You’d hardly believe it but several celebrities have nearly died performing outrageous stunts that are daring and dangerous, and well sometimes… downright stupid. Let’s take a look at some of the more famous incidents that brought about near death experiences to the following celebrities.
Jackie Chan
Ok, you can’t really blame this guy for taking risks with his life. I mean it’s his job to do it. Jackie got his start in the movie business as a professional stunt man for various Chinese martial arts films. In fact, Jackie is so bad-ass that he can boast to having been punched in the head by martial arts legend Bruce Lee and living to tell the tale! Needless to say, Jackie quickly earned Bruce’s respect for that one and got to spend an afternoon with his idol. What a way to spend an afternoon after being face-punched, right?
Now, Jackie stars in and directs his own movies where he performs all of his own stunts. These stunts typically involve real and live explosives (Jackie won’t use any stock footage in his films), daring leaps from rooftops, real fighting in his fight scenes (with all genuine weapons to boot – no props here!), and he even once rolled over an actual running circular saw just to get that perfect shot in his movie Mr. Nice Guy.
In one of his movies however, Armour of God 11: Operation Condor from way back in 1991 he performed a stunt involving the extreme sport of Zorbing. In fact, some sources say Jackie’s stunt is the first publically documented incident of Zorbing. Jackie’s stunt almost turned bad when the object resembling a Zorb was launched down the side of Mount Macolod in Cuenca, Batangas. Luckily for movie fans everywhere, the shot was a success and Jackie lived to stunt another day.
Richard Branson
Ok, if you haven’t seen any of this guy’s stunts on TV you’re missing out. Take a moment, Google them. Watch in awe. Although being a successful business man, you might say many know him more for his love of all things extreme than his ability to cut a hard-driving deal in the corporate board room.
Branson doesn’t always do them for publicity though. Even in his spare time away from the cameras he can be found rappelling down skyscrapers, kitesurfing dangerous surfs around the world, and of course, skydiving.
Once, Branson decided to balloon around the world. On that trip he almost died when the balloon malfunctioned over the ocean. Branson was afraid he wouldn’t be able to be rescued. He admits that he wrote letters to his family members at that time on the assumption that he wasn’t going to make it back home alive.
Jack Osbourne
The son of rock and roll legend Ozzy Osbourne, Jack was also recently involved in his own extreme sport-related accident. Jack is what many would only call a thrill-seeker. He lives for dangerous situations and cannot seem to get enough. Jack recently even appeared on a show known as Jack Osbourne: Celebrity Adrenaline Junkie in which he and other celebrities perform dangerous stunts.
One such stunt had him and singer Natalie Imbruglia climbing a mountain. During the climb he and Imbruglia were caught in a storm. Imbruglia and the crew wanted to halt the climb but Osbourne said it had to continue. His reasoning? There was no place that the helicopter they had could safely land. They would have to make it to the summit if they wanted to get off the mountain at this point, so he and Imbruglia continued the climb in the midst of a dangerous and quite windy thunderstorm. Being so high up off the ground, being hit by lightning was a very real possibility.
Demi Lovato
Ok, this one isn’t a sport per se, but I still consider it pretty extreme. Not many of you may remember that actress Demi Lovato used to star on the children’s show Barney and Friends at the age of eight. This was her first real acting job. A star was born.
But Lovato could have died during that experience. Yes, taping Barney and Friends almost killed the budding star. Lovato says, “We were shooting one day (and) I almost got trampled by it (Barney) because I wasn’t paying attention. And that was frightening because the suit’s extremely heavy.” So heavy in fact, that to an eight-year old girl it potentially could have snapped her in two. I can imagine the pure terror in the poor little girl’s mind. She was lucky enough to escape that incident alive however, and music and movie fans everywhere are thankful.
Lots of celebrities have had daring experiences performing death-defying stunts. Some even do so willingly. Whether this is good publicity for them or not remains to be seen however. Living to tell the tale is one thing, but death? Well the publicity might not be so useful after that final event.
