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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. It's the middle of the night on July 23, 1982, on a movie set in Valencia, California, 30 miles north of Los Angeles.

There's a hive of activity. Keeping out of the way by the craft service table, 53-year-old actor Vic Morrow sips on a cup

of coffee.

He needs the caffeine for these long night shoots, but it isn't helping him calm his anxiety.

As a veteran television actor, Vic knows he can remember his lines, but he's being called

to do much more than that.

Tonight he'll be filming the biggest stunt of his career.

This area is usually home to a quiet, shallow river in the California Mountains,

but tonight it's been transformed by Hollywood set directors into the jungles of Vietnam.

The film in production is Twilight Zone, The Movie,

and Vic is playing a racist bigot who finds himself supernaturally transformed into the people that he hates.

Tonight's big scene is when his character redeems himself by rescuing two small children

from an American attack during the Vietnam War.

A production assistant tells Vic the crew's almost ready to begin

and then leads him to his mark as lighting and pyrotechnic experts make last-minute adjustments.

The air will be filled with explosions as the helicopter flies over Vic,

who will be waiting through water with two children tucked under his arms.

Vic takes a moment to say hello to his two young co-stars,

Micah Din Li and Renee Sinyi Chen.

...