11/9/2023 0 Comments Noel blanc![]() The injuries he suffered lead to years of physical back pain, and the emotional impact stayed with Douglas for his lifetime.īesides honoring the two men who had died, the actor was spurred to make changes in his life, especially in terms of stepping up his philanthropic work. The actor was hospitalized for rib and back injuries, and found out later his spine was compressed by the crash impact to the point he lost three inches in height. Two weeks after he was released from the hospital, Douglas had a professional makeup artist cover his facial bruises so that he could attend the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony in his honor.įive essential Kirk Douglas movies: From 'Paths of Glory' to (obviously) 'Spartacus' Did I see a long tunnel with a blazing white light at the other end?" he wrote. "Often, when I am asked about the accident today, people want to know what I experienced at the moment. But he remembered nothing after the direct impact. "I didn’t know that from this day forward I would be asking: Why did they die? Why was I alive?"ĭouglas, his face covered in blood, had to be pulled from the burning helicopter wreckage that threatened to explode. At that moment I was unconscious," wrote Douglas. David and Lee were dead in the smoldering remains. "But we were alive in the tangled wreckage. The helicopter, with its rotor torn off, fell about 20 to 40 feet, according to news reports at the time, and crashed onto the tarmac. Kirk Douglas dies at 103: Hollywood legend's passing confirmed by son Michael Douglas Carried by its fateful momentum, the little plane continued to rise forward into the blue sky," Douglas recalled. "In that horrible fraction of a second, the rotating blades of Noel’s Bell Ranger helicopter sliced into the wing of David and Lee’s Pitts, ripping it open and exposing its fuel to air. Blanc took the Bell Ranger helicopter up for the routine flight, flying tragically into the path of a Pitts aerobatic plane flown by Lee Manelski, 47, and student pilot David Tomlinson, 18, who were both killed. ![]() The tough-guy actor was 74 and a passenger flying with his pilot friend, cartoon voice artist Noel Blanc, from California's Santa Paula Airport. "I'll never forget the date," Douglas wrote in the opening of his 2000 autobiographical work "Climbing the Mountain: My Search for Meaning" of the crash that set off a media storm at the time. The collision with a small plane, and loss of the two plane's passengers, made it "the most important day of my life" that would alter it "forever," he wrote. Legendary actor Kirk Douglas, who died peacefully at 103 Wednesday, grew to truly appreciate his remarkable life after a series of setbacks - including surviving a severe stroke in 1996 and a life-changing Feb. ![]() Watch Video: Kirk Douglas: 'Spartacus' actor dead at 103 years old ![]()
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