John Landis must die

I see that John Landis, poseur director, has surfaced again.
He'd wisely gone invisible after the big debacle during the making of the Twilight Zone movie, but apparently he thinks things have blown over and he can come back out into the light.
He's wrong.
He killed Vic Morrow, and I've never forgiven him for that.
(I can't hold Steven Spielberg, the producer, responsible; he wasn't anywhere near the scene when it happened, and likely wouldn't have let it happen if he was.)

Morrow's bio, culled from various sources (credited below):
Morrow was born 14 February 1929 in the Bronx. He died 23 July 1982, in the Santa Clara river in California. He, along with a bother and sister, were raised in a typical, middle class, Jewish family. Vic's father was an electrical engineer. At age 17, feeling 'restless, rebellious, and stifled', Morrow quit high school and joined the Navy. After completing his hitch, he earned his diploma at night school. He then enrolled under the GI Bill as a pre-law student at Florida Southern College, a decision which he said, "had more to do with the drama of a great courtroom performance than any love of the law". However, after taking part in a school play, he dropped law and began to pursue a career on the stage.
Instead of heading directly to Hollywood, Morrow chose to learn his craft the hard way. He first studied at Mexico City College where he "performed in bilingual productions of Shakespeare, Moliere and Shaw". He then returned to New York to do little-theatre work before committing himself to a two-year stint at the Actors' Workshop under Paul Mann. Abiding by his instructors' wishes, Vic agreed not to act professionally until his training was over. In order to make ends meet, he drove a cab for a living.
His first role after graduation was as Stanley Kowalksi in a summer stock production of A Streetcar named Desire. His big break however, came when he turned up without an agent, an appointment, or lunch money, to audition for MGM's The Blackboard Jungle. After beating out the likes of Steve McQueen and John Cassavetes, he was immediately signed and was Hollywood-bound. Critics raved about his portrayal of the tough-talking, knife-wielding, street-wise, New York kid Artie West.
Right from the start, Morrow was typecast either as the 'bad' guy or a misunderstood, troubled young man. His early career was also marked by his most unusual project; supplying the voice of a canine character in It's a Dog's Life. It was however, the last work he did for MGM and he drifted off in other directions, namely marriage, raising a family, and directing.
Putting his acting career on hold, Morrow enrolled in a course at the University of Southern California and began directing community theatre. He occasionally appeared on television or in films, but the typecasting was beginning to wear on him. With a growing family to support, he also found that the time had come to put his artistic scruples aside and opt for the big dollars that televison offered. Desperately wanting to challenge his 'heavy' image, he hired Harry Bloom as his personal manager. This proved to be the turning point in his career.
Pushing Vic's sex appeal and leading-man qualities, Bloom engineered a screen test for a proposed new television series about the exploits of American infantry soldiers in Europe during World War II: Combat! At first, he was considered for the officer role (Lieutenant Hanley) but both Morrow and his manager declined on the basis that "no one sympathizes with an officer". The result was a five-year stint (1962-67) as the heroic and highly-respected Sergeant Chip Saunders.
The early Combat! days were rocky ones. Morrow, not liking the direction the show was taking and his often-limited appearances, actually threatened to quit (he would do so again during contract negotiations two years later). He emerged from the ordeal with the majority of the scripts and a contract which put him among television's highest paid performers (a reported $5,000 per week). He also assumed the director's reins with the episode The Pillbox in 1964 and went on to direct many memorable episodes, including the acclaimed two-part anti-war saga Hills Are For Heroes in 1966. The outstanding features of his directorial efforts included innovative camera angles and the ability to elicit strong, sensitive performances from the ensemble cast. He also wrote many segments of the show but those went uncredited. For Morrow, however, the high point of his Combat! career was to be an Emmy nomination for his superb portrayal of a horribly burned and abandoned Saunders in the first-season episode Survival, which aired 12 March 1963.
In 1958, Morrow finally married New York actress and writer Barbara Turner; they had been together for seven years. They worked on several projects together, including the musical Willie Loved Everybody and the screen adaptation of Jean Genet's play, Deathwatch. Morrow had appeared in the latter off-Broadway in 1958, as well as directing a little theatre production of it in Los Angeles. The couple had two children, Carrie Ann, born in 1959, and Jennifer Leigh, born in 1962. Only five years later and on Barbara's initiative (she had been involved in an affair with Combat! director Robert Altman), the couple separated and were officially divorced in 1965. Morrow took it all very hard, especially the estrangement from his children. This, plus the cancellation of Combat! in 1967, sent him into a personal and professional decline from which he was never to fully recover.
Morrow's post-Combat! career saw a return to the role of the 'heavy'. At first, he was much in demand to do guest shots on hit series and while a starring role in another series was proposed, what he really wanted was quality film offers, a chance to develop his own projects and, most of all, to direct. With few opportunities at home, he took his talents to Japan but soon returned when it became apparent that things were no better there. By this time, he found himself relegated to supporting roles in mini-series and a string of made- for-television movies. The Glass House and Police Story pilot (Countdown) were two of his most memorable performances but rarely, with the exception of the 1976 hit Bad News Bears, did he appear in a major film. Ironically, despite the critical acclaim he received for his portrayal of the abusive baseball coach in Bad News Bears, his television roles got smaller.
By the late 1970s, Vic was lonely and despondent. A failed second marriage (1975), the death of his beloved mother (1978), a reputation as a hard drinker, the failure of a pet project (A Man Called Sledge) and annonymity as a actor left him distraught. He also found it distressing to watch his own performances and reputation being quickly eclipsed by those of his daughter, Jennier. While she had changed her name to Jennifer Jason Leigh in an effort to escape the 'Vic Morrow's kid' label, Vic saw this as an ultimate act of disloyalty. Driven by the need to keep busy, Vic found solace in a string of roles in low-budget films, building a new house, and playing the commodities market. When, in 1982, the chance came to appear in Steven Spielber's latest project, a film adaptation of the classic television series The Twilight Zone, Vic eagerly accepted. He saw it as a way to revive his career in mainstream films.
Vic Morrow died tragically in the early morning hours of July 23, 1982 while filming a scene for "Twilight Zone: The Movie". As he waded across the Santa Clara River carrying two Vietnamese children, a helicopter crashed beside them. All three actors were killed; Morrow and one of the children were decapitated. In his will, written in purple felt-pen on yellow paper just seven months before his death, he left the bulk of his million-dollar estate (house, bank accounts, safety deposit boxes, his personal effects, and Macho the dog) to Carrie. Jennifer, who had remained estranged from her father, received the token sum of $100 while his SAG insurance and some cash went to a female friend.


As FindADeath put it: (http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/Vic%20Morrow/vic_morrow.htm)
"At 2:20am on the morning of 23 July 1982, the final shot of the sequence was being filmed. Morrow would have two children in his arms, wading across a knee-deep river in the dark. Also in the shot would be a village under military siege, and a helicopter coming towards them. The shot would be littered with gigantic explosions. It didn’t go well.
"After Landis called action, the scene commenced. Morrow and the children were trying to get across the river while these amazing explosions were pounding all around them. Even the special effects people were a bit freaked out. Then the helicopter enters the scene. Landis screamed Lower! Lower! Lower! to direct the chopper downwards, and it finally hovered at just 24 feet above the water.
"There were cameras whizzing away during this entire event. There was even a guy standing on the skid of the helicopter, filming the entire thing. These explosions were big. Way big. Just when the pilot of the helicopter was about to split the scene, two more blasts came, and he went out of control. Everyone that could got the hell out of there. Vic lost his grip on Renee, but in the time he tried to get her back, the helicopter landed on top of her, crushing her to death. The 40-foot diameter blades decapitated Morrow and little Myca Le. The cameras were still rolling."
Leave your equipment where it is. Everyone go home. Please, everyone go home! came the announcement.
Jack Rimmer, one of the fire-safety officers, covered Vic Morrow’s torso and set it on a bank. As he was wading across the river to the village to douse the fires there, Rimmer found Myca Le’s head in the water. A crew member brought over a plastic garbage bag and placed the little boy’s severed head inside. Special effects technician Kevin Quibell located Vic’s head, which was placed in another black plastic bag.
After the accident the helicopter sat in the river.
Many people were taken to the emergency room of the nearby Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for treatment of injuries and shock.
Vic’s funeral took place on July 25th, and John Landis gave a 'eulogy': "It is reported by Dick Peabody that John Landis showed up at Mr. Morrow's funeral unannounced, and gave an unrequested and rambling eulogy that sounded more like a plug for the Twilight Zone movie than anything else. This idiot's eulogy offended and upset Mr. Morrow's family and friends."
Morrow is buried at Hillside Memorial Park.
On July 27th, both children had their funerals, which Landis also attended.
Renee is buried in Forest Lawn in Glendale, while Myca Le is buried in Cerritos.
Indian Dunes is now owned by the Newhall Ranch Development Company. They closed the area to movie and film production some time ago.
Indian Dunes has been used for many movies and television programs, most notably Black Sheep Squadron with Robert Conrad and Some Kind Of Hero with Richard Pryor. The last film made at Indian Dunes was The Rocketeer and the last television production was China Beach. There were many silent films and westerns made here years ago and part of Escape From New York was also filmed there.
The Newhall Ranch Development Company owns practically every inch of land in the area and closed the area in the early 1990s for what they termed 'agricultural use', but everyone and their brother knew what would be next. Currently there are preliminary plans to construct over 20,000 homes in the area, thus destroying what may be the very last open and unobstructed parcels of land in the region. There has been a huge uproar over the proposal and, much like Los Angeles before the LA river system, the big gripe is over water and the amount needed to supply the huge development.
There are two books which discuss the tragedy in detail. The first, Outrageous Conduct: Art, Ego and the Twilight Zone Case, was followed by another book entitled Special Effects (by Ron LaBrecque) that is equally mesmerizing. It even suggests that Steven Spielberg, executive producer, was on the scene immediately after the accident, but left before the authorities arrived. If so, that's Hollywood for you!
Everybody filed lawsuits. Everybody. Landis went on trial for involuntary manslaughter, but was acquitted. Warner Brothers settled the civil suits for about $2 million each.
Vic had two daughters. One is called Carrie, the other one messed her name about and is now called Jennifer Jason Leigh. Vic’s will left everything to his daughter Carrie, and a hundred bucks to Jennifer. (They didn’t get along, apparently.)
You can see scenes of the accident location if you rent Death Scenes 2.

Landis got off easy.
I thought then, and I think now, that certain people should have gotten together and made sure that a) Landis never worked in "this town" again and b) Landis quietly disappeared into the desert one night, never to be seen again. I'm sure his family (even Jennifer) would have mourned him, but too fucking bad.
The asshole killed one of my childhood heroes for a lousy movie shot.
He better never cross my path. Herewith, he's been warned...

For fans of Combat!, like me, check out: http://www.jodavidsmeyer.com/combat/main.html
For fans of Vic Morrow's character in the series, check out: Combat!: The Best of Saunders at Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000C20VIC/thecomfanpag/ref=nosim)