Story of Vic Morrow. From COMBAT! to the Twilight Zone

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Vic Morrow. 1929-1982.

Vic Morrow in his role as Sergeant "Chip" Saunders in ABC's Combat!, 1962 to 1967.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 4-4-2025

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United States Navy Veteran ~

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Victor Morrow (né Morozoff; February 14, 1929 – July 23, 1982) was an American actor. He came to prominence as one of the leads of the ABC drama series Combat! (1962–1967), which earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Series. Active on screen for over three decades, his film roles include Blackboard Jungle (1955), King Creole (1958), God's Little Acre (1958), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), and The Bad News Bears (1976). Morrow continued acting up to his death during filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when he and two child actors were killed in a helicopter crash on set.

Early life ~

Morrow was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Harry Morrow (né Morozoff), an electrical engineer, and Eugenia "Jean" (née Barmachenko). Morrow dropped out of high school when he was 17 and enlisted in the United States Navy. Morrow and his family lived in Asbury Park, New Jersey for many years.

Career ~

Morrow attracted attention playing Stanley Kowalski in a touring production of A Streetcar Named Desire. His first movie role was in Blackboard Jungle (1955), playing a thug student who torments teacher Glenn Ford.

It was made by MGM, who then put Morrow in Tribute to a Bad Man (1956). Morrow appeared on television, guest starring on shows like The Millionaire, Matinee Theatre, Climax!, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Restless Gun, Trackdown, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and Telephone Time.

Morrow had support roles in Men in War (1957), directed by Anthony Mann, and was third billed in Hell's Five Hours (1958). He starred alongside Elvis Presley and an all-star supporting cast including Walter Matthau and Carolyn Jones in the movie King Creole (1958), directed by Michael Curtiz. Mann asked him back for God's Little Acre (1958).

Michael Curtiz, director.

A Man Called Sledge is a 1970 Italian Spaghetti Western film starring James Garner in an extremely offbeat role as a grimly hardened thief, and featuring Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins and Wayde Preston. The film was written by Vic Morrow and Frank Kowalski, and directed by Morrow in Techniscope.

However Morrow remained mostly a television actor, appearing in Naked City, Wichita Town, The Rifleman, The Lineup, Johnny Ringo, The Brothers Brannagan, The Law and Mr. Jones, The Lawless Years, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, General Electric Theatre, Target: The Corruptors, The Tall Man, Outlaws, Bonanza, and The Untouchables.

The Untouchables.

He was cast in the early Bonanza episode "The Avenger" as a mysterious figure known only as "Lassiter" – named after his town of origin – who arrives in Virginia City. He helps save Ben and Adam Cartwright from an unjust hanging, while eventually gunning down one sought-after man, revealing himself as the hunter of a lynch mob who killed his father. Having so far killed about half the mob, he rides off into the night, in an episode that resembles the later Clint Eastwood film High Plains Drifter. Morrow later appeared in the third season Bonanza episode "The Tin Badge".

Mann used Morrow a third time in Cimarron (1960), again tormenting Glenn Ford. He took on Audie Murphy in Posse from Hell (1961).

Morrow was cast as soldier-engineer Lt. Robert Benson in the 1962 episode, "A Matter of Honor", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. The story focuses on Benson's fiancé, Indiana (Shirley Ballard), who tries to persuade him to boost their income by selling inside Army information to criminal real estate moguls like Joseph Hooker (Howard Petrie). Trevor Bardette and Meg Wyllie were cast in the roles of Captain and Mrs. Warner.

Morrow had his first leading role in Portrait of a Mobster (1961) playing Dutch Schultz.

He continued as mostly a television actor, appearing in Death Valley Days, Alcoa Premiere, and Suspense.

COMBAT! ~

Morrow was cast in the lead role of Sergeant "Chip" Saunders in ABC's Combat!, a World War II drama, which aired from 1962 to 1967. Pop culture scholar Gene Santoro has written:

"TV's longest-running World War II drama (1962–1967) was really a collection of complex 50-minute movies. Salted with battle sequences, they follow a squad's travails from D-Day on – a gritty ground-eye view of men trying to salvage their humanity and survive. Melodrama, comedy, and satire come into play as top-billed Lieutenant Hanley (Rick Jason) and Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) lead their men toward Paris ... The relentlessness hollows antihero Saunders out: at times, you can see the tombstones in his eyes."

Vic Morrow in COMBAT!

His friend and fellow actor on Combat!, Rick Jason, described Morrow as "a master director" who directed "one of the greatest anti-war films I've ever seen". He was referring to the two-part episode of Combat! entitled Hills Are for Heroes, which was written by Gene L. Coon.

Rick Jason.

Deathwatch and A Man Called Sledge ~

Morrow also worked as a television director. Together with Leonard Nimoy, he produced the 1965 film Deathwatch, an English-language film version of Jean Genet's play Deathwatch (title in French: Haute Surveillance), adapted by Morrow and Barbara Turner, directed by Morrow, and starring Nimoy.

After Combat! ended, Morrow played the lead in Target: Harry (1969), the pilot for a proposed series that was not picked up; Roger Corman directed.

Roger Corman, director.

In 1969 he set up his own company, Carleigh, which was named after his daughters Carrie Ann and Jennifer Leigh.

Morrow wrote and directed a spaghetti Western, produced by Dino De Laurentiis, titled A Man Called Sledge (1970) and starring James Garner, Dennis Weaver and Claude Akins. After Deathwatch, it was Morrow's first and only big screen outing behind the camera. Sledge was filmed in Italy with desert-like settings that were highly evocative of the Southwestern United States.

Morrow guest starred in The Immortal, Dan August, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Sarge, McCloud, and Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.

TV movies ~

In the 1970s Morrow starred in some television movies including A Step Out of Line (1971), Travis Logan, D.A. (1971) (playing the title role), River of Mystery (1971), The Glass House (1972), The Weekend Nun, Tom Sawyer (1973), and Nightmare (1974).

He guest starred in Ironside, The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, Mission: Impossible, The FBI, Love Story, The Streets of San Francisco, and Police Story.

Morrow appeared in two episodes of Australian-produced anthology series The Evil Touch (1973), one of which he also directed.

He played the wily local sheriff in director John Hough's road classic Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, as well as the homicidal sheriff, alongside Martin Sheen, in the television film The California Kid (1974), and The Take (1974).

Martin Sheen.

Morrow had the lead in Funeral for an Assassin (1975). He had key roles in Death Stalk (1975), Wanted: Babysitter (also called Scar Tissue; 1975), The Night That Panicked America (1975), Treasure of Matecumbe (1976) and had a key role as aggressive, competitive baseball coach Roy Turner, in the comedy The Bad News Bears (1976).

In the late 1970s Morrow worked increasingly in miniseries such as Captains and the Kings (1977), Roots and The Last Convertible (1979), as well as guest starring on shows like Bronc, Hunter, The Littlest Hobo and Charlie's Angels.

Vic Morrow in Roots, 1977.

He returned to directing, helming episodes of Quincy, M.E. as well as Lucan and Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

Final roles ~

Morrow had the lead in The Ghost of Cypress Swamp (1977), the Japanese film Message From Space (1978) and The Evictors (1979). He was in TV movies The Man with the Power (1977), The Hostage Heart (1977), Curse of the Black Widow (1977), Wild and Wooly (1978), Stone (1979), and Paris (1980).

Vic Morrow In Message From Space, 1978.

Morrow made Humanoids from the Deep (1980) for Roger Corman and The Last Shark (1981) and had a regular role in the series, B.A.D. Cats (1980).

Morrow's last roles included guest roles in Charlie's Angels, Magnum, P.I. and the films 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1981) and Abenko Green Berets (1982).

Personal life ~

From 1957 to 1964, Morrow was married to actress and screenwriter Barbara Turner. They had two daughters, Carrie Ann Morrow and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. He married Gale Lester in 1975; they separated just prior to Morrow's death in July 1982.

Carrie at her dad Vic Morrow's side along with mother Barbara Turner and younger sister Jennifer Lee Morrow. (February 20, 1964).

Morrow fell out with his daughter Jennifer after his divorce from her mother. She changed her last name to Leigh and they were still estranged at the time of his death.

Rick Jason, co-star of Combat!, wrote in his memoirs that Morrow "had an absolute dislike of firearms. He used a Thompson submachine gun in our series, but that was work. In any other respect he'd have nothing to do with them."

Vic Morrow with his Thompson Machine Gun in COMBAT!

Death ~

In 1982, Morrow was cast in a feature role in Twilight Zone: The Movie in a segment directed by John Landis. Morrow was playing the role of Bill Connor, a racist who is taken back in time and placed in various situations where he would be a persecuted victim: as a Jewish man in Vichy France, a black man about to be lynched by the Ku Klux Klan and a Vietnamese man about to be killed by U.S. soldiers.

John Landis and His Wife Deborah.

Vic Morrow in his final role. Twilight Zone: The Movie, 1983. He and two children were killed on the set.

In the early morning hours of July 23, 1982, Morrow and two child actors, seven-year-old Myca Dinh Le and six-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were filming on location in California in an area that was known as Indian Dunes near Santa Clarita. They were performing a scene for the Vietnam sequence, in which their characters attempt to escape out of a deserted Vietnamese village from a pursuing U.S. Army helicopter. The helicopter was hovering about 24 feet (7.3 m) above them when a fireball from special effect pyrotechnic explosions reportedly caused damage to the helicopter rotor and caused the tail rotors to separate from the aircraft causing the helicopter to plummet and crash on top of them, killing all three instantly. Morrow and Le were decapitated and mutilated by the helicopter rotor blades, while Chen was crushed by a helicopter skid.

Morrow's daughters sued several parties for negligence and wrongful death and were each awarded an out-of-court settlement of $850,000 by Warner Bros. Studios. Landis and four other defendants, including the helicopter pilot Dorcey Wingo, were charged with involuntary manslaughter but were ultimately acquitted after a ten-month trial. The parents of Le and Chen also sued and settled out of court for $2 million each.

Morrow's remains are interred in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

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NOTE:

I have the photos of a dead Vic Morrow at the crash site. However, I decided not to post them here...or anywhere!

The photos are on the internet. If you want to see them, you will have to search for them. Warning! They are grim.

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Vic Morrow and guest at the Premiere of '2001: A Space Odyssey', Warner's Cinerama, Hollywood. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images).

Vic's wife, Barbara Turner. She was also an actress and a screenwriter.

Barbara and Vic.

Barbara Turner later in life.

Daughter Carrie Ann Morrow.

Carrie Ann Morrow with her famous parents (1959).

Carrie Morrow on a seesaw with her famous parents. (1962).

Carrie with her dad, Vic Morrow ~ November 1962.

Carrie with her dad, Vic Morrow ~ November 1962.

Daughter Jennifer Morrow, aka Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and her film career began.

George Leon Morrow. Vic Morrow's brother.

Rick Jason (left) and Vic Morrow in a first-season episode.

Sal Mineo and Vic Morrow in a 1965 episode.

COMBAT! Trivia ~

The Thompson Machine Gun used in the show was supposed to be carried by co-star Rick Jason. He did not like it as he thought it was too heavy. So he chose to use the M-1 carbine instead. Morrow did not like guns but had to use the Thompson. The studio prop department made a wooden Thompson that Morrow carried when he was not doing a "shooting scene". The wooden double was much lighter.

Russ Tamblyn (center) and Vic Morrow (left, rear) terrorize school children and their teacher in a scene from the film 'Cimarron', 1960. (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images).

1979: (L-R) Asher Brauner, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vic Morrow, Steve Hanks, Jimmie Walker promotional photo for the ABC tv series 'B.A.D. Cats'. (Photo by American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images).

Carol Lawrence and Vic Morrow.

NOVEMBER 30, 1980: CHARLIE'S ANGELS - "Angel in Hiding" - Season Five - 11/30/80 The fifth and final season of "Charlie's Angels" began with a new Angel (Tanya Roberts as Julie Rogers) joining the Townsend Detective Agency. Roberts made her first appearance in "Angel in Hiding" as the roommate of a murdered model whom Kelly and Kris suspect of trying to supply the model with drugs on the night of her murder. Vic Morrow guest stars as Lt. Harry Stearns. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

1970: (L-R) Christopher George, Vic Morrow, extras appearing in the Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images series 'The Immortal' episode 'To the Gods Alone'. (Photo by Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

1970: Vic Morrow, extras appearing in the Walt Disney Television via Getty Images series 'The Immortal' episode 'To the Gods Alone'. (Photo by Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

Elvis Presley meeting Vic Morrow outside in a scene from the film 'King Creole', 1958. (Photo by Paramount/Getty Images).

NEW YORK - JULY 30, 1961: CBS television series, General Electric Theater, episode The Iron Silence. The story takes place in Hungary, 1957. Episode aired September 24, 1961. Image dated July 30, 1961. Pictured from second left is director Ida Lupino explaining a scene to Vic Morrow as Lieutenant Mikhail Loptev and Carol Lawrence as Rachel. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images).

CBS television series, General Electric Theater, episode The Iron Silence. The story takes place in Hungary, 1957. Episode aired September 24, 1961. Image dated July 30, 1961. Pictured in the center is Vic Morrow as Lieutenant Mikhail Loptev and at far right is actor Ronald Reagan. (Photo by CBS via Getty Images).

Portrait Of A Mobster, aka: Tote können nicht mehr singen, USA, 1961, Regie: Joseph Pevney, Darsteller: Leslie Parrish and Vic Morrow. (Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images).

THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO - "The Twenty-Four Karat Plague" - Airdate: November 8, 1973. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images) .

L-R: HERVE VILLECHAIZE, VIC MORROW, JANE POWELL, DICK SARGENT and RICARDO MONTALBAN. FANTASY ISLAND - "The Challenge / A Genie Named Joe" - Airdate: February 13, 1982. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

1972: (L-R) Joanna Pettet, Vic Morrow appearing in the Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images tv movie 'The Weekend Nun'. (Photo by Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

Vic Morrow, Joanna Pettet Appearing In 'The Weekend Nun'.

Roots. TV mini series.

JOHN AMOS, VIC MORROW and LORNE GREENE. ROOTS - Airdate January 23, 1977. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

Vic Morrow starred with Lorne Greene in Roots.

Vic Morrow with John Amos and Lorne Greene in Roots.

Vic Morrow, John Amos and Lorne Greene.

Roots: VIC MORROW, LYNDA DAY GEORGE and LORNE GREENE.

Vic Morrow and Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears.

Moses Gunn, Vic Morrow, and Dennis Weaver in McCloud (1970).

Sonny Chiba and Vic Morrow listen to an old man in a scene from the film 'Message From Space', 1978. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images).

Vic Morrow In 'Message From Space'.

Vic Morrow confronts the emperor in a scene from the film 'Message From Space', 1978. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images).

Joan Hackett, Johnny Doran, Billy Attmore, and Peter Ustinov are left stranded in the Everglades by Vic Morrow and his henchmen Dave Cass, Mills Watson, and Don Knight in a scene from the film 'Treasure Of Matecumbe', 1976. (Photo by Walt Disney/Getty Images).

Vic Morrow, from movie trailer of 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.

VIC MORROW and JOE RUSKIN in THE UNTOUCHABLES - Ness must recruit a soon to be paroled mobster to infiltrate Louis Buchalter's organization as he tries to take over Maggie Storm's 808 Club during "The Maggie Storm Story" which aired on March 29, 1962. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images).

Vic Morrow And Ken Tobey In 'Dirty Mary Crazy Larry'.

Vic Morrow and René Clément in 1975 filming a scene for The Baby Sitter. The film was shot in Italy..

Vic Morrow in a dark bar scene in his final film, Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983.

Vic in Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Final photo still of Vic Morrow and child actors before crash. This film still was shot seconds before the tragic accident took place.

The Bell helicopter crew begin here to disassemble the helicopter that crashed killing veteran actor Vic Morrow and two child actors on the movie set, The Twilight Zone TV show. The six people aboard the helicopter were slightly injured when it went into the river bed near Six Flags Magic Mountain Amusement Park.

SAUGUS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10, 1987 : Director John Landis, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren and Court Officials watch a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter fly a similar route above the Santa Clara River where a 1982 helicopter filming accident killed actor Vic Morrow and two children by a disabled helicopter, February 10, 1987 in Saugus, California. Saugus is located just North of Los Angeles. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images).

SAUGUS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10, 1987 : Director John Landis, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren and Court Officials watch a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter fly a similar route above the Santa Clara River where a 1982 helicopter filming accident killed actor Vic Morrow and two children by a disabled helicopter, February 10, 1987 in Saugus, California. Saugus is located just North of Los Angeles. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images).

SAUGUS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10 , 1987: Director John Landis and wife Deborah Landis after viewing a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter fly a similar route above the Santa Clara River where a 1982 helicopter filming accident killed actor Vic Morrow and two children by a disabled helicopter, February 10, 1987 in Saugus, California. Saugus is located just North of Los Angeles. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images).

Director John Landis on-site of Helicopter Crash.

SAUGUS, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 10 , 1987: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren is joined by Deputy District Attorney Lea D'Agostino and Court Officials in discussion after viewing a Los Angeles County Fire Department helicopter fly a similar route above the Santa Clara River where a 1982 helicopter filming accident killed actor Vic Morrow and two children by a disabled helicopter, February 10, 1987 in Saugus, California. The Judge denied a fly-by motion request to do another fly-by in front of Jurors who where hidden from view during 1st flight. Saugus is located just North of Los Angeles. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images).

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 20, 1987 : Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Roger W. Boren is the presiding judge of the 'Twilight Zone' Court Trial involving a 1982 helicopter crash filming accident that killed actor Vic Morrow and two children by a disabled helicopter, February 20, 1987 in Los Angeles, California. Judge Boren is standing alongside an Evidence Scale Model depicting the crash site scene inside the Judges' quarters. (Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images).

Glendale, California, 1983: A relative of 6-year-old Renee Shinn Chen, the child actor who was killed with actor Vic Morrow in a helicopter crash during the filming of the movie, Twilight Zone, is restrained at the funeral while the mother, (left), is comforted by an unidentified member of the family. Film director John Landis attended the service. The helicopter crashed at Indian Dunes Motorcycle Park July 23..

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Movie Posters Gallery ~

1.6th scale Vic Morrow head bust. eBay. $20.

Bust.

Statue complete with dog tags.

3D printed figures. eBay. $145.

1963 board game.

Action Figure.

TV Guides.

NOVEMBER 21: 1974 SEMA Show - First year it is held at the Anaheim Convention Center. One of the featured cars is the 1934 Ford 3-window coupe The California Kid, built by Pete Chapouris for the ABC TV movie of the same name. The movie starred Martin Sheen, Vic Morrow, Nick Nolte, and Michelle Phillips. (Photo by Mike Parris/The Enthusiast Network via Getty Images/Getty Images).