Accidental actor deaths on set during fighting scenes

[SJP]

I can't think off the top of my head of any ACTUALS, but there are a number of close calls.

While still not hand to hand per se, Cracked mentioned an incident on Lord of the Rings where Viggo Mortensen's deflection of a knife thrown at his head was not only awesome-looking, but saved his life.  The knife-throwing stuntman screwed up and somehow threw the very real knife incorrectly and instead of going to the side actually went directly at Mortensen.  If he hadn't deflected it, we probably would have Stuart Townsend as Aragorn after all.

That's still a mechanical error, though, and though they were only a few feet away I would still rule this out as a direct fistfight.  But it's one of the closest examples I can think of.

Of course, there is that video online of the guys auditioning for the kung fu movie and falling flat on their faces.  I find it hard to believe somebody DIDN'T die failing that badly.  "What kind of wood is this?"

[wurwolf]

Actually probably close to what you're asking about are the Ong Bak movies with Tony Jaa. I don't think anyone actually died but lord they came close to it. Plus Tony Jaa went insane while filming Ong Bak 2 in the jungle.

[Relaxing Dragon]

From what I understand, the worst injuries in kung-fu movies tend to be the smaller stunts that they don't usually think twice about, as opposed to the big set pieces/final fights that get planned and blocked down to the smallest detail. For instance, one of the worst injuries of Jackie Chan's career (I want to say a skull fracture, but I'm not sure) was due to a small slip and fall when he had to hop from a tree to a wall.

Fights where it looks like someone got seriously injured... well, good. That would be the point. I often conclude chats about The Raid by saying "so they probably killed a couple guys to make that one. Totally worth it, though."

[Variety of Cells]

Let's see.  Here's what I was able to find.  The story about the gun I told seems to be about the movie the Crow, and it's what killed the lead actor in that. 

Halley Berry got pretty beat up on Gothika, and ended up with a broken arm, but I can't find out specifics of how it happened.

Viggo Mortensen's tooth was cut in half by a sword, and he almost drowned going down a river. 

A guy was mauled to death by a bear in Semi-Pro

That's as close as I could find.  No deaths from hand to hand combat. 

[Bob]

Mauled to death by a bear?  Did Mike Ditka take someone out?