On this day, May 29, in 1987, director John Landis and four crew members were found not guilty in the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors killed on the “Twilight Zone” movie set.
Morrow, 53, Renee Chen, 6, Myca Dinh Lee, 7, died when a helicopter crashed from the sky after its tail was engulfed by a fireball of a special-effects explosive.
The July 1982 accident was the first in which young children were killed on a Hollywood film set, and Landis was the first Hollywood director to be charged criminally in a fatal incident on the set, prosecutors said.
Landis directed comedy classics like “Animal House,” “Blues Brothers,” “?Three Amigos!,” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video, considered the most influential music video of all time.
— Scott McCabe
