13. Martha Mansfield in Hollywood
Martha Mansfield moved to California in 1919 to pursue a career as an actress. She caught her first big break a year later when she was cast opposite superstar John Barrymore in 1920’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. By 1923, Mansfield was a rising star who had come a long way in a short time. On Thanksgiving Day that year, she was in San Antonio on the film set of her latest movie, the Civil War love story The Warrens of Virginia. At the end of the workday, she hung out with the rest of the cast, still in costume and clad in a frilly Southern belle period dress.
At some point, somebody lit a cigarette and tossed the match. It landed on Mansfield’s dress, which immediately caught fire and went up in a WHOOOSH! Her co-star threw his overcoat over her, which saved her face and neck, while her chauffer sustained severe hand burns as he ripped the flaming dress off of her. By then, however, she had suffered severe burns over much of her body. Mansfield was rushed to a hospital in San Antonio, but despite the doctors’ best efforts, the burns were too extensive, and she died the next day.
