On May 22, 1981, director Boris Sagal suffered fatal injuries from a helicopter’s spinning tail rotor in the parking lot of Timberline Lodge on Oregon’s Mount Hood. The lodge had appeared as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining, released the year before.
Sagal, 57, was there directing second-unit action for NBC’s World War III, starring Rock Hudson and David Soul. Snow-covered Mount Hood was standing in for Alaska in a story about a Russian attack on an oil pipeline.
The accident happened around 5 p.m. Sagal suffered injuries to his head and right shoulder and died at Portland’s Emanuel Hospital around 9:45 p.m. His wife, dancer Marge Champion, was at the hospital when he died.
Accounts of how he reached the rotor differ. Contemporary reporting said witnesses couldn’t explain what happened, and the FAA opened an investigation.
His daughter, Married… with Children and Sons of Anarchy actress Katey Sagal, later told Terry Gross that he’d left his script in the helicopter and lost his balance while going back for it. She also said the family sued the helicopter company over passengers being able to exit while the blades were still turning.
The Shining connection was the location: Kubrick’s second unit had filmed Timberline’s exterior, while the hotel interiors were built at Elstree. That film’s principal photography had ended in July 1979, almost 2 years before Sagal’s accident.
David Greene replaced Sagal on World War III. NBC aired the miniseries on January 31 and February 1, 1982.
