Biography for
Boris Sagal More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

18 October 1917, Dnepropetrovsk, Russia (now Ukraine)

Date of Death

22 May 1981, Portland, Oregon, USA (killed by a helicopter blade)

Spouse

Marge Champion	(1 January 1977 - 22 May 1981) (his death)
Sara Macon	(? - 1975) (her death) 4 children

Trivia

In 1955 he staged a production of the Maxwell Anderson play, "Lost in the Stars" at the Ebony Showcase Theatre, operated by Nick Stewart. Al Freeman Jr. and 'William Schallert' also participated in the production.

He was killed early in the production of the TV film World War III (1982) (TV) in a helicopter accident in Oregon. He had just returned from filming aerial shots, his helicopter landing in the parking lot of the Timberline lodge on Mt. Hood (the exteriors location from The Shining (1980)). Preoccupied with his work, he inadvertently turned the wrong way upon getting out of the helicopter, walking directly into the rear rotor blade; he died of severe head and shoulder injuries after emergency surgery 60 miles away in Portland. Astonishingly, filming resumed the very next day with a new director.

Father of Katey Sagal, Joe Sagal, Jean Sagal, and Liz Sagal

Ironically, his work includes the pilot episode of the TV series "Combat!" (1962), which starred Vic Morrow. Two decades after collaborating, Sagal and Morrow would die almost exactly the same way (struck by a helicopter's rotor blade)...within a year of each other, both while shooting a movie on location. For Sagal, it was World War III (1982) (TV); for Morrow, it was Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).

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