Celebrities Who Cheated Death In Wild Ways

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If there's one thing that makes celebrities "just like us" it's the fact that we all die at some point. And it turns out A LOT of celebrities have actually already had near-death experiences. Here are some that truly made my jaw drop:
Leonardo DiCaprio — Leo has actually had not one, not two, but THREE encounters with death. The first incident occurred in 2006, while he was filming Blood Diamond in South Africa. Basically, he'd gone scuba diving and was in a cage when a great white shark "jumped" into his cage.
He told Wired, "They leave the tops open [of the cage] and you have a regulator line running to the surface. Then they chum the water with tuna. A wave came, and the tuna sort of flipped up into the air. A shark jumped up and grabbed the tuna, and half its body landed inside the cage with me. I sort of fell down to the bottom and tried to lie flat. The great white took about five or six snaps an arm's length away from my head. The guys there said that has never happened in the 30 years they'd been doing it." DiCaprio later explained that the shark flipped itself back out again, in case you're wondering.
Leo's second brush with death was in 2010 when the actor was on a Delta flight from New York to Moscow. Shortly after takeoff, the plane LOST AN ENGINE and had to circle back for an emergency landing.
Speaking again to Wired, DiCaprio said of the nightmarish experience, "I was in business class, and an engine blew up in front of my eyes. It was right after 'Sully' Sullenberger landed on the Hudson. I was sitting there looking out at the wing, and the entire wing exploded in a fireball. I was the only one looking out at the moment this giant turbine exploded like a comet. It was crazy. They shut all the engines off for a couple of minutes, so you're just sitting there gliding with absolutely no sound, and nobody in the plane was saying anything. It was a surreal experience. They started the engines back up, and we did an emergency landing at JFK."
Leo's third near-death experience was a 2010 skydiving incident where, during a tandem dive, both his main and backup parachutes got tangled.
In that same Wired interview, Leo explained, "It was a tandem dive. We pulled the first chute. That was knotted up. The gentleman I was with cut it free. We did another free fall for like another 5, 10 seconds. I didn't even think about the extra chute, so I thought we were just plummeting to our deaths. He pulled the second, and that was knotted up too. He just kept shaking it and shaking it in midair, as all my friends were, you know, what felt like half a mile above me, and I'm plummeting toward the earth. And he finally unravels it in midair. The fun part was when he said, 'You're probably going to break your legs on the way down, because we're going too fast now.' FYI, Leo did not break his legs and managed to walk away with just a few bruises.
Sharon Stone — Survived a massive stroke due to a brain hemorrhage in September 2001. She was given just a 1% chance of survival and had to relearn basic skills.
Stone suffered a massive stroke caused by a ruptured vertebral artery, which led to a nine-day brain bleed. Initially, the medical staff actually "missed" the brain hemorrhage when they took an angiogram, and Stone was nearly sent home before her best friend advocated for a second scan that revealed the true severity. "I would have died if they had sent me home," she told Vogue UK.
George Clooney — While filming Syriana in 2004, Clooney sustained a serious head and neck injury after falling off a chair. The pain had been so excruciating that it caused him to have thoughts of suicide.
Clooney told the Guardian, "Before the surgery it was the most unbearable pain I've ever been through, literally where you'd go, well, you'll have to kill yourself at some point, you can't live like this." Clooney eventually underwent multiple blood-patch procedures (up to ~15 myelograms) and had a nine-hour brain surgery on Christmas Eve 2005 to repair the damage.
Emilia Clarke — In 2011, Clarke suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm, causing a subarachnoid hemorrhage — a life-threatening type of stroke that is caused by bleeding in the space around the brain. Then, in 2013, she had a second aneurysm.
For the first aneurysm, although Clarke had to undergo a minimally invasive surgery, she still woke up from the procedure with "unbearable" pain. She also could not remember her name due to aphasia, which was caused by the brain trauma. The second time, the procedure failed, and doctors had to go through her skull, which was a far more painful surgery and even harder recovery.
Ozzy Osbourne — Osbourne has had numerous brushes with death, including a serious ATV accident in December 2003 that put him in a coma for several days.
While riding an ATV on his estate in England, Osbourne crashed and was thrown off, suffering a broken neck vertebra, multiple broken ribs, and a collarbone. He even stopped breathing, flatlining until his bodyguard performed CPR. As a result, he fell into a coma for eight days before recovering.
Harrison Ford — Was in a serious plane crash in March 2015 when his vintage WWII-era plane suffered engine failure. He ended up having to crash-land on a golf course in Los Angeles, and even clipped a tree during the descent.
Ford sustained pretty severe injuries, including fractures to his pelvis, ankle, and back, as well as a head laceration. Speaking on Jimmy Kemmel Live!, Ford said of the traumatic event, "I remember the engine stopping; I remember that part very well. And then I remember the tower; I remember their suggestion. Their suggestion was that I take the normal route to land, and I knew I wasn't going to do that, so I said, 'no.' And that's the last thing that I remember until five days afterwards, actually."The NTSB later determined the engine failure was due to a loose/worn carburetor metering jet, which caused a fuel-air imbalance and power loss.
50 Cent — 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) was shot nine times at close range in May 2000. He was hit in the hand, arm, hip, leg, chest, and left cheek.
Jackson had been sitting in a car outside his grandmother's home when an unknown assailant opened fire on him. Jackson spent 13 days in the hospital undergoing multiple "life-saving" surgeries, followed by months of recovery.
Brendan Fraser — While filming The Mummy in 1996, Fraser was "choked out accidentally" during a close-up shot of his character being hanged and actually lost consciousness.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Fraser said of the incident, 'I was stuck on my toes — I had nowhere to go but down. And so he [a crew member holding the rope] was pulling up, and I was going down, and the next thing I knew, my elbow was in my ear, the world was sideways, there was gravel in my teeth, and everyone was really quiet."
Travis Barker — Nearly died in a harrowing Learjet 60 crash on September 19, 2008, following a show in Colombia. Barker suffered second- and third-degree burns on roughly 65% of his body, and four others died in the crash.
As the jet accelerated down the runway, all four tires blew out due to severe under-inflation, damaging the hydraulic and braking systems. The pilot attempted to abort takeoff, but the plane went off the runway, smashed through a fence, crossed a highway, hit an embankment, and burst into flames. There were six people on board. The two survivors were Barker and DJ AM. The four others who died were two crew members, Barker's assistant Chris Baker, and his security guard Charles 'Che' Still.
Charlize Theron — While filming Aeon Flux in 2004, Theron suffered a serious neck injury that required surgery and almost left her paralyzed.
While attempting a series of backflips during a choreographed fight scene, Theron landed on her neck, resulting in a herniated disc between her C3 and C4 vertebrae — dangerously close to the spinal cord. Doctors told her she had been "a centimeter away from being completely paralyzed" for the rest of her life.
Kanye West — In October 2002, West was in a serious car accident that left his jaw wired shut. This incident inspired his breakout hit, Through the Wire.
While driving home late from a recording session in Los Angeles, West reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into an oncoming vehicle, suffering serious injuries, including nasal fractures and his jaw shattering in three places, resulting in having a metal plate put into his chin and his mouth being wired shut for over a month. The other driver broke both his legs.
Isla Fisher — Fisher nearly drowned while filming Now You See Me in 2013. She got stuck in a water tank for almost 3 minutes while filming an underwater escape scene.
The stunt involved her being submerged and chained in a water tank. However, during one take, the chain connecting her handcuffs and leg restraints got jammed under a tank slat. Believing she was acting, the crew didn't realize she was in danger. Despite there being a quick release switch and a stunt person standing by with oxygen, Fisher eventually "doggy-paddled" to the bottom of the tank and released herself.
Liam Hemsworth — When Hemsworth was a kid, he had a near-drowning incident while surfing in Australia.
Hemsworth explained to US Magazine that his surfboard's leg rope became entangled tightly around his body, trapping him underwater like a ball. Struggling in waist‑deep water, he was unable to surface and 'almost drowned' before finally being able to break free.
Orlando Bloom — When he was 19, Bloom fell several stories from a window and broke his back. Doctors told him that he might not ever walk again.
Bloom told People that he was climbing up to a roof terrace when the drainpipe he was holding onto collapsed. After spending 12 days in the hospital, Bloom was fitted with plates and screws, discharged on crutches, and later wore a back brace for months.
Ryan Reynolds — While working towards getting a skydiving license, during his 13th jump, Reynolds' parachute didn't open, leaving him "flapping uselessly" in the wind and spinning out of control.
Although he had a reserve chute, Reynolds froze from fear, afraid that it might also fail. However, he was able to "snap out of it" and eventually pull the cord. The incident left him scarred and with a fear of flying.
Post Malone — Post Malone was involved in a serious plane emergency in August 2018, where the jet he was on blew two tires during takeoff.
After the tire blowout, the plane circled to burn fuel and attempted an emergency landing at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport in Massachusetts. However, the plane was diverted to Stewart International Airport in New York, where it safely landed.
Bear Grylls — In 1996, Grylls was involved in a serious parachuting accident. While training in Zambia, his parachute malfunctioned, causing him to fall from 16,000 feet. He ended up landing on his back, which resulted in three vertebrae fractures.
Grylls underwent a year of rehabilitation and, despite the severity of his injuries, he made a strong recovery and, less than two years later, became the youngest Briton (at the time) to summit Mount Everest.
Eric Roberts — In June 1981, Roberts was driving near his home in Connecticut when he lost control and hit a tree. He suffered severe injuries and remained in a coma for three days.
Roberts sustained neurological damage that required extensive rehabilitation, including relearning to walk, speak, and remember.
Finally, Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe bassist) — In December 1987, Sixx overdosed on heroin and was declared clinically dead for roughly two minutes before paramedics revived him with an adrenaline injection to the heart.
Sixx was found unresponsive in his apartment, and paramedics administered adrenaline in the ambulance, which revived him. Sixx entered rehab the following month and ultimately got sober.
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