18 Celebrities Who Have Opened Up About Their Near-Death Experiences
18 Celebrities Who Have Opened Up About Their Near-Death Experiences
Diana Pearl, Sophie Dodd, Caroline BlairSat, August 15, 2026 at 10:00 AM UTC
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Travis Barker; Leonardo DiCaprio; Sharon Stone.Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty; Mike Coppola/Getty; Amy Sussman/Getty
There are a number of celebrities who have spoken about near-death experiences.
While some stars — like Orlando Bloom — had harrowing accidents before their rise to fame and unrelated to their business, others — including Travis Barker and Dylan O’Brien — have had traumatizing experiences that were directly tied to their careers.
Barker has often spoken about a tragic 2008 plane crash that he survived but left four dead, and he revisited the ordeal in his documentary Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear, which premiered on Aug. 13.
“I would go from my tour bus to the hotel, and no one would see me,” he recalled to PEOPLE of the time after the crash. “I would just hide out. I was so afraid. I was just waiting for impact in the bus. I was just like, ‘Oh, I’m next. I’m going to go anytime.’ ”
Here are 18 celebrities who have opened up about their near-death experiences.
01 of 18
Travis Barker
Travis Barker attends the “Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear” premiere during the 2026 Tribeca Festival on June 13, 2026 in New York CityCredit: Arturo Holmes/Getty for Tribeca Festival
The Blink-182 drummer survived a plane crash that killed four other people in 2008.
“I looked Death right in the face,” he told Rolling Stone in 2011.
He suffered second- and third-degree burns after the accident but recuperated enough to get back in the studio two months later.
“I can’t wait to get out of here and be home with the babes,” he wrote in the weeks after the accident. “The doctors say I’m healing up quickly, and I’m going to be out of here before you know it.”
In 2021, he got back on a plane for the first time since the accident, traveling to Mexico with now-wife Kourtney Kardashian. Years later, he continued to reflect on the traumatizing ordeal in his August 2026 documentary Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear. Ahead of the premiere, Barker recalled that both he and his daughter Alabama Barker had a bad feeling about the trip before takeoff.
“I say bye to Bama. She’s young at the time,” he recalled on Jay Shetty’s podcast. “She’s like, ‘Dad, don’t go!’ She’s bawling, and she doesn’t usually do that. She’s like, ‘The roof’s gonna come off,’ and I’m like, ‘What is she talking about?’ ”
He continued, “[I] got on the plane but I knew something feels off,” Barker recalled. “I even told my dad, ‘If something happens to me, please make sure the kids are taken care of.’ I was saying way too much. All the signs were there.”
02 of 18
Orlando Bloom
Orlando Bloom attends Milan Fashion Week on June 21, 2026 in Milan, ItalyCredit: Jacopo Raule/Getty
The Pirates of the Caribbean alum opened up about a 1998 fall that “crushed” his spine in an Instagram post in August 2021, sharing a throwback photo taken just three months after the near-fatal accident.
The image showed a younger Bloom wearing a back brace while riding a bicycle. The actor juxtaposed the shot by including a recent picture of himself — this time wearing a cycling jersey, bike shorts and a helmet — riding down a tree-lined road.
“That’s me in my back brace circa 1998 about 3months after I fell 3floors and crushed my spine, narrowly escaping death and paralysis…” he wrote in he caption, adding, “grateful everyday for my limbs that allow me to push my limits and live life on my edge (safer now🙏).”
Bloom previously went into detail about the fall in a 2005 profile with GQ magazine, sharing that he was climbing up to a roof terrace when the drainpipe he was holding onto collapsed.
“Until then, I didn’t have a healthy appreciation for life and death — that we’re not invincible,” he recalled of the accident. “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.”
“The doctor said he wasn’t sure how severe the spinalcord damage was,” Bloom continued. “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.”
03 of 18
Josh Duhamel
Josh Duhamel attends the 30th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at Beverly Hills Hotel on March 28, 2019 in Beverly Hills, CaliforniaCredit: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty
Josh Duhamelalmost died while filming in the Dominican Republic, he revealed on an episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
During his downtime, the Shotgun Wedding star often went swimming in a “calm, turquoise” cove beneath his hotel room, he told the late-night host. But on one occasion, which the star captured on video, the waves were “tumultuous.”
“The waves were crashing like 30 feet in the air,” he explained. “This rogue wave comes up as I’m videotaping this thing and literally washed me almost over the edge of this cliff.”
Luckily, the actor was saved by some “razor-sharp coral” that turned him “into hamburger,” he joked, noting that it scraped up his legs but provided some traction as the wave swept over him.
“It was one of the near-death experiences of my life, for sure,” he added before showing the video of the waves crashing over him.
04 of 18
David Arquette
David Arquette attends the Los Angeles premiere of “Scream 7” on February 25, 2026 in Hollywood, CaliforniaCredit: Brianna Bryson/WireImage
In 2018, during David Arquette’s stint in the professional wrestling world, the actor was accidentally stabbed in the neck with a cylindrical light bulb during a so-called “death match” with Nick Gage, he told PEOPLE.
“I thought I was dying ... I got out of the ring and I was totally lost. I couldn’t see and I couldn’t hear,” he said.
Arquette was then rushed to a hospital, where he received stitches and surgery. His ordeal, which was chronicled in the documentary You Cannot Kill David Arquette, was ultimately a wake-up call.
“There was a certain carefree, daredevil aspect about the way I lived life previously,” he told PEOPLE, “But I didn’t want to die.”
With the help of therapy and support from his wife Christina McLarty Arquette, to whom he’s been wed since 2015 (they have two sons, Charlie and Gus; he also has grown a daughter, Coco, with ex-wife Courteney Cox),”I learned to love myself,” he added. “I had to stop being self-destructive and making choices that were throwing bombs.”
05 of 18
Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone visits SiriusXM Studios on April 01, 2026 in New York CityCredit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Sharon Stone has had several brushes with death, which she opened up about to The Sun and on Brett Goldstein’s Films To Be Buried With podcast.
“I had my neck cut to a sixteenth of an inch from my jugular vein when I was 14 on a clothesline,” she told The Sun of the first experience.
On the podcast, the Basic Instincts actress added that she was once hit by lightning, which she described as “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 faucet. The well got hit by lightning and it came up through the water,” she explained.
“I was indoors and I got picked up and thrown across the kitchen and hit the refrigerator. ... It was so crazy,” she said, adding that her mom immediately drove her to the hospital.
In 2001, the actress also suffered a massive stroke, which took her years to recover from.
“It’s like, ‘How am I going to die next time?’ Probably something super dramatic and nuts.”
06 of 18
Bethenny Frankel
Bethenny Frankel in August 2025Credit: Bethenny Frankel/Instagram
Bethenny Frankel was hospitalized in December 2018 after experiencing a nearly fatal allergic reaction to fish.
“I have a rare fish allergy. Sunday, I had soup, itched & was unconscious for 15 mins then to ER & ICU for 2 days w BP of 60/40,” Frankel wrote on X at the time.
“I couldn’t talk, see, thought I had a stroke & dying & told if 5 mins later I’d be dead. 911 & EPI saved me. I’ll never not carry an #epipen.”
Mere weeks later, Frankel came close to another potentially deadly encounter when she boarded an aircraft and realized the crew was serving fish despite having called ahead to check she would be safe. Despite her protests that it would delay other passengers, the pilot promptly turned the plane around.
07 of 18
Post Malone
Post Malone performs onstage at Rice Eccles Stadium on April 29, 2025 in Salt Lake City, UtahCredit: Kevin Mazur/Getty
Post Malone’s private jet made an emergency landing after its tires blew out on takeoff in August 2018. The flight was scheduled to go from New Jersey to London, but ended up spending five hours circling airports to burn off fuel before safely landing in New Windsor, New York.
“I f---ing hate flying,” the star told TMZ after finally getting back on the ground. “We just heard the tire pop. And then, I don’t know if it was smoke or whatever, [came in], and we were like ‘s---. This is not good at all.’”
“I just put everybody in a big group text [to] tell them I love them, just in case,” he said about how he handled being in flight after the malfunction. “I just did it all in one. You know, my family and everybody and my friends. This was before anybody knew [about the plane], I was just like, ‘Hey, guys, I love you.’ I didn’t want to f---ing freak people out and then be stuck in the air.”
“I’m alive, man, I’m ready to party,” Malone added.
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08 of 18
Zac Efron
Zac Efron attends the 2024 National Board of Review Gala on January 11, 2024 in New York CityCredit: Cindy Ord/WireImage
During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in December 2017, Zac Efron revealed that things almost got deadly when he decided to work out with his The Greatest Showman costar, Hugh Jackman, one morning in London.
“I cycled with him in London, but I’m not one to ride a bike early in the morning in traffic so it turned out to be quite dangerous,” Efron told host Norton. “I followed Hugh around a few cars and suddenly there was a double-decker bus right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes, went under the front tire and narrowly missed death.”
Efron joked that Jackman wasn’t that concerned. “Hugh was on the other side of the road and stuck up his thumb and just said, ‘You good? Let’s go,’ ” Efron said.
09 of 18
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer attends the premiere of “Lorne” in New York City on April 9, 2026.Credit: Getty Images
Amy Schumer and surfing don’t mix.
The comedian had a brush with death after she was involved in a surfing accident during a high school-era lesson.
“I have a pretty bad scar on my leg from surfing,” she told Vanity Fair in April 2016. “Forty-one stitches, three layers. I skegged myself. My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out. I was by myself.”
It was winter, so when she arrived back on the beach (her leg gushing blood), she found only one man who was able to help her, holding her leg closed until the ambulance arrived around 15 minutes later.
“I wish I knew who that guy was, because he saved my life, for sure,” she continued.
After she realized she wasn’t going to die, Schumer’s trademark sense of humor kicked in as she began to fear the prospect of losing her leg.
“Now I’m going to have to go and be a speaker at high schools and, like, motivate people,” she imagined. “I was so annoyed about my life. I was just like, Ucchh. And then it was fine.”
10 of 18
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 22, 2026 in London, EnglandCredit: Samir Hussein/WireImage
When it comes to things Leonardo DiCaprio is thankful for, we’re guessing Edward Norton ranks pretty high on the list. Why? He saved his life during a scuba diving expedition in the Galapagos Islands when DiCaprio’s oxygen tank failed. Norton noticed and shared his tank with the Oscar winner while they swam back to the surface.
The daredevil actor is no stranger to near-death experiences.
“If a cat has nine lives, I think I’ve used a few,” DiCaprio told WIRED in December 2015.
From a shark attack and skydiving accident to a near plane crash, the adrenaline junkie shared his tales of his extreme adventuring with the outlet.
11 of 18
Liam Hemsworth
Liam Hemsworth attends Milan Fashion Week on January 16, 2026 in Milan, ItalyCredit: Daniele Venturelli/Getty
Before he was famous, Liam Hemsworth had a brush with death growing up in Australia.
“When I was a kid, one time I got my leg rope wrapped around my whole body like a ball, under water,” he told Men’s Health. “Couldn’t get up. I was in waist-deep water, but I almost drowned. You know, I’ve had a few times.”
12 of 18
Tracy Morgan
Tracy Morgan during the Baseball Writers of America Awards Dinner on January 24, 2026 in New York CityCredit: Michelle Farsi/Getty
Tracy Morgan was involved in a car accident that took the life of his friend, James McNair. Morgan suffered a traumatic brain injury during the crash and was in the hospital for months, but has made a miraculous recovery.
He told Oprah Winfrey that the crash changed his outlook on life.
“Something’s different,” he said. “The way I am with people, something’s just different. I find myself saying ‘I love you’ 200 times a day to strangers. I don’t care – I don’t gotta know you to love you, I love you!”
13 of 18
Amy Purdy
Amy Purdy on July 17, 2026 in Las Vegas, NevadaCredit: Ethan Miller/Getty
Paralympian Amy Purdy came close to death in 1999 after contracting meningitis and going into cardiac arrest.
“I was on my death bed, and I remember hanging on to these words, ‘Don’t be scared. You are going to live an amazing life,’ and I have,” she said of the experience.
After losing her legs below the knee in 1999, she went on to win a bronze medal (using prosthetics) in the 2014 Winter Paralympics and to compete on Dancing with the Stars.
14 of 18
Gerard Butler
Gerard Butler attends the “How To Train Your Dragon” premiere during the 2025 Tribeca Festival on June 11, 2025 in New York CityCredit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty
Schumer isn’t the only star who had a close call while surfing. On the set of Chasing Mavericks in Northern California, Gerard Butler was pulled underwater and dragged across a reef filled with rocks. Thankfully, he was rescued by a safety patrolman and quickly taken to a nearby hospital.
“This was maybe one of the few times that the reports were not exaggerated,” Butler recalled. “It was a pretty close call. [The waves] just took me, and I couldn’t get up. It was pretty hairy.”
15 of 18
Jeremy Renner
Jeremy Renner attends the In Conversation With Jeremy Renner at the Red Sea International Film Festival 2024 on December 10, 2024 in Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaCredit: Daniele Venturelli/Getty
On Jan. 1, 2023, Jeremy Renner was hospitalized and placed in critical condition after a 14,300-lb. Snowcat plow ran him over in Reno, Nev. The vehicle hit him while he was saving his nephew, Alex, from being run over.
The Hurt Locker actor was “pulled under the left side track” and broke over 35 bones. Renner has since opened up about his near-death experience and his decision to get back on the vehicle one year later.
“I go right into the eye of the storm of any fear or anything,” Renner said in an April 2025 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “I didn’t want this thing to haunt me or own me by any means.”
16 of 18
Emilia Clarke
Emilia Clarke attends the “Next Life” premiere during the 2026 Tribeca Festival on June 05, 2026 in New York CityCredit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty
Emilia Clarkesuffered two brain hemorrhages in her early 20s while she was filming Game of Thrones. She subsequently underwent two life-saving brain surgeries to treat the cerebral aneurysms.
“I was 22 when I suffered my first brain hemorrhage, 24 when I had my second,” Clarke reflected at Variety‘s Power of Women London event in June 2026. “I was also 22 when I filmed the first season of Game of Thrones, and 24 when I made my Broadway debut.”
She continued, “For a number of years, I felt that I had cheated death, and it was coming to get me. I truly felt like I had done something wrong, and I shouldn’t be here. I also thought it ruined my ability to act — which some people might agree with.”
17 of 18
Dylan O’Brien
Dylan O’Brien attends the 2026 Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, CaliforniaCredit: Araya Doheny/Getty
Dylan O’Brien nearly died while performing a stunt on set.
The actor was filming Maze Runner: The Death Cure in 2016 when he was thrown from one vehicle and hit by another on set in Vancouver. O’Brien suffered a concussion, facial fracture and brain trauma as a result.
“It’s taught me that, at the end of the day, in these spaces, you have your own back, and that’s the most you can rely on,” he told Men’s Health in October 2024.“I know the person I am, and the character I bring to set, and the way I treat people and the way that I treat a workspace, and I know I’m not difficult. I know I’m not an asshole.”
He continued, “I know I was trying to protect myself that day, and so I’ve just never forgotten that. That’s always rung true as being the thing to hold with me.
18 of 18
Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx attends the premiere of “Coulda Been Love” on February 11, 2026 in Hollywood, CaliforniaCredit: Jerritt Clark/Getty
Jamie Foxxsuffered a brain bleed that caused a stroke on April 11, 2023.
The Django Unchained actor recalled that things were “touch and go” for the first 15 days, and he still doesn’t “remember 20 days,” he recalled in his Netflix special Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was.... in 2024.
As a result of the stroke, Foxx had to relearn how to walk and talk in rehab for months afterwards.
“I gotta be honest — when I saw the ‘in memoriam’ [portion of the awards show], I was like man, that could have been me,” he said during the 2025 BET Awards. “But I don’t know why I went through what I went through, but I know my second chance I’m not going turn down. I’m not going to turn down.”
He added, “Whatever reason you put this on me, I promise I’mma do right. I’mma do right in front of y’all, because I know a lot of times, when we get on we forget about where we come from.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
