40 Years Ago: The TWILIGHT ZONE Tragedy–In Memory of Renee Chen, Myca Dinh Le, and Vic Morrow

Forty years ago, in the early hours of July 23, 1982, a horrible, preventable tragedy occurred on the outdoor set of TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, a Warner Bros. production being filmed at Indian Dunes, California. Actor Vic Morrow was playing a soldier who has to cross a river carrying two Vietnamese orphans in his arms while a helicopter is shooting at him and explosions are going off around him. Instead of using a stunt double and two dummies, the director insisted that Morrow film the scene with the two children actually in his arms in a shot that would include the helicopter and the explosions. At 2:20AM, “Action!” was called, the explosions went off and shook the copter so badly that it crashed into the river killing Morrow and the children, a six-year-old girl, Renee Chen, born in Taiwan, and a seven-year-old boy, Myca Dinh Le, the son of parents born in Vietnam. Neither child was an actor. I want you to remember those names. Whenever this tragedy is recalled, usually only Vic Morrow is mentioned, sometimes accompanied by the phrase, “and two children.” The children had names and they had parents who have names also.  Two of them were on the set that night and watched the horror unfold in front of their eyes. Those parents were Dr. Daniel Le, father of Myca, and Shyan-Huei Chen, mother of Renee. The other parents, Kim-Hoa Le, mother of Myca, and Mark Chen, father of Renee, had attended the filming the night before and had to work a full day afterwards, so they opted not to join them the second night when the tragedy occurred.