The Movie That Changed The Future For Child Actors

Some six decades later, The Twilight Zone film remains an unbeatable influence on pop, horror and sci-fi culture. There’s no doubt you’ve at least heard about the famed anthology series and its truly iconic opening credits scenes. It’s where some of our greatest sci-fi writers even started out.

There have even been several revivals since the movie aired. But what The Twilight Zone is most famed for is changing the future for child actors. It took a disturbing tragedy, an accident of rule breaking and poor planning, that led to the death of not only a legend in the industry but also two young kids. It was that incident that reshaped how films are made even today.

The Saddest Day on Set

Over 30 years ago, a Hollywood star was decapitated as he shot a scene for the film. Vic Morrow was the veteran star of a TV show called Combat. Morrow was tragically killed along with two child actors, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Chen. The catastrophe struck when a falling helicopter hit the set.

In the film, Morrow’s character was a bigot who could skip through time while getting a taste of his own medicine. In what was to be his final and most fatal scene, Morrow was trying to earn redemption by rescuing Vietnamese children from a US air raid. The whole idea, really, was for John Landis, the director, to capture some sensational explosions on film.

The helicopter was set to “bomb” the village. At its controls was a real Vietnam veteran by the name of Dorcey Wingo. Wingo hadn’t been in the film industry very long, but he swallowed up his worries and hopped aboard the helicopter to shoot the scene at a disused motorcycle track just a couple of miles north of Los Angeles.

As the cameras started rolling, pyrotechnic fireballs surrounded the helicopter, forcing Wingo down into a river where the actors stood. With around a hundred people looking on, the right skid of the helicopter crushed Renee, who was six years old at the time. The main blade sliced through Morrow and Myca, who was 7.

Morrow never did get to deliver his line, which was “I’ll keep you safe, kids. I promise. Nothing will hurt you.”

It Took a Tragedy to Change the Industry

Following the dreadful incident, both criminal and civil suits were filed against the movie makers. The upper echelon was tried on manslaughter charges. It was a big media how-do-you-do and one that remains controversial today.

It took three years for the cases to get to court, and despite the defendants admitting they broke child labor laws by even having kids on the set, they cited that the accident couldn’t have been avoided. All the men were acquitted.

Some Good Came Out of the Bad

As awful as the accident was, some good came out of it. In fact, a behind-the-scenes revolution was set in motion over at Warner Bros. Then vice president, John Silvia, was hell-bent on tightening up the industry’s approach to safety on set. It was Silvia that put together a committee to create standards for each and every aspect of movie making, from pyrotechnics to gunfire and everything in between.

Every union and guild were represented, and words like “must, would, and shall” were mulled over to ensure there was no possibility of negligence lawsuits. The committee’s findings and decisions were collected into what is now called Safety Bulletins. Manuals were issued to employees, called the Injury and Illness Prevention Program.

While the safety provisions underwent numerous revisions and especially so after other incidents occurred on other movie sets, the insurance industry went to lengths to make sure that the provisions held.

Prior to The Twilight Zone, the insurers wouldn’t view the movie business as much of a profit source, especially given how unsafe sets were, and the likelihood of payout proved just too high. Afterward, though, the industry’s commitment to both increasing budgets and improving safety, meant Hollywood was a better risk. Quickly, getting cost-effective prices to underwrite shoots became standard.

Strict Labor Laws for Child Actors

Apart from safety measures, there are now stringent labor laws governing child actors, and nowhere is this more prevalent than California. Today, there are several restrictions governing the hours of schooling kids must have along with the hours a child actor may be in front of the cameras.

What’s more, stage parents are obligated to accompany child actors on set to look out for their children. The industry also employs studio teachers to serve as a child actor’s last line of defense. Teachers on set can question any scene they deem dangerous and if they’re unhappy with the answers, they can halt production – and it does happen.

While it took a tragedy on The Twilight Zone to get the industry to take action, today child actors are more protected in every possible way.

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