Jack Budlong’s Fatal Fake Cavalry Charge
Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland starred in 1941’s They Died With Their Boots On, a highly fictionalized depiction of the life of George Armstrong Custer. The movie was a huge commercial success, but its production had been marred by tragedy, as three crew and cast members had died on set during filming, while dozens more were injured.
If any film’s set was ever jinxed, it was They Died With Their Boots On. Early on, Errol Flynn collapsed from exhaustion, and for a while, it was touch and go for the famous actor. In the opening days of filming, which entailed scenes of massed cavalry charges and melees, 80 personnel were injured, and 3 died. The first fatality was a stuntman who had a massive coronary and dropped dead from a heart attack. Next was an extra with no horseback riding experience, who fell off his steed while galloping and broke his neck.
However, the best known of the film set’s deaths was that of Jack Budlong (1913 – 1941). An experienced horseman and a personal friend of Errol Flynn, with whom he frequently played polo. Budlong badgered his famous buddy into getting him on set, until Flynn relented, and got him a role as an extra. Budlong was a great horseman, the movie was about a famous cavalryman, and it would have many horseback riding scenes, so it did not seem problematic.
However, it did become problematic when Budlong got carried away by amateurish enthusiasm. In a scene depicting a clash between Union and Confederate forces, instead of using a prop sword, Budlong insisted on using a real saber while leading a rebel cavalry charge against Union artillery. As a coroner’s inquest described what happened next, Jack Budlong, dressed in a Confederate cavalryman’s costume, charged across the “battlefield”, wildly waving his saber while prop explosions went off all around, to simulate enemy artillery rounds. His horse was not adequately trained to deal with the explosions and simulated battlefield chaos and noise, however. It panicked and started bucking, and Budlong was thrown off the saddle 15 to 20 feet in the air. He landed on and was impaled by his saber, which ran him clean through, piercing his abdomen and exiting out his back.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources & Further Reading
History Collection – 20 Unusual Deaths from the History Books
All That is Interesting – Franz Reichelt: The Man Who Died Jumping Off the Eiffel Tower
All That is Interesting – Is Death From Laughter Real? Chrysippus and Others Say Yes
British Museum – The Hammersmith Ghost
Cooks Info – Francois Vatel, the Chef Who Killed Himself Over a Fish Delivery
Cracked – The 5 Historical Figures Who Died the Weirdest Deaths
Encyclopedia Britannica – Aeschylus, Greek Dramatist
Guardian, The, January 3rd, 2004 – Ghostly Murder Haunts Lawyers 200 Years On
Herald Sun, January 1st, 2014 – Night Terrors: The Sleepwalking Murder of Patricia Cogdon
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Chrysippus
Internet Movie Database – Jack Budlong
TCM – They Died With Their Boots On
Unofficial Royalty – Assassination of Alexander II, Emperor of All the Russias