Stars Stop, unfilmed: 5 stars who died in the middle of filming

Some films were never completed.

The actor was at the peak of fame, playing the Joker in The Dark Knight, but this fateful role eventually indirectly caused his death. Ledger admitted that he got so immersed in the character that he ended up suffering from sleep problems – and started taking more medication.

In January 2008, he was busy filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Only a third of the film was shot when Ledger went to sleep in his New York apartment one day and was found dead the next morning by his housekeeper. An autopsy revealed that Ledger died after an accidental overdose of a combination of painkillers, sleeping pills and other prescription drugs, leading some to speculate that it was his role as the Joker that led to his death.

Wood, star of Rebel Without a Cause, was filming Brainstorm alongside Christopher Walken at the time of his death. On November 29, 1981, Wood and her co-star husband went on a yacht off the coast of Southern California for the night. During it, the actress drowned – and the circumstances of her death are still shrouded in mystery. Wood’s sudden death almost halted filming. When the film was released, it did not attract much audience, and therefore the director Douglas Trumbull retired from the profession.

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Hollywood’s most famous blonde died on August 4, 1962, before the filming of Something Happened was completed. Directed by George Cukor, the comedy also stars Syd Charisse and Dean Martin. The shooting did not go well from the very beginning and was accompanied by conflicts. At one point, Monroe was even fired, but Martin refused to work with an actress other than Monroe, so she was rehired.

However, before Monroe could return to her role, she was found dead at her home in Brentwood, California. Filming was eventually abandoned and parts of the unfinished film were included in a 2001 documentary titled Marilyn: The Last Days.

The young actor, who rose to fame with his role in My Own Private Idaho, was almost done filming Dark Blood when he died of a drug overdose on Halloween in 1993 at the age of 23.

Filming on Dark Blood, a grim story about a widower living in a nuclear test site, was never completed after that, as the presence of the Phoenix was essential for several scenes that had not yet been completed. Phoenix was also set to star in Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise. His role was eventually taken over by Christian Slater, who donated his entire salary from the film to a charity in honor of Phoenix.

The actor died on February 2, 2014, when he was only 46 years old. The cause of death was an overdose of a mixture of drugs. At the time, Hoffman was filming the first part of Hunger Games: Mockingjay, where he played Plutarch Heavensby. The work on the film was not affected by the tragedy, as the studios stated that Hoffman managed to shoot all the necessary scenes.

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