Conway Wickliffe, New Zealand special effects specialist, died while shooting scenes for “ The Dark Knight”, the latest Batman movie, reported by an English inquest. Guardian newspaper reported that Mr. Wickliffe was filming in a stunt car that was traveling parallel to another car when the Nissan hit a tree at only 32kmh. The Te Kuiti, a 41-year-old stunt man, was inclining out from the window of a 4WD. He was facing backwards while filming a test run for blowing up the Batmobile, when he was badly injured after the vehicle hit a tree in September last year.
- Conway Wickliffe
He suffered dangerous wounds and fractures from the impact, and was declared dead at the scene near Chertsey, in Surrey.The case was taken up at the Woking Coroner’s Court, where a panel of jury watched the video footage of the stunt shot by Mr Wickliffe a few seconds before he was killed. The driver of Nissan, Bruce Monroe-Armstrong, anticipated that the stunt man might have gone a bit wide towards the bend. “We clipped the bank and the tree brushed the wing mirror. Then we came to a stop and I got out of the car. I saw Conway and shouted for a medic”, he added in his statement.
Although the driver of the vehicle claims to have maintained a control over the speed and angle, his fellow crew, Ian Mitchell said that he saw the 4WD carrying on into the grass even after reaching the end of the run. “Instead of turning on to the service road it carried on and I saw it impact the tree. It appeared to be a glancing blow. He ran over and found Mr Wickliffe in a bad way”, he added.
Mr Wickliffe, grew up in Paeroa, NZ, was buried in his own country, New Zealand. Derryn (Dee) Chase, his wife, brought their daughter Eden, 4, and son Sabian, 12, back to New Zealand for his funeral. Wickliffe was known for loving his job. He took part in several extreme sports, his favorite ones being snowboarding and parachute jumping. Batman Begins, Children of Men and the James Bond films Casino Royale and Die Another Day are a few hit films that he has worked in.
The closing credits of “The Dark Knight” commemorated his contribution to the film industry and his career : “In memory of our friends Heath Ledger and Conway Wickliffe”.
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Tags: Batman, Conway Wickliffe, The Dark Knight
Posted in accident | Comments (1)
December 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Conway’s death was an accidental tragedy, after a life well lived as a family man and sought after professional. Have the courtesy to post his own photo on his obit, not Heath Ledger’s with Conway’s Name under it!