10 Stars Who Almost Died Before They Were Famous

Find out what these stars had to say about the scary experiences…

Adam Devine had a near-death experience as a child when he was hit by a cement truck and thrown 500 feet down the street. Looking back, he says he was on the way to get candy with his friends and thought that one pal was telling him it was safe to cross the street. He ended up walking right into the path of the truck. Over the next two years, he underwent 25 surgeries and had limited mobility. 

“I was hit by a cement truck,” Adam told Entertainment Weekly. “One buddy was across the street. He yelled, ‘Come on!’…And I heard ‘Come on!’ as in ‘The coast is clear!’ They say the reason I lived was the bike took the hit first. I still slid 500 feet. Picked me up under the first two wheels and then spit me out.”

When Tina Fey was just five years old, she was attacked by a stranger when she was playing in her family’s front yard. He slashed her face, and she now has a scar that stretches from her lip to her cheek. While it could have been a traumatizing experience, Tina says that as a child, she was able to move forward. 

“It’s impossible to talk about it without somehow seemingly exploiting it and glorifying it,” Tina shared with Vanity Fair in 2008. “I proceeded unaware of it. I was a very confident little kid. It’s really almost like I’m kind of able to forget about it, until I was on-camera.”

As a little girl, Jennifer Aniston had a scary experience while riding her tricycle near a pool. She ended up falling in and because she didn’t let go of the bike, she sank to the bottom. Her brother was able to rescue her, but it left her with a lifelong fear of water.

“I was a kid and I was riding this tricycle around a swimming pool and I drove my tricycle into the swimming pool and I didn’t let go and my brother tried to [help me],” she told E! News. “So, I can’t go underwater and no one will believe me. I honestly can’t.”

Sharon Stone has had several near-death experiences. As a teenager, she was struck by lightning while she was inside her family’s home. She explained that it was actually the water well on the property that got struck, but since she was using the tap inside, she felt the residual effects. 

“I’ve been hit by lightning and, wow, that was really intense. I was at home, we had our own well. I was filling up the iron with water and I had my hand on the tap. The well got hit by lightning and it came up through the water. I was indoors and I got picked up and thrown across the kitchen and hit the refrigerator. Thankfully my mum belted me round the face and brought me to,” Sharon once shared. 

When Liam Hemsworth was just a kid growing up in Australia, he experienced a scary situation where he almost drowned while surfing. Looking back, Liam says he got twisted in his leg rope and couldn’t get to the water’s surface.

“Every day, before and after school. I wanted to surf for the rest of my life. It’s what all my friends did. The fear of dying? That’s part of the fun of it. When I was a kid, one time I got my leg rope wrapped around my whole body like a ball, underwater. Couldn’t get up. I was in waist-deep water, but I almost drowned,” he told Men’s Health.

As a teenager, George Lucas became involved in car racing — and it was a car accident that nearly ended his life. He was driving home from the library when one of his friends tried to pass him at a high speed while George was making a left turn, and he ended up crashing into him. The car rolled multiple times and George was thrown from the vehicle. Thankfully, a bystander was able to call 911 and get help. The serious accident left him with crushed lungs and many broken bones. He was in critical condition for weeks but ultimately survived. 

“Before that first accident you are very oblivious to the danger because you don’t realise how close to the edge you are. But once you’ve gone over the edge and you realise what’s on the other side, it changes your perspective,” George later said. “And I just decided that maybe that wasn’t for me. I decided I’d settle down and go to school.”

Back in 1998, Orlando Bloom got into an accident that almost left him paralyzed. Orlando was scaling a wall up to a roof terrace, but unfortunately, the drainpipe he was holding collapsed. He fell three stories down and says he “crushed” his spine, “narrowly escaping death and paralysis.” Just three months later, he was able to ride his bike and was on his way to a full recovery. 

“Until then, I didn’t have a healthy appreciation for life and death — that we’re not invincible,” he told 15 years old. “And for four days, I faced the idea of living in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I went to some dark places in my mind. I realized, I’m either going to walk again or I’m not.”

He continued, “The doctor said he wasn’t sure how severe the spinal cord damage was. I remember him telling me that, and staring at the ceiling, thinking, I never stared at ceilings before! And I wonder if I’m going to be looking at ceilings for the rest of my life.”

When Chad Michael Murray was just 15 years old, he was hospitalized after his intestines became twisted. At the time, doctors didn’t realize he was internally bleeding. Chad says it was a nurse who saved his life by going “against the grain” and giving him units of blood. Thankfully, he was then able to make a full recovery.

“This sounds so stupid…but because I was in physical good condition, my abdomen was tight and when I started bleeding internally, my stomach didn’t expand. Basically, my abs kept it flat so the doctors couldn’t tell I was bleeding,” Chad shared on The Jess Cagle Show. “I almost died. They had a priest at the end of my bed. I remember, it was the only time I ever saw my dad cry.”

Rachel Bilson almost died in a car accident as a teenager. When she was just 16, she was driving with a group of friends when they were in a head-on collision with a truck. She ended up in a coma for several days. 

“Everyone was lucky to have survived…I was with my girlfriend and these two guys driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. We were going really fast and we were involved in a head-on collision with a truck. We were in a tiny car and it was a pretty bad crash. They had to cut us out and I was in a coma for a few days,” she told the Mirror.

Back when she was a teenager, Amy Schumer had a scary accident while surfing. While heading towards the shore, Amy says she ended up piercing her leg with the surfboard’s fin. With no one around, she had to find a way to get out of the water for help. 

“I skegged myself. My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out. I was by myself,” Amy told Vanity Fair. “I found, like, one guy with this other guy. I was like, ‘I need you to hold my leg.’ I was delegating. And he held my leg closed with his bare hands — just fat and blood coming out. I wish I knew who that guy was, because he saved my life, for sure.”