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A wild, wild stunt almost paralyzed Robert Conrad
The actor risked it all for Assignment: Vienna
Is Tom Cruise going to be ok? It seems like every year there's a rumble that reverberates out of Hollywood, as whispers follow of some great feat of human daring he's undertaken on film. The guy's always either leaping out of an airplane, repelling down a skyscraper, or swallowing a piano. It's like Tom Cruise doesn't feel alive unless he's fistfighting a helicopter. It's an absurd game of one-upmanship, and we wish Cruise could prove himself in some safer way. At the same time, we will be first in line for whatever movie each of these stunts is promoting. We love a bit of showmanship.
While Cruise's stunts aren't easy, they're all accomplished in the current era. Nothing's perfect in stuntwork, but everybody will agree things have never been safer. Technology has advanced incredibly. Safety is prioritized in a way heretofore unseen in Hollywood. Again, there's always the chance that something could go wrong today, but that chance was so much greater in previous eras.
Take, for instance, the career of Robert Conrad. His work in shows like The Wild Wild West gave him the reputation of one of the greatest action stars of his day. But while he was working on the miniseries Assignment: Vienna, that reputation nearly cost Conrad his life.
"We were doing an auto-wrecking chase, with me running from Victor Buono," Conrad told The Sacramento Bee in 1975.
"It was raining. I lost my footing on top of this wrecked car. I just missed. he couldn't help me because his back was turned. I cried out— he might have broken my fall if he'd been able to see me— but it was too late and I was out of control.
"They took me to a hospital and I was unconscious for 30 hours."
Conrad had fractured his skull. Worse, this was the second time that same injury and befallen him. He'd earlier cracked his head seriously while starring in The Wild Wild West. In that case, he fell from a swinging chandelier.
"After that first accident, they had a piece of my skull in the refrigerator and they just popped it back in place. I woke up and didn't even have a headache. Of course, I didn't wake up for four days."
The accident on Assignment: Vienna didn't seem so bad at first, but then Conrad's neck started to bother him more and more. Production was halted for two weeks and the actor went to an orthopedic surgeon.
"I couldn't move my neck," Conrad said. "The doctor took X-rays and found I had broken a one in my neck, actually severed it. It had missed my spinal column by an eighth of an inch.
"If it had been in the spinal column, I'd have been paralyzed for the rest of my life. The doctor said I'd regain 90 percent movement with the right exercises and routine. It doesn't bother me at all now— but I do have to be careful."
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