Shocking Early Actor Deaths from Gone with the Wind

Gone With the Wind is arguably the greatest motion picture ever made. If one adjusts for inflation, Gone With the Wind has made more money than any other movie in history. The film won 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. But there is a very eerie fact about the people who made the movie.

Many of them died before they were 60 years old. In fact, an incredible number of people involved with Gone With the Wind died young. Including three out of the four major Hollywood actors in the film, the director, the writer of the book and the screenplay. Some of these people were murdered, some committed suicide and a few died in extremely bizarre and shocking ways.

Join me here for a few minutes to read all about the:

Shocking Early Actor Deaths from Gone With the Wind 

Clark Gable - 59 years old

Clark Gable, who of course played Rhett Butler, died from coronary thrombosis one week after suffering a heart attack at age 59 in 1960, shortly after completing filming of The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe. Gable was a heavy drinker in his life, and a very heavy smoker. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for over 30 years, and also smoked cigars and a pipe daily. 

Vivien Leigh - 53 years old

Scarlett O'Hara actress Vivien Leigh died in 1967 at age 53. Leigh suffered from tuberculous, and died on July 7, 1967, when her lungs filled with fluid. Leigh had battled mental illness and manic depression for many years prior to her death (she also smoked four packs of cigarettes a day while filming Gone With the Wind). She won an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in the movie. 

Leslie Howard - 50 years old

Leslie Howard, who played Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind, died at age 50 in 1943, when the Germans shot down the civilian airliner Howard was traveling on over the Bay of Biscay. Howard, and his manager, were not booked on the daytime flight from Lisbon, Portugal to Bristol, UK, but they used their priority status to get on the flight, and that cost them their lives. The bumped passengers, whose lives were saved, were the teenage sons of Cornelia Vanderbilt.

Hattie McDaniel - 57 years old

Hattie McDaniel, who played Mammy in Gone With the Wind, died in 1952 at age 57 from breast cancer. McDaniel won the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress. She was the first African-American to be so honored. Hattie did not attend the premiere of Gone With the Wind in Atlanta, Georgia because of segregation laws. Clark Gable was so incensed that Hattie could not attend he said he would not attend either. But Hattie McDaniel called him and convinced him to go for the sake of the movie.

Victor Fleming - 59 years old

Victor Fleming, director of Gone With the Wind, died of a heart attack in early 1949 at age 59, shortly after completing his last film, Joan of Arc with his lover Ingrid Bergman. Fleming had a monster year in 1939, as he also directed The Wizard of Oz, in addition to Gone With the Wind that year. Fleming won the Oscar in 1939 for Best Director for Gone With the Wind. 

Sydney Howard - 48 years old

Sydney Howard, who wrote the screenplay for Gone With the Wind, for which he won an Oscar, died in 1939 at age 48. Howard loved to farm his land in Massachusetts, and in August of 1939 he was killed in a tractor accident there (the tractor either ran him over, or pinned him to death against a wall in his barn). His Oscar was the first to be awarded posthumously. 

Oliver H.P. Garrett (age 57) and John Van Druten (age 56)

Both Oliver H.P. Garrett and John Van Druten were contributing (uncredited) writers for the Gone With the Wind movie. Garrett, who was paid $14,792 for his work on the movie, died of a heart attack while on a shopping trip in New York City in 1952 at age 57. Van Druten was paid $7,195 for his work, and passed away in 1957 at age 56.

Margaret Mitchell - 48 years old

Margaret Mitchell wrote the book Gone With the Wind, which was published in 1936. The book was a huge hit, and has since sold over 30 million copies. Margaret Mitchell died in 1949 at age 48, when she was hit by a drunken driver as she tried to cross a street in Atlanta heading to see a movie. The car knocked Mitchell unconscious, and she died five days later in a hospital. She sold the movie rights to David O. Selznick for $50,000. After the movie was such a hit, Selznick felt guilty and sent her another $50,000.

George Reeves - 45 years old

George Reeves, who played Stuart Tarleton, a suitor of Scarlett at the beginning of the movie, officially died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1959 at age 45. Reeves is well known for playing Superman on TV in the 1950's. To this day, many people believe that Reeves was murdered and did not commit suicide. 

Ona Munson - 51 years old

Actress Ona Munson, who played prostitute madam Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind, committed suicide by overdosing on barbiturates in 1955, at age 51. Munson had suffered from ill health for years before she took her own life. She left a suicide note encouraging others to, "not follow me". 

Ward Bond - 57 years old

Ward Bond, who played Yankee Captain Tom in Gone With the Wind, died of a heart attack in 1960 at age 57. Bond was in a ton of famous movies in his career. He was Father Peter Lonergan in the Quiet Man with John Wayne, and Bert the policeman in It's a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart.

Everett Brown - 51 years old

Everett Brown played foreman Big Sam in Gone with the Wind. He died in 1953 at age 51. Brown is Big Sam the foreman working in the fields early in the movie when one of the field hands shouts "it's quittin' time". Big Sam gets annoyed and says he is the foreman, and he says when it's quiitin' time. He then immediately announces "it's quittin' time".