The truth behind movie urban legends.

We've all heard about the urban myths or "curses" surrounding some films, their stars and crew or the production itself, whether it be "acts of god", suspicious deaths or accidents but what is the truth behind it all?

Here are a few of the more famous ones:

Wizard of Oz was a troubled production, there's no denying that, from the over amorous munchkins (apparently it was the first time a lot of them had been around their own kind so they decided to party!)  to the costumes that made the the stars sick (the paint for the Tin Man was toxic and the Cowardly Lions costume had real lion pelts, and stunk!) it was a tough shoot but probably the most famous urban legend is the alleged munchkin suicide that was caught on camera! 

The story is that one of the actors playing a munchkin proposed to his girlfriend who turned him down (this is only one of several theories) and not being able to handle the rejection he killed himself.

This video shows clearly the before and after manipulation, but make your own mind up.

Poltergeist is another film that has a bit of a history as being "cursed" and there were a series of incidents and deaths associated with it.

Heather O'Rouke who spoke the the classic line "They're Heeerrrrre!" tragically died at the age of 12, a few months before the premiere of Poltergeist III, of heart failure and septic shock after being misdiagnosed for intestinal issues. 

Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter, was brutally murdered by her abusive ex-boyfriend just months after the film was released, she was only 22.

Will Sampson performed an exorcism on the set of the 1984 sequel, he died of kidney failure in 1887 at the age of 53.

Julian Beck who appeared in II died of stomach cancer in 1985 aged 60, though he was diagnosed prior to being cast.

I think the creepiest thing that happened (apart from the using of real skeletons of course) was what happened to Oliver Robins, he was nearly choked to death by the mechanical crown when it malfunctioned, the crew thought he was just acting, until he turned blue that is!

Was the film cursed, or was it just a series of unfortunate events, if you consider just how many people worked on these 3 films, and the fact that if there was a curse surely the people in charge would have been the targets then probably not, but that's just my opinion.

The Omen, a film about the Antichrist, had it's share of misfortunes as well, more than other productions maybe.

The day after the baboon attack scene was shot (apparently Lee Remick wasn't acting, she was terrified) the animal trainer involved was killed by a tiger.

During the famous scene where Gregory Peck is attacked by the rottweilers in the cemetery his stuntman stand in was attacked for real and they wouldn't respond to their trainer, luckily the stuntman wasn't badly hurt. 

There were a series of accidents and incidents concerning aircraft as well, planes carrying cast and crew were struck by lightening on 3 separate occasions (the chance are 1/1200, but when you consider Heathrow has 475000 flights per year alone, you're pretty safe). 

Two further incidents with planes that turned out to be lucky for the cast and crew but not for other unfortunate people, Peck was due to take a flight but had to cancel at the last minute, that plane crashed killing 7, the production rented a light aircraft to take aerial shots and at the last minute they had their booking cancelled because the renter had a better offer, that plane crashed as well killing all on board!

Special effects designer John Richardson, the man credited with the decapitation scene, lost his wife in a car accident, she was decapitated, he claims he saw a road sign close to where the accident happened that read "Ommen 66.6Km", now that is spooky!

There were also a couple of other near misses in which the producer, Mace Neufeld, and his wife checked out early from the London Hilton just before the IRA bombed it, and a few days later he, some of the other producers and Gregory Peck were going to a restaurant and the IRA bombed that as well!

So as to the film being cursed there actually were as many near misses as actual incidents, so it looks like someone was looking after them as well.

There's just a couple more I'd like to talk about, 2 films that never made into production, Atuk and A Confederacy of Dunces, the reason I'm linking them both is because they were both to be made about the same time and they both were looking to cast the same lead actors!

Atuk had John Belushi in mind for the lead, funny enough so did Dunces, death by OD.

The lead for Atuk was then offered to Sam Kinison and actually started shooting, died in a car crash.

John Candy was interested in both scripts, died of a heart attack.

Chris Farley became attached to both roles, he was very excited that his hero, Belushi, had also been attached to the, he died like his hero.

John Waters was interested in adapting Dunces and he had someone in mind for the lead, Divine, died in his sleep of an enlarged heart.

So these are all larger than life characters, in more ways than one, but you'd have to think twice before even accepting to read either script wouldn't you?!