Daredevils Who Lost Their Lives During Insane Stunts

Daredevils, whether they're seasoned professionals or brash amateurs, aren't content to live vicariously through others, and their need to tempt fate comes with a price tag. Even the most accomplished daredevils, including Evel Knievel and Harry Houdini, barely escaped tragic accidents, while others have been far less fortunate. The awful truth about daredevils and their envelope-pushing stunts is that one day, their luck will run out, tragedy will strike, and loved ones will have to pay the price. Here are a few notorious examples of stunts that went horribly wrong.

A professional racer and a TV show host, Jessica "Jessi" Combs was versatile: she'd been the face of several television shows and proved her mettle as a race car driver, determined to inspire more women to give racing a shot. Her constant quest for doing better and making serious progress resulted in a tragedy in 2019. Combs was highly experienced and knew what she was doing, but couldn't prevent a mechanical failure when she was chasing a world record in Oregon. That day, according to the BBC, her speed was the highest it had ever been: 522.783 mph. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed her achievement — she had, indeed, broken the world record previously set in 1976 by stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil.

The world of magic can be a very deadly place, and plenty of magic tricks have gone terribly wrong. While safety conditions for many of the industry's most popular entertainers are now better than ever, working as a magician was once one of the world's most dangerous professions. It was all too easy to get burned alive, shot to death, or horribly maimed, or to simply keel over in the middle of a show.

Stuntmen have one of the toughest jobs in the movie industry. They take on the daring and, oftentimes, dangerous stunts that fans love to see on the big screen. Many times they take on the role played by A-list actors, stepping in for crucial scenes, without receiving much of the fame or accolade that usually comes from acting. In the 1970s and '80s there was one stuntman who stood above the rest: Dar Robinson.

It's hardly debatable that daredevils are cut from a different cloth than the rest of us. They willingly put themselves in precarious, dangerous, and often life-threatening situations that most of us would take great pains to avoid. Why? There are several reasons, according to The Economist. One is of course money. While not nearly as lucrative a profession as it was in the last century, a person can make a decent chunk of change by performing wild stunts that thrill and amaze a crowd. Some do it in the pursuit of fame. And some take risks simply for the thrill and the exhilaration.