Close Calls: 6 Celebrities Who Faced Death (Some More Than Once)

Michael Jackson

The King of Pop died in 2009 from cardiac arrest brought about by an overdose of pills. It turns out that Michael could have died even earlier.

In 2001, the singer had an appointment on one of the upper floors in the World Trade centre twin towers in New York, which were destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attack.

He didn’t show up because he overslept. His family later said Michael had talked to his mother practically all night and had only gone to bed in the wee hours of the morning.

Michale’s brother Jermaine Jackson later wrote in You Are Not Alone: Michael: Through a Brother's Eyes that none of them knew Michael had a meeting in one of the twin towers

When Michael’s mom called him the next morning to ask him if he was doing ok, he thanked her for the long talk the night before which, as it turned out, had saved his life.

Drew Barrymore

That same year, Drew Barrymore almost died in her own home.

Late one night she and her boyfriend Tom Green were awakened by their dog barking outside the door. When Drew opened the door to let the dog in, she saw the house was on fire.

Drew and Tom got out in the nick of time just as the house was beginning to collapse in on itself.

Ryan Reynolds

Ryan loved skydiving when he was young and one time his hobby almost cost him his life.

Ryan’s parachute won't open despite him pulling repeatedly at the cord. Luckily, Ryan remembered he had a reserve chute, which opened as Ryan was about to hit the ground.

It must have been a really traumatic experience for the actor as he quit skydiving after that.

Sharon Stone

In 1990, Sharon almost died in a terrible car accident. She was driving through Los Angeles when another car crashed into hers.

She sustained a few fractures and bruises, a dislocated jaw, a broken rib, a dislocated knee, but it was a serious accident that could very well have killed her.

It took Sharon six months to fully recover from her injuries, during which time she had to wear a special corset and refrain from filming in movies.

Leonardo DiCaprio

Several years ago Leonardo DiCaprio revealed he had had at least three brushes with death. He joked about how his friends are always begging him to take them on an extreme journey as something is constantly going wrong with him.

Leo’s first brush with death occurred when he almost got eaten by a shark in South Africa: Leo paid money to be lowered into shark-infested waters in a special cage, but a shark broke the bars of the cage and managed to get inside to half its length.

Leo lay flat on the floor of the cage as the shark thrashed about trying really hard to take a bite out of him. Its jaws were about a metre and a half away from Leo’s head. The crew operating the cage eventually managed to drive the predator away. They later told Leo they had never seen something like that happen before.

His next brush with death was during a trip to Russia when one of the engines of the plane Leo was flying on caught on fire. Fortunately, the pilots were able to land the plane safely and nobody was killed or injured.

The third time was when Leo decided to go skydiving: when he pulled the cord, the suspension lines of his parachute got tangled up preventing it from opening. Luckily for Leo, there was an instructor nearby. He sailed over to Leo and untangled the lines, enabling his chute to open.

Jennifer Lawrence

In 2017, Jennifer jumped on a plane to fly back to New York from her hometown of Louisville.

When the plane was already in the air, one of its engines started malfunctioning and then cut out completely. As the pilots were executing an emergency landing, the second engine cut out as well.

Luckily, by this stage the plane was already descending onto an airfield in Buffalo and the crew managed to complete the landing safely.