Cast Deaths
From The Poltergeist Films
Urban Legend:
The Spielberg film "Poltergeist" was cursed with the deaths of cast
members.
This isn't really an Urban Legend but it is interesting since it's true. The film
"The Exorcist" was also plagued with problems but that's another story.
The Story: An unusual amount of
deaths have occurred around the three "Poltergeist" films,
including three of the
stars. These incidence have given way to rumors that the films were cursed because of
their content. This seems a little silly, there are always explanations to
"curses" like this. Or are there??
Two of the stars from the first film have died at young ages,
two from the second film at not so young ages.
22-year old Dominique Dunne, who played
older daughter Dana
Freeling, died on November 4th,1982, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles, California. She had been choked into a coma by her boyfriend.
12-year-old Heather O'Rourke died of septic shock on February
1st., 1988, at the Children's Hospital in San Diego, California.
What was
thought to be the flu turned out to be a bowel obstruction which caused toxins to enter
her system. She died at Children's Hospital while undergoing surgery to remove the
obstruction.
60-year-old Julian Beck, who played the evil preacher
Kane in the second film, died of stomach cancer on September 14th,1985, at
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, NY. Like Heather O'Rourke, he died during
the period between filming and release, but in his case the film in question was Poltergeist
II, which was released in May 1986. O'Rourke died before the release of
Poltergeist
III.
53-year-old Will Sampson, who played Taylor in the second film, died
on June 3rd., 1987, in a Houston, Texas hospital after receiving a heart-lung
transplant 6 weeks earlier. The cause of his death was attributed to severe
pre-operative malnutrition and post-operative kidney failure along with a fungal
infection. |
