If you watch enough movies, you get accustomed to seeing your favorite characters escaping certain death. James Bond, for example, always evades the lethal traps of his enemies, as do fellow action heroes like Batman and John Wick. Thanks to movie magic, we’re never all that surprised to see these characters alive and well after dodging the Grim Reaper for a couple of action-packed hours.
But would you believe the actors behind your favorite characters are sometimes just as inexplicably lucky as their onscreen counterparts? That’s right: some of the most famous performers in the world have managed to evade death on more than one occasion. Just who in Hollywood keeps living dangerously without needing an obituary? Keep reading to find out!
Harrison Ford’s life almost crashed and burned
Harrison Ford is an actor we have seen escape death countless times, thanks to his iconic onscreen roles such as Han Solo and Indiana Jones. The actor may be very different from these characters, but he has one major thing in common: he knows how to fly. Unfortunately, Ford’s pilot license has nearly gotten him killed on several memorable occasions!
In 2015, the engines on Harrison Ford’s vintage airplane exploded, forcing him to make a crash landing on a Los Angeles golf course. He was injured but managed to survive. A couple of years later, he nearly had a fatal collision with a commercial jet (one filled with 110 passengers) at Orange County’s John Wayne airport because he landed on the wrong runway.
Ford’s life nearly crashed and burned on more than one occasion. Fortunately, this veteran pilot survived, and he didn’t let his multiple brushes with death keep him out of the sky.
Leonardo DiCaprio just can’t die
Leonardo DiCaprio is one of those actors that we have seen die onscreen in memorable movies such as Titanic and Romeo + Juliet. Frighteningly enough, he has nearly died in real-life in three different freak incidents. The first of these occurred when the actor was cage diving in South Africa. That was when a Great White Shark attacked his cage (the first incident with this diving company in decades), repeatedly taking huge bites only about five feet from DiCaprio’s arms.
He managed to survive this incident, and he got even luckier when he was flying to Russia. During an otherwise fairly routine flight, an entire wing exploded while the author looked on in horror. The plane successfully made an emergency landing, but until it did so, Leonardo DiCaprio was worried that he might die.
As crazy as these literal near-death experiences were, DiCaprio was never closer to the grave than (ironically enough) when he went skydiving. Two of the actor’s parachutes got tangled together, meaning that he was in danger of fatally plummeting to the ground. Fortunately, his skydiving instructor was able to untangle the parachutes, allowing the unlucky Leo to live and act another day.
Post Malone dodges death on the land and in the air
Leonardo DiCaprio isn’t the only famous face to nearly die while flying. Musician Post Malone was traveling in his private plane when the wheels exploded, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. The plane (which a later investigation discovered was too heavy and had been improperly maintenance) couldn’t land right away, though; instead, it had to circle around for hours to burn off fuel, and Post Malone was convinced that he would die until it landed. At that point, he took to social media to call out the fake fans who were (horrifically enough) actually rooting for his death!
A mere 17 days later, the musician was involved in a freak car accident. The driver’s side of his Rolls Royce got T-boned, leaving the vehicle a hollowed wreck of its former self. Fans understandably worry about Post Malone, but he managed to escape this horrific accident without a single scratch. He did, however, have a tongue-in-cheek existential crisis and fire off an ironic tweet: “god must hate me, lol.”
Emilia Clarke wouldn’t bend the knee to the Grim Reaper
On Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke played one of the fiercest and absolutely deadliest characters. She may have started out meek, but her character eventually became the Mother of Dragons, someone who gathered an army and crossed the sea to take back a throne that was rightfully hers. In real life, Clarke had to survive something much deadlier than a dragon: a brain aneurysm!
Two, to be specific. After getting a headache during training, the actor practically crawled to the bathroom and began vomiting. She was soon diagnosed with a subarachnoid hemorrhage and received immediate brain surgery. Later, after filming Season 3 of Game of Thrones, she discovered that another growth on her brain had doubled in size, requiring additional surgery.
Unlike the Mother of Dragons, Emilia Clarke’s story has a happy ending. She is now completely healthy, and she’s happy to brag to anyone that will listen that she managed to cheat death (twice).