The following celebrities are all very lucky to be alive.
As recounted below, each suffered through a near-death experience and each, we hope, is grateful to still be around…
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan nearly lost his life in a car accident. In July of 2014, the vehicle in which he was traveling was hit by an 18-wheeler. A good friend of Morgan’s died in the crash, while Morgan was hospitalized for months.
Lamar Odom
Lamar Odom fell way off the wagon during a lengthy stay at a Nevada brothel. He fell into a coma, likely as a resuly of a drug overdose, and his prognosis was very grim for a few days.
George Clooney
George Clooney actually broke his back while filming Syriana. In the following quite, he opens up about thoughts of suicide: “I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm, unable to move, having these headaches where it feels like you’re having a stroke, and for a short three-week period, I started to think, ‘I may have to do something drastic about this’ … but I never thought I’d get there.”
Gary Busey
In 1988, the actor (not wearing a helmet at the time) was involved in a terrible motorcycle accident. Busey suffered from a cracked skull and doctors believed he may have permanent brain damage.
Johnny Depp
Back in 2011, Depp was flying in a small plane with director Bruce Robinson when the engines cut-out midflight. They eventually returned, Depp said of the experience: “The sound of the engines stopped. There was silence. Bruce and I were looking at each other and I think I said, ‘Is this it?’ It was like this weird extended moment when you’re just floating for a second, and you could feel this unpleasant descent.”
Harrison Ford
Ford wasn’t so lucky. He actually did crash his plane in August of 2015, but was fortunate to walk away with just a few broken bones.
Rachel Bilson
Bet you didn’t know this: Rachel Bilson almost died in a car accident when she was 14 years old. “I basically died and then came back,” she has said of the incident. “The window went into my head. It was really gross.”
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne almost perished in an ATV accident in 2003, suffering a broken collarbone, eight fractured ribs that pinched several blood vessels, along with a damaged vertebrae in his neck.
Travis Barker
A plane crash in 2008 nearly took the life of Travis Barker and DJ AM. About a year later, the latter actually would die of a drug overdose.
Joaquin Phoenix
A car accident in 2006 nearly took Joaquin Phoenix’s life. His car flipped and his another car, but director Werner Herzog actually lived nearby and came to the actor’s rescue.
Kanye West
West wrote the single “Through the Wire” about a horrific 2002 car crash. He said afterward that he can only thank God after nearly losing his “mouth, voice and whole face.”
Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland would never have played President Snow in The Hunger Games if he had died of spinal meningitis when he was filming Kelly’s Heroes in 1970. The actor ended up in a coma as a result and says he “dug in” upon seeing a “white light.”
Sharon Stone
Stone says she also saw a “white light” after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2010. Two decades earlier, she was involved in a scary head-on collision.
50 Cent
The story has been well-documented by now, but it’s still incredible: 50 Cent was shot NINE TIMES at close range in 2000.
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom almost left us when he was 21 after the actor plummeted three stories attempting to climb a drain pipe. The injury left Bloom paralyzed for many days.
Chevy Chase
This one is different: Chevy Chase nearly died in 1981 when he was electrocuted on the set of Modern Problems. Yes, electrocuted! He lost consciousness for a short while.
Eminem
Eminem suffered a major methadone overdose in 2005, saying of the scary experience: “My doctor told me the amount of methadone I’d taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin. Even when they told me I almost died, it didn’t click.”
Seth MacFarlane
Wow. Check this one out: Seth MacFarlane had a ticket for the American Airlines flight that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. But he was hungover and given the wrong time for it and showed up at the airport 10 minutes too late to board.
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore took many drugs as a child. But was a house fire in 2001 that nearly did her in. Fortunately, her barking dog woke her up and saved her life.
Martin Lawrence
Martin Lawrence went jogging in very hot temperature back in 1999, in order to lose weight for a movie role. He got home witha 107 degree temperature and slipped into a coma in the hospital.
Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron actually broke her neck while filming the movie Æon Flux. Shooting was delayed over two moths while she recovered.
Ryan Reynolds
When Ryan Reynolds was 17 years old, he went sky-diving and his chute didn’t work. He had to go to the reserve, saying later on: “I got down on the ground, removed my urine-spackled jumpsuit, threw it at the guy, and got in my car and drove extremely slowly home. It was the worst.”
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was actually pronounced dead while undergoing surgery back in the late 1950s. She also went on record as saying she saw a “white light.”