40 Celebs Who’ve Had Near-Death Experiences

Tracy Morgan Morgan was in a car accident in 2014, which killed his friend James McNair and left the comedian in a coma. After waking up, he told COMPLEX life was different: "You're never going to be normal after you go through something like that. You don't die for a few weeks and then come back to normal, trust me. Something's going to be missing, something's going to be gainedyou just got to live your life after that." Matt Winkelmeyer - Getty Images

Travis Barker The Blink-182 drummer almost died in 2008 in a plane crash that killed four other people. He walked away with second- and third-degree burns, but recovered and was performing again two months later. He described the moment in his book, Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums : "Behind me, I can sense death: a burning airplane that contains the bodies of two pilots and two good friends. Less than a minute from now, it will explode." Jason Merritt - Getty Images

Sharon Stone Stone had a brain hemorrhage in 2001 that nearly ended her life. "I started to see and be met by some of my friendspeople who were very, very dear to me [who had died]," she told Closer Weekly (via Daily Mail ). "I had a real journey with this that took me to places both here and beyond." She says she isn't scared of death after the experience: "I get not to be afraid of dying and I get to tell other people that it's a fabulous thing and death is a gift." Gregg DeGuire - Getty Images

Lamar Odom In 2015, Odom overdosed and was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel. "When you're an addict, nothing can get through to you. I never thought I was going to die. I never thought I'd be in a coma. I didn't think I had a problem," he wrote for The Players' Tribune . "But then I woke up in a bed with tubes coming out of my mouthand it was real." He now says he realizes he "shook hands with death." Matt Petit - Getty Images

Zac Efron While working out with Hugh Jackman, Efron had a brush with death. "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 said on The Graham Norton Show . "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." Brendon Thorne - Getty Images

Amy Schumer Schumer went surfing during the middle of winter in high school and ended up getting into a nasty accident: "I skegged myself. My whole fin went into my leg, and I had to yank it out. I was by myself," she told Vanity Fair . She says there weren't many people on the beach to help her. "But 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 handsjust fat and blood coming out. I wish I knew who that guy was, because he saved my life, for sure." NBC - Getty Images

Eminem While promoting his 2010 album, Recovery, Eminem told Access Hollywood about a close encounter he had: "I had overdosed in 2007, like, right around Christmas in 2007I pretty much almost died. I pulled through and went home and relapsed less than a month later and I literally shot back up to the amount of pills I was taking, shot right back up to where I overdosed." He says he eventually got tired of living that way and decided to "take responsibility for the way I'm living and stop blaming other people." Kevin Mazur - Getty Images

Leonardo DiCaprio During a scuba diving experience, DiCaprio got into a major accidentbut Edward Norton saved his life. They were shooting a scene in the Galapagos Islands when Leo's oxygen tank went out. He told Rolling Stone that Norton handled the crisis fast, sharing his tank and swimming them both to the surface. Frazer Harrison - Getty Images

Elizabeth Taylor During back surgery in 1962, Taylor stopped breathing for five minutes. On The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1992, she revealed that she saw her soul departing from her body as the doctors tried to revive her. She then went into a tunnel and saw her third husband, Mike Todd, who died in an airplane crash in 1958. Todd told her to return to earth: "You have to fight to go back. You have so much more to do. And you have to fight," Taylor recalled . Silver Screen Collection - Getty Images

Stephen King During an afternoon walk, a van almost killed King. "On June 19th, 1999 I got hit by a van while taking a walk," he tweeted . "As I lay unconscious in the hospital, the docs debated amputating my right leg and decided it could stay, on a trial basis. I got better. Every day of the 20 years since has been a gift." New York Daily News Archive - Getty Images

George Clooney While filming Catch-22 in Olbia, Italy, Clooney collided with a Mercedes while riding his motorcycle at 70 miles per hour. He told The Hollywood Reporter , "It split my helmet in half, it knocked me out of my shoes. I was hit hard. I was just waiting for the switch to turn off because I broke his windshield with my head, and I thought, 'Okay, well, that's my neck.' If you get nine lives, I got all of them used up at onceso I can let go of motorcycle riding for a while." Alberto E. Rodriguez - Getty Images

Jane Seymour When Seymour was 36, she came down with bronchitis and needed antibioticsbut the antibiotic was injected into a vein and not her muscle, which caused her to go into anaphylactic shock. "I died and was resuscitated," Seymour told the Omaha World-Herald . "And I had the vision of seeing a white light and looking down and seeing myself in this bedroom with a nurse frantically trying to save my life and jabbing injections in me, and I'm calmly watching this whole thing." Ron Galella, Ltd. - Getty Images

50 Cent Before he was famous, 50 Cent was shot nine times at point-blank range. He ended up spending 13 weeks in the hospital to recover. His album Get Rich Or Die Tryin' was inspired by the traumatic incident. He told The Daily Star the experience changed him: "I will be the person with the least amount of fear in the room when we're negotiating business, because I'll weigh it up against situations far more dramatic than a deal going badlike the loss of my mom, or the confusion after being shot. Not knowing what I was going to do with my life after being shot hurt more than being physically shot." Bob Chamberlin - Getty Images

Harrison Ford Ford has had a few close calls. His first? In 1999 he was flying a Bell 206L4 LongRanger helicopter when it hit the ground too quickly and it flipped onto its side. Another? In March 2015, another small plane he was flying crashed into onto the Penmar Golf Course near the Santa Monica Airport. Harrison was able to recover and had a positive attitude: "I'm doing great, he said on Good Morning America (via E! Online ). "I'm back playing tennis, riding my bikes, and having a good time." Ron Galella, Ltd. - Getty Images

Liam Hemsworth As a kid in Australia, Hemsworth was an avid surfer and had a brush with death in the water. "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." Brendon Thorne - Getty Images

Christie Brinkley On April 1, 1994, Brinkley was on a helicopter that crashed into a mountain in Telluride, Colorado. "This happened 25 years ago today and not a day goes by that I have not counted my blessing for being alive. I know for a fact that tomorrow is not a guarantee and that each day is a gift and an opportunity to make sure that everybody we love knows it!" she shared on Instagram . Ron Galella, Ltd. - Getty Images

Gerard Butler When filming 2012's Chasing Mavericks in Northern California, Butler was pulled underwater and dragged across a rocky reef. "This was maybe one of the few times that the reports were not exaggerated. It was a pretty close call[The waves] just took me and I couldn't get up. It was pretty hairy," he said on The Graham Norton Show . Ferdaus Shamim - Getty Images

Chevy Chase In 1981, Chase was involved in an electrical accident while filming Modern Problems. He was wearing a suit with lights, and the suit short circuited, causing electricity to surge throughout his whole body. He lost consciousness, but survived. ABC Photo Archives - Getty Images

Kanye West Back when West was still a producer in 2002, he got into a car accident where he almost died . He wrote about the experience in his debut album, Through the Wire, which launched his rapping career. "If I would have passed that night, that would have been the end of my legacy," he told USA Today (via Insider ). "Now when I go into the studio, I act like this could possibly be my last day." Johnny Nunez - Getty Images

Gary Busey In 1988, Busey went out on his motorcycle without a helmet and got into a crash. In an essay for PEOPLE , Busey said he didn't recall the first six weeks after the accident due to post-traumatic amnesia: "People have told me I was angry that I was in the hospital and didn't want the nurses touching me," he wrote. "The doctors wound up isolating me in a psychiatric ward and giving me three types of medication to calm me." Ron Galella - Getty Images

Sandra Bullock In December 2000, Bullock's private jet was landing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming during a blizzard when the plane skidded in the snow. Luckily, she wasn't harmed. "It was just a freak accident. But you know it happened and we walked away from it and we're here," Bullock told ET . "The sheriff kept telling us 'Now if it happened any other way, you would be dead' and I'm like..." Getty Images - Getty Images

Bob Denver The star of Gilligan's Island almost got attacked by a lion when filming a scene for the show. He was supposed to go into Mr. and Mrs. Howell's hut, unaware a lion was in there, but things went awry when the animal jumped towards Denver. Luckily, the trainer stepped in just in time. CBS Photo Archive - Getty Images

Joaquin Phoenix In 2006, Phoenix was driving on a winding side road in Los Angeles when his brakes failed, resulting in his car flipping over and crashing into another car. Director Werner Herzog lived nearby and came out to help: "There was this German voice saying 'Just relax.' There's something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog's voice. I felt completely fine and safe," Phoenix told The Guardian . "I got out of the car and I said thank you and he was gone." Kevin Winter - Getty Images

Gloria Estefan On March 20, 1990, Estefan was on her Cuts Both Ways tour when her bus was hit by a tractor trailer during a snowstorm in Pennsylvania. She ended up breaking her back and was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery to implant titanium rods to save her spine. "I was laying on the floor of the bus and when I opened my eyes and I knew right away that I had broken my back," she told ET . "I just felt so lucky to be alive and to be okay and not paralyzed at all." Michel Linssen - Getty Images

Burt Reynolds When filming City Heat, Reynolds became addicted to sleeping pills, taking up to 50 a day. After four years, he tried to quit his habit, but the hasty change resulted in him slipping into a coma. He had an out-of-body experience, seeing the doctors revive him, he claims . Ron Galella - Getty Images

Johnny Cash In 1988, Johnny Cash was having an emergency double coronary bypass when he came down with pneumoniaand the combination almost killed him. In his book Cash: The Autobiography , he said the experience changed his outlook on life: "That great light is a light that now leads me on and directs me and guides me. That great light is the light of this world. That great light is the light out of this world, and into that better world. And I'm lookin' forward to walkin' into that great light." Paul Harris - Getty Images

Martin Lawrence On a scorching day in 1999, Lawrence went jogging in layers of clothing and suffered from serious heat stroke. "He was doing what he saw fighters do. He put on several layers of heavy clothing and was jogging in the intense heat we had here Sunday, and collapsed in front of his home," said Kris Carraway-Bowman, a spokeswoman for Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks. His girlfriend found him on the steps of his home. He was in a coma for around three days . Ron Galella - Getty Images

Johnny Depp Depp almost died in 2011 when he was flying in a small plane with Bruce Robinson. Depp told Live Magazine (via HuffPost ), "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." Luckily, it kicked back on soon afterward. Charley Gallay - Getty Images

Isla Fisher Fisher says she nearly drowned while filming a stunt inside a water tank for Now You See Me when her release chain got stuck in her costume. "I was actually drowning," she said on Chelsea Lately , explaining that she was trapped underwater for almost three minutes. "Everyone thought I was acting fabulously...no one realized I was actually struggling." Dia Dipasupil - Getty Images

George Foreman In a 1977 boxing match with Jimmy Young, Foreman crashed to the ground from heat exhaustion. In his memoir, God in My Corner , he shared, "Instantly I was transported into a deep, dark void, like a bottomless pit...I was suspended in emptiness, with nothing over my head or under my feet...This was a place of total isolation, cut off from everything and everyone...It can only be described as a vacant space of extreme hopelessness...I knew I was dead, and this wasn't heaven..." Michael Brennan - Getty Images

Ozzy Osbourne Osbourne crashed an ATV in 2003. He fractured his collarbone, multiple ribs, and fell into a coma for a few days. He shared his story in his memoir I Am Ozzy : "I didn't know where I was or how long I'd been there. I would drift in and out of consciousness. Other times there would be a white light shining through the darkness, but no f*cking angels, no one blowing trumpets, and no man in a white beard." Kevin Winter - Getty Images

Rachel Bilson At age 14, Bilson was in a car accident that almost took her life. "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 Mirror . Jean-Paul Aussenard - Getty Images

Donald Sutherland When traveling to Italy for Kelly's Heroes, Sutherland got pneumonia so bad it was almost fatal. He shared in Smithsonian Journeys magazine , "Standing behind my right shoulder, I'd watched my comatose body slide peacefully down a blue tunnel. That same blue tunnel the near-dead always talk about. Such a tempting journey. So serene. No barking Cerberus to wake me. Everything was going to be all right." Art Zelin - Getty Images

Tony Bennett Bennett revealed in his autobiography, The Good Life , that he needed CPR after drowning in a hot bath when he overdosed on cocaine and fell asleep in the late '70s. In his book he said, "A golden light enveloped me in a warm glow...clear, yellow peaceful plane that everybody who mentions a near-death experience sees...It was quite peaceful; in fact, I had the sense that I was jolted out of the vision." He wife, Sandy Grant, found him and rushed him to the hospital. Doug Griffin - Getty Images

Amy Purdy At 19, Purdy got meningitis and went 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 told PEOPLE . Despite both of her legs being amputated below the knee, she's gone on to compete in the Paralympics and on Dancing With the Stars. J. Vespa - Getty Images

Nikki Sixx The Mtley Cre bassist and songwriter overdosed on heroine in 1987 and had an out of body experience. He wrote in The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band , "I tried to sit up to figure out what was going on. I thought it would be hard to lift my body. But to my surprise, I shot upright, as if I weighed nothing. Then it felt as if something very gentle was grabbing my head and pulling me upward. Above me, everything was bright white. I looked down and realized I had left my body. Nikki Sixxor the filthy, tattooed container that had once held himwas lying covered face-to-toe with a sheet on a gurney being pushed by medics into an ambulance." Ebet Roberts - Getty Images

Drew Barrymore On set of Santa Clarita Diet, Barrymore went to jump on a man's back to kill him in a scene, but fell off, smashing her skull on the concrete. "It was fking terrifying," she told Us Weekly . "It was very serious. I've never had a feeling like that in my life." Paramedics took her to the hospital, where she stayed for two days getting MRIs and CAT scans. She was left with a concussion. Taylor Hill - Getty Images

Carl G. Jung In 1944, psychiatrist Carl G. Jung suffered a heart attack and explained the near-death experience he had in the hospital afterward in his book, Memories, Dreams, Reflections : "I had the feeling that everything was being sloughed away; everything I aimed at or wished for or thought, the whole phantasmagoria of earthly existence, fell away or was stripped from mean extremely painful process. This experience gave me a feeling of extreme poverty, but at the same time of great fullness. There was no longer anything I wanted or desired." Bettmann - Getty Images

Hugh Hefner Hugh Hefner reportedly almost choked on a sex toy during sex. "What is the closest I've come to death? There was a moment when I was having sex with four Playmates and I almost swallowed a Ben Wa ball," he told The Guardian . Charley Gallay - Getty Images