Vic Morrow

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Victor "Vic" Morrow (February 14, 1929 – July 23, 1982) was an American actor. He was the father of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Early life and family

Morrow was born in the Bronx, New York to a middle class Jewish family,^[1] the son of Jean (née Kress) and Harry Morrow, an electrical engineer.^[2] When he was 17, Morrow dropped out of high school and joined the U.S. Navy. He was the father of Jennifer Jason Leigh and Carrie Morrow.

Career

Morrow's first movie role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955), after which he went into television. On April 16, 1959, he appeared in the premiere of NBC's 1920s crime drama The Lawless Years in the episode "The Nick Joseph Story". Morrow then appeared from 1960-1961 as Joe Cannon in three episodes of NBC's The Outlaws with Barton MacLane. On October 6, 1961, he guest starred in the ABC television series Target: The Corruptors! with Stephen McNally and Robert Harland.

He was cast in the lead role in ABC's Combat!, a World War II drama which aired from 1962-1967. He also worked as a television director. After Combat! ended, he worked in 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. He also played Injun Joe in 1973 telefilm Tom Sawyer which was filmed in Upper Canada Village. A musical version was released in theaters that same year.

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 Twilight Zone: The Movie (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.

Morrow, My-Ca Dinh Le, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were shooting a scene for the Vietnam sequence; 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.^[3] Morrow and Le were both decapitated by the blades; Chen was also fatally injured. The helicopter crew received minor injuries.

Morrow is interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.^[4]

Twilight Zone: The Movie controversy

Due in part to the deaths of Morrow, Le, and Chen, the fact that the children were illegally hired to circumvent child labor laws, and the nighttime schedule during which the children were working 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 Le and Chen sued and settled out of court for $2 million each. Morrow's children also sued and likewise settled for an undisclosed amount.

Partial filmography

Award nominations

References

External links

• Vic Morrow at the Internet Movie Database
• Filmography
• Twilight Zone Tragedy at crimelibrary.com
• Article on Twilight Zone tragedy, written by friend and COMBAT! co-star Dick 'Little John' Peabody
• Sculptural Tribute to Actor Vic Morrow
• Vic Morrow at Find a Grave