He certainly had an impressive list of death scenes that he was famous for.
As an actor, you would have to say that it was the drowning scene in that early pirate movie that really boosted his career. It was a notable turning point for him. The way he waved his arms around helplessly, crying out for help through gargling salt water and finally getting battered and sucked under when the wave came crashing down on him. From there on his acting profession took off big time. Offers of roles came flooding in. He was featured in dozens of movies over several years and enjoyed the financial benefits, together with a greatly elevated life style, as a result. In short, in his own way he became a celebrity.
Audiences loved him. People just couldn’t stop talking about him. His masterful fall from the twelfth floor balcony in the latest movie was a big hit. Thinking back, there was that wonderful scene where he was trampled to death by a heard of charging hippos. Then there was that look of terror on his face when that live electricity cable swung around and hit him. Who could forget the way his eyes bulged when he was hit from behind with an axe, or the way he fell over that cliff, riddled with machinegun bullets, and what about the way he ran out of that burning house, covered with flames; it was spectacular.
You could just about hear the audience hold its breath when he clutched at his chest in that moving heart attack scene. Turning blue and slumping over a bowl of poisoned minestrone soup certainly had people talking about it for weeks. Then there was the way he flailed around after being bitten by a venomous snake. Of course, there was that look of astonishment just before the train hit him, and his realistically falling face down, with a knife in his back. His facial expressions in that strangling scene, and all that coughing and spluttering that went on while he was being choked to death were nothing short of brilliant. Being shot through the windscreen in a car accident, and being blown up by a land mine in that jungle scene were both truly awesome.
However, the time came when the fact that he always got killed off, just lost some of its glamour somehow. He asked himself why he had to die in every movie. Just for once he’d like to survive the plot, and if possible, go on to live happily ever after. The more he thought about it the more it became a burning ambition.
When he first made his feelings known on the subject he was met with a great deal of resistance. They told him he should stick with what he was good at. But he persisted, even turning down a number of offers.
After a few months of not working, which he could easily afford, he was offered a part. He was over the moon. He just couldn’t believe he’d pulled it off. It was only a low budget TV movie, but he didn’t have to die in it. For just once in his career he wasn’t going to be killed off. He wasn’t the star exactly, but in this movie he could be seen for what he really was… an actor.
He was on his way to the first rehearsal when the truck hit him.
