http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/11/actor-slits-throat
He survived though... you just know that Detective Columbo would be all over this.
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Actor slits his own throat when stage knife switched
- Thread starter Blue Velvet
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/11/actor-slits-throat
He survived though... you just know that Detective Columbo would be all over this.
Umm... wouldn't you like check a prop or feel that it is a real knife before slitting your own throat ... even for theater? 
Or Professor Plum in the Dining Room... with the knife.
I was gonna go with candlestick.. that would be nasty wound.
Seriously - even if it was a live audience I'd sure check it first before running it over my jugular.
Wasn't there something similar in Columbo about the masked magician and the fake bullet being real? or was that diagnosis murder. I gets confused with all the day time telly, they just seem to roll into each other.
Umm... wouldn't you like check a prop or feel that it is a real knife before slitting your own throat ... even for theater?
Eh, if it's one of those things where the prop is set out and you have to just grab it for the scene, there might not be time to run your finger along the edge. Also, why would the actor even assume someone would replace the prop knife with a real one? Assuming no one threatened him in any way, it's a pretty big logic leap to assume someone might try to slit your throat by swapping out a knife.
Midsomer Murders anyone?
Death of a Hollow Man
Not that I'm a fan or anything… just remember it from a repeat the other day on ITV.
Death of a Hollow Man
Not that I'm a fan or anything… just remember it from a repeat the other day on ITV.
Blimey.
I work in theatre, and we were talking about this in the office today.
Theatre can be dangerous - my partner had her nose broken by a prop tree in one production, and fell off a stage that wasn't constructed properly in another production, knocking herself unconscious. (she got a payout from Equity)
At first, we thought the play used a real knife for some scenes, then switched for a dummy for the suicide scene. Probably no stage manager in the UK would allow that - the risk of a mistake is just too high.
But from the Guardian article, it seems that the play used a dummy knife all the way through, and someone switched it for a real knife. Hence the police investigation.
I could just about see it as a prank that went wrong - I've seen actors play pranks like swapping stage water for vodka, gluing porno images into menus that are supposed to be browsed on-stage, etc, but this...?
Kudos to him for coming back on the following evening with a cut throat. Brave man.
I work in theatre, and we were talking about this in the office today.
Theatre can be dangerous - my partner had her nose broken by a prop tree in one production, and fell off a stage that wasn't constructed properly in another production, knocking herself unconscious. (she got a payout from Equity)
At first, we thought the play used a real knife for some scenes, then switched for a dummy for the suicide scene. Probably no stage manager in the UK would allow that - the risk of a mistake is just too high.
But from the Guardian article, it seems that the play used a dummy knife all the way through, and someone switched it for a real knife. Hence the police investigation.
I could just about see it as a prank that went wrong - I've seen actors play pranks like swapping stage water for vodka, gluing porno images into menus that are supposed to be browsed on-stage, etc, but this...?
Kudos to him for coming back on the following evening with a cut throat. Brave man.
Oh, it's been done numerous times, on Columbo, Ellery Queen, et. al. It's practically a staple of the drawing room murder mystery genre.
Never thought I'd see it happen for real, though. It's almost funny in a macabre sort of way.
