How did Brandon Lee die?

Answer 1

On March 31, 1993, the 52nd day of a 60-day shooting schedule for The Crow, the scene being filmed was when Lee's character was to walk into his apartment and see his girlfriend being raped by thugs. Actor Michael Massee who played one of the villains in the movie was supposed to shoot at Lee as he walked into his apartment.

Because the movie's second unit team were running behind schedule, it was decided that dummy cartridges — bullets that outwardly appear to be functional, but contain no gunpowder — would be made from real cartridges that had been brought to the set earlier in production. Bruce Merlin, an effects technician, dismantled the live cartridges by removing the bullets, emptying out the gunpowder, detonating the primer and reinserting the bullets. This rendered the cartridges inoperative, but realistic in appearance. Merlin and his propmaster, Daniel Kuttner, took initiative to create some blanks by removing live cartridges and replacing the gunpowder with firework powder. The bullets were not reinserted.

Later, a cartridge with only a primer and a bullet was fired in a pistol. This caused the bullet to lodge in the forcing cone of the revolver.

When the first unit used this gun to shoot the death scene, the chamber was loaded with blanks which had no bullets. However, there was still the bullet in the barrel, which was propelled out by the blank cartridge's explosion. Consequently, Lee was shot as cameras rolled at the EUE Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Seconds later, director Alex Proyas stopped the scene, but Lee remained on the floor. Stuntman and Lee's friend Jeff Imada ran over to him with a paramedic, and discovered a thin slit an inch below to the right of his navel. By this time he had slipped into unconciousness, and he was rushed to a hospital. He underwent five hours of surgery, upon which paramedics discovered a bullet had been the cause of the damage.

At 1:04 pm, Lee was pronounced dead. His funeral was held days later; over 400 people attended, including David Carradine, David Hasselhoff and Kiefer Sutherland. Jeff Imada and Jeff Cadiente, Lee's two closest friends, were so shocked they couldn't speak, while his mother reminded everyone "Brandon would want this to be a happy occasion, we are here to celebrate his life."

The footage of his death was soon destroyed without ever being developed. He was buried next to his father in Lake View Cemetery, Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington.

The shooting was ruled an accident, although many fans suspected foul play. (Bruce Lee's own death in 1973 at age 32, apparently from a reaction to painkillers, was also considered suspicious.) Bruce Lee's character in Game of Death is shot in a similar fashion. His character, like his son's in The Crow, returns ("from the dead," although the character did not actually die) to get revenge on his adversaries. After his death, his mother and fiancée Eliza Hutton supported Proyas' decision to complete the movie. At the time of Lee's death, only eight days were left before completion of the movie. A majority of the film had already been completed and only a few scenes had to be done.

After Lee's death, a stunt double, Chad Stahelski, and special effects was used for scenes showing Lee's character's death in flashbacks, a scene with him walking into a room was digitally composited from a scene of Lee walking into an alleyway, and his face was digitally composited into a scene where his character puts on make-up in front of a mirror.

The Crow was released in May 1994, and became a box office smash. The film is dedicated to Lee and Hutton. They were to have been married on April 17, 1993 in Mexico. Lee is survived by his mother and sister.

Answer 2

There was an Unsolved Mysteries episode about it.

Brandon Lee died in a stunt, during the film "The Crow". It was a death scene, where Lee was being shot. They didn't have a gun expert (a proper one) on the movie set, and a bullet had gotten lodged in the barrel of a .44 Magnum pistol...once the person firing the gun shot it, the bullet dislodged and hit Brandon Lee, fatally wounding him.

I didn't explain that properly....

It's a little complicated. There was a previous scene in the film where the camera was taking a close-up picture of the handgun. During that scene, dummy loads (shell casings with only a primer and a bullet) were used for the realistic effect during the scene. There was no gunpowder in the shell casings, so the bullets could not have been fired, in the normal sense of the word. But being that the dummy rounds still had active primers in them, there was a small chance that the bullet could actually be projected from the shell casing. This is what happened. Tragically, a bullet did get stuck in the barrel of the handgun when the trigger was pulled. That sealed Brandon Lee's fate. After that, no one checked the weapon, and the next scene that they were filming involved using high-powered blanks (the ones that produce a lot of fire from the muzzle of the gun). These high powered blanks had the equivalent of gun powder as a standard .44 caliber round. When the gun was fired, it was aimed at Brandon Lee. The bullet still stuck in the gun's barrel, and it flew out at the velocity of a regular bullet. Again, it hit Lee, and he died as a result.

It sounds suspicious, but apparently, it was just a terrible accident.

Answer 3

How Did Brandon Lee Die

Answer 4

Lee Brandon

Answer 5

Brandon Lee was killed while shooting the flashback scene in which he walks into the room and discovers Shelly is being attacked. Funboy (Michael Massee) was to shoot Eric as he walked into the room. The gun he was supposed to be using was loaded with "blanks". Eric walked in and was shot as scripted. However, a bullet penetrated Brandon's abdomen and lodged next to his vertebrae (had he lived there was a good chance he may have been paralysed). Brandon was rushed to hospital where he died 13 hours later after attempts to stop the bleeding with surgery failed.

An investigation later into his death discovered that the gun had earlier been loaded with "dummy" bullets for a close up shot (a dummy is a shell and slug, but no gunpowder). In this particular case real bullets were used, bought from a local gun shop. The slugs were removed from the casing and the gun powder was removed, and then the slugs were placed back in the casing. This was a huge mistake as real ammo should never be used to make a dummy bullet, but due to budget and time constraints the production crew did what they thought best.

The dummy bullet was meant to be used for head-on, close-up shots so that the slugs could be seen in the chamber. According to the investigation, during the scene where the gun was loaded with dummy rounds one of the slugs came loose and stayed in the chamber after it was unloaded. The gun was then reloaded with blanks, ready for the flashback scene. Blank bullets, however, have double the amount of gunpowder in them than a normal bullet so that a loud sound is made and a discharge is seen. When the gun was fired the slug that remained in the chamber was pushed through with double the force and hit Brandon.

It was later discovered that there had been a huge lapse in safety other than live ammo being used to create the dummy. Earlier that evening the weapons expert had been sent home to save money, and a couple of prop assistants were left in charge. This oversight led to Brandon's death, and his mother consequently sued the company for negligence, and won an undisclosed settlement.

For the record, the actor Michael Massee was deemed not responsible for Brandon Lee's death and no criminal charges were ever brought against him.

The irony was that this was to be the last scene in which guns would be involved, and the final eight days of shooting were to be fill-in scenes and flashbacks. It is also sad that in just twelve days time Brandon was due to be married.

Other reports on the death of Brandon Lee exist, including one that says that the bullet in the gun was simply a live one, instead of a blank... whatever happened, his death will probably always be shrouded in mystery.

All the above information was taken from official reports on the accident and from interviews with gun experts and Brandon Lee's mother.

nner_mercy.tripod.com/Accident.html

Answer 6

Behind the Death of Brandon Lee
Small mistakes lead to big tragedy on a film set
by Dave Brown

Two weeks before he was due to be married, actor Brandon Lee was killed on the North Carolina set of the motion picture "The Crow." A scene in the movie called for Lee to enter a room where actor Michael Massee was to shoot him using a revolver loaded with blanks. When the handgun was fired, a real projectile penetrated Lee's abdomen and lodged next to his vertebrae. He was rushed to hospital but died in the operating room.

An investigation into his death revealed that the handgun had previously been loaded with "dummy" cartridges for an earlier scene. (A dummy cartridge is a fake cartridge with a bullet but no gunpowder). To make the dummies for this production, real cartridges were purchased from a local gun shop, the bullets removed, the gunpowder dumped out and the bullets reinserted into the empty cases.

Although this was a dangerous practice, the inexperienced crew simply did what they thought best under the pressure of both time and budget.

According to the investigation, the handgun was loaded with these dummy cartridges on a previous night and one of the bullets became accidentally lodged in the barrel. How it got stuck there was never conclusively proven, but some witnesses stated they saw an actor playing with the gun and pulling the trigger. This would have discharged one of the primers and propelled the bullet slightly forward. The primer is a simple sparking cap and is designed to initiate the ignition of the gunpowder when struck by the firing pin. If there is no gunpowder to ignite, the spark of the primer has enough energy to propel the bullet forward an inch or two. Unfortunately, there is little or no noise resulting from a primer ignition without gunpowder, which is why this situation is often refered to as a "primer pop," and is immediately familiar to anyone with experience in real firearms.

On the night of Lee's death on March 31, 1993, no one thought to first check the barrel for obstructions before loading the firearm with blanks. A blank has more gunpowder than an actual cartridge in order to create the bright flash out the muzzle. The gun was loaded with blanks, pointed directly at Brandon Lee and fired. He immediately collapsed, although it took a few seconds for the crew to realize he had been hurt. He was rushed to the hospital and died 13 hours later.

The weapons specialist on the set had been sent home earlier that evening to save money, leaving a props assistant in charge of the firearm.

Brandon Lee's mother sued the production company for negligence, and eventually won an undisclosed settlement. No criminal charges were laid and actor Michael Massee was deemed not responsible for Lee's death.

A chain of errors, ill-advised cost cutting measures, lack of adequate supervision, inexperience and pressure to finish a scene quickly all led to the death of a promising young actor. The production probably saved about $100 by sending the weapons specialist home early that night.

David Brown is a Firearms Safety Specialist



There is also some conspiracy theories floating around saying that both Brandon and his father, Bruce Lee were both assassinated by the Japanese TONG! But this has never been verified.
Hmmmm....something to ponder!

Answer 7

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RE:
How did Brandon Lee die?

Answer 8

He died during the filming of "The Crow." There was a prop gun that was to be used in one of the scenes. The gun was to be loaded with blanks. The prop manager tested the gun using blanks; however, the last bullet fired got jammed in the barrel of the gun. When the gun was loaded again, the first shot fired forced the jammed bullet out of the barrel and shot Brandon Lee in the chest. It was a tragic accident and, after a through investigation, no one was charged.

Answer 9

I heard that he was shot during the making of "The Crow". During a scene where he was shot off a table, it is said that the blank in the gun was swapped with a real bullet and that you can see him really getting shot if you watch the film. The rest of the film, he was replaced with the help of CG. I've never actually researched this however, so it could just be an Urban myth.

Answer 10

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He was shot on the set of The Crow. The guns were loaded with blanks. Either one of the blanks managed to be not blank, or there was a real bullet in there.