe old age. Then suddenly he dies of a heart attack. Did this happen on Mike Douglas? Dinah?

 

[CrankyYankee]

The shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in 1963 was on live TV. The question about the guest dying on a talk show reminds me of an episode of (I think) "The Dick Cavett Show" where a guest came on and as the show progressed he appeared to fall asleep but had, in fact, died. It's my understanding that that show never aired. Can someone confirm this?

 

[donnyg]

Yes Yankee, you are correct. That actually did happen on Dick Cavett, back in 1970. It is on www.snopes.com
The ironic part is, the guy was a health expert I believe. Of course this technically was not live as the show was taped, hence the reason it never aired, and lest we forget the challenger, the columbia, and 9/11 all of which were broadcast live.

Donny G

 

[Ultimajock]

The shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in 1963 was on live TV.

...however, Oswald, though fatally wounded, did not actually die at the scene of the shooting but at Parkland Hospital...

...on the other hand, I think Dale Earnhardt, Sr., would qualify here...

 

[bk77]

In reguards to the 11/14/70 Marshall Thundering Herd plane crash that became to subject of the movie "We Are Marshall", not sure if a film of the actual plane going down exist or not though there are films of the aftermath of the crash itself. But one thing is known. At the time the of crash, Huntington, West Virginia's WHTN channel 13 ( now WOWK ) was airing The Newlywed Game only to flash a bulletin about the crash across the screen while the show was going on. Come to think of it I believe that was even in the recent Marshall movie.

Several years ago I stumbled upon a website that featured newspaper clippings and old radio news reports of the crash. One story featured The Newlywed Game part but also said that once the show ended, WHTN put up a test pattern with the Marshall University logo. I assume WSAZ did the same. I guess the two Huntington stations figured that since everyone in Huntington wanted to go to the crash site to see what they could do and for respect so they decided to sign off early that night.

Be interesting to see what the Charleston-Huntington TV listings were for the date of Saturday 11/14/70

 

[Stanislav]

Several years ago I stumbled upon a website that featured newspaper clippings and old radio news reports of the crash. One story featured The Newlywed Game part but also said that once the show ended, WHTN put up a test pattern with the Marshall University logo. I assume WSAZ did the same. I guess the two Huntington stations figured that since everyone in Huntington wanted to go to the crash site to see what they could do and for respect so they decided to sign off early that night.

That may have been Jeff Miller's site -- he has a specialty page (http://members.aol.com/jeff99500/) about WV broadcasting, and still has some print material up (although I see nothing about the Marshall crash), but he also used to host of ton of sound files, and I'm pretty sure a couple were about the crash. (He had to delete the sound files as the bandwidth costs were eating him alive...) He had a lot of interesting stuff, and I'm sorry I never got around to downloading it all before the files were pulled.

 

[Charles1]

Major League Baseball umpire John McSherry collapsed and died of a massive heart attack while on the field on Opening Day of the 1996 season. He was the home plate umpire at Riverfront Stadium as the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Montreal Expos. I'm sure that this game was telecast on WLWT or Sportschannel Ohio, and perhaps on a station in Montreal.

 

[Stanislav]

Assuming we are talking about individuals dying or being killed, as opposed to mass disasters that just happen to be on live, taped, or film TV, Wikipedia does have a couple of these listed from the U.K.:

1958: Gareth Jones, actor, collapsed and died while in make-up between scenes of a live television play, Underground, at the studios of Associated British Corporation in Manchester. Director Ted Kotcheff continued the play to its conclusion, improvising around Jones's absence.

1984: Tommy Cooper collapsed from a massive heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act, on the popular ITV variety show, Live from Her Majesty's. At first the audience assumed he was joking.

Cavett recently wrote about the Rodale incident in the NYT. Here's a reprint of it:

http://donkeyod.wordpress.com/2007/05/04/when-that-guy-died-on-my-show/

Does anyone else remember that incident on Univision some years ago? A reporter was taping an interview at a cemetery with a woman (I forget how the cemetery figured into it) in Spanish when the woman's estranged husband suddenly appears out of nowhere and pumps 3 or 4 bullets into her, killing her. What I remember most is the freightened reporter yelling "Ai! Ai!" at each shot, but then seconds later telling her cameraman (in English) "Keep rolling....keep rolling..." which exemplifies either her professionalism (don't get emotionally involved and get the footage) or her cold inhumanity, or maybe a little of both. That is where the footage ended when they would show it on the news, but apparently they never turned off the camera, and as the reporter and cameraman fled the scene (I think they were afraid that the dude was still around somewhere and might shoot THEM) the camera, sitting on the backseat, picked up their conversation as they drove away, getting lost in their panic as they tried to find their way out of this huge cemetery. They showed the footage at the trial, and Court TV covered it live, even though there was a lot of profanity on the tape (the cameraman must have exclaimed "Holy S**t!" about twenty times as they drove off -- well, what else was there to say at that point?) and there was no delay or any attempt to bleep out the cuss words.

 

[genius]

Didn't Donahue feature a live execution on his show in the early 90s?

 

[Stanislav]

Didn't Donahue feature a live execution on his show in the early 90s?

Undoubtedly an urban legend. I do know that Geraldo for years was jonesing to show a live execution on his show, but no jurisdiction in the country would allow that.

 

[Stanislav]

A few others I found or remembered:

Karl Wallenda -- This famed aerialist died in 1978 at age 73 while attempting to walk a wire suspended 123 feet in the air between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (It was caught on video, but I'd be willing to bet that at least one of the San Juan stations may have been showing it live as well...)

Bill Stewart -- While attempting to film war destruction in Nicaragua in 1979, this ABC television news correspondent and his interpreter, Juan Espinosa, were executed by a National Guard soldier. Surviving members of the ABC crew managed to catch the murder on tape, and the footage was later shown on news broadcasts.

And let's not forget the horrifying crash of the two Phoenix news copters (KNXV-15 and KTVK-3) recently -- 15's video showed the impact of the collision and the spinning, scrambled video as it plunged to the ground. There was a similar incident back in the 80's involving ch. 12 in Jacksonville (WTLV) in which their traffic copter suddenly went haywire and plunged to the ground near the intersection of I-10 and I-95 in a matter of seconds, all while live on the air. I believe the pilot was killed and the reporter injured in that one.

 

[genius]

Didn't Donahue feature a live execution on his show in the early 90s?

Undoubtedly an urban legend. I do know that Geraldo for years was jonesing to show a live execution on his show, but no jurisdiction in the country would allow that.

I looked it up because I could sworn something like that happened, and found this:

Lawson v. Dixon, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 14594 (1994).  This case is famous because Lawson wished to have his execution televised on the Phil Donahue show; Mr. Donahue is also a plaintiff in this case.  Lawson, Donahue, and Arnold, a third plaintiff, argued the same 1st and 14th Amendment claims that KQED argued two years earlier when it attempted to videotape and broadcast an execution. Dixon, a warden of the North Carolina prison where Lawson was being held, put forth the same arguments that Vasquez had put forth earlier. The Supreme Court of North Carolina reached the same holding as the U.S. District Court found in KQED: the prison warden had valid reasons for excluding video cameras from the witness room and more importantly, the plaintiffs had no valid 1st or 14th Amendment claims.  However, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, while not required to address the merits of Lawson=s claim, called into question the validity of the North Carolina Supreme Court=s determination that Lawson did not have any constitutional guarantee to either 1) select those persons whom he wished to witness his execution, or 2) to require that his execution be filmed.

So you're right, no live execution took place, but Donahue tried.

 

[CrankyYankee]

Here's one I'd not heard about... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck

...and one I kind of remember... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Dwyer

 

[radiorob2.0]

The first death I remember on TV involved Jonestown, Guyana. An NBC cameraman was rolling tape when they were attacked.

 

[ChuckTiller]

The first death I remember on TV involved Jonestown, Guyana. An NBC cameraman was rolling tape when they were attacked.

Don Harris, the reporter for NBC was also murdered at that same scene.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Someone mentioned Dale Sr. at the '01 Daytona 500...Swede Savage was killed in a crash at the 1973 Indy 500, and while the race wasn't yet being broadcast live, there were quite a few replays of the wreck. Also, I vivdly remember watching Chuck Hughes of the Detroit Lions die in an on-field collision in 1970.

Finally, didn't the CBS Evening News show that famous film of the police chief of Saigon shooting the suspected VC operative in the head?

 

[pqgeorge]

Chuck Hughes/Detroit Lions death (was Re: real life deaths on TV)

Someone mentioned Dale Sr. at the '01 Daytona 500...Swede Savage was killed in a crash at the 1973 Indy 500, and while the race wasn't yet being broadcast live, there were quite a few replays of the wreck. Also, I vivdly remember watching Chuck Hughes of the Detroit Lions die in an on-field collision in 1970.

Finally, didn't the CBS Evening News show that famous film of the police chief of Saigon shooting the suspected VC operative in the head?

Basically, Chuck Hughes died of a massive heart attack right on the field October 24, 1971 during a game between the Lions and the Chicago Bears. Had no previous symptoms of heart trouble in the past. But in the middle of the game, Hughes collapsed while assisting a play. Some people thought that he might be faking an injury in order to stop the clock. However, opposing Chicago Bears player Dick Butkus saw that something was definitely wrong with Hughes and quickly summoned medical help. The rest of the game was played near silence. I recall watching the replay on the news that evening and was quite upset after seeing it.

 

[bk77]

Here's one I'd not heard about... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck

...and one I kind of remember... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Dwyer

I think just about everyone remembers Dwyer's suicide.

Chubbuck...I find it interesting that her family now has the videotape of her 1974 on-air suicide. Well at least that won't make it to You Tube. And speaking of Chubbuck, I did find this on You Tube. No its not Chubbuck
but its the weatherman doing his job from the very same station. The weather clip was done a few years before the Chubbuck suicide in 1972. Yes, he does have video of Christine Chubbuck ( not of her killing herself though ) but out of respect won't be posting it on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uer93GVkKY

 

[RicoGregg]

I remember a case where a man stole another man's wife - just to get to their 8 year old son! After replacing the woman's husband in the home, he wound kidnapping the boy, and was eventually caught, and flown back.

While not shown live, the news footage of the molester being returned was shown uncensored. They showed him handcuffed and being escorted by two plainsclothes officers. As they walked by a phone booth, a man seemingly talking on a phone was the boy's father, who promptly put down the phone, pulled out a gun, walked right up, pointed the gun at the molester's temples, and blew the guy away. He was dead on the scene.

Amazingly, no charges were ever filed against the father, as it was somehow ruled a justifiable homicide, much to the chagrin of the molester's relatives.

Even more amazing, the father wound up taking his wife back.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I remember seeing that, too...seems like it was on one of those "Most Shocking Moments"-type shows. It was like something you'd see in a movie, but it was unfortunately very real.