Gill did die cao during a movie filming in Peru.
Here is part of the original article from the NYT plus a little more from Wikipedia.https://www.nytimes.com/1966/10/01/archives/eric-fleming-41-of-rawhide-dies-drowns-in-river-in-peru-during.html#:~:text=ERIC%20FLEMING%2C%2041%2C%20OF%20',Movie%20%2D%20The%20New%20York%20TimesERIC FLEMING, 41, OF 'RAWHIDE,' DIES; Drowns in River in Peru During Filming of MovieOct. 1, 1966
Credit...The New York Times ArchivesOctober 1, 1966,
LIMA, Peru, Sept. 30 (UPI)-- Eric Fleming, star of the television series "Rawhide," drowned Wednesday during the filming of a motion-picture scene 220 miles northeast of Lima. His death was announced here today by the United States Embassy.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaEric FlemingThis article is about the American actor. For other people named Eric Fleming, see Eric Fleming (disambiguation).
Eric Fleming
Eric Fleming 1961.JPG
Fleming in 1961
Born Edward Heddy Jr.
July 4, 1925
Santa Paula, California, U.S.
Died September 28, 1966 (aged 41)
Tingo Mar?a, Peru
Occupation Actor
Years active 1944?1966
Partner(s) Lynne Garber
Clint Eastwood, Paul Brinegar and Eric Fleming in Rawhide (1961)Eric Fleming (born Edward Heddy Jr.; July 4, 1925 ? September 28, 1966) was an American actor known primarily for his role as Gil Favor in the CBS television series Rawhide.
Contents
1 Early life
2 Rawhide
3 The Glass Bottom Boat and Bonanza
4 High Jungle and death
5 Selected filmography
6 Selected television appearances
7 References
8 External links
Early life
Fleming was born as Edward Heddy Jr. in Santa Paula, California, the only child of Edward and Mildred (Anderson) Heddy.[1]
Born with a club foot, he needed crutches to get around and was often severely beaten by his father. At the age of eight, he attempted to kill his father with a gun, which jammed.[2] He left home shortly after, first to Los Angeles, and then to Chicago, where he lived roughly and associated with gangsters, doing odd jobs for them to make money. At the age of 11, after being wounded in a gunfight between some gangsters and hospitalized, he was returned home to his mother, who had recently divorced.[3]
During the Depression, he dropped out of school and worked at various jobs until he joined the Merchant Marine, before joining the United States Navy in 1942 for World War II. He served as a Seabee in a naval construction battalion.[3]
He received severe facial injuries during a bet in which he was attempting to lift a 200-pound (91 kg) weight and had to undergo extensive plastic surgery to reconstruct his forehead, nose, and jaw. Before this, Fleming had always thought himself "ugly" and considered the incident a "wonderful balance of values."[4]
After his facial reconstruction, he returned to Paramount Studios, where he had been working as a construction worker, grip, and carpenter. He made a bet with an actor that he could do a better audition. He lost the bet and it cost him $100 and "I lost a lot of pride too, which hurt but the $100 hurt worse." Upon deciding that acting had cost him $100, and acting would get it back, he entered acting classes at the studio in the evenings.[4]
Fleming's acting debut came in a road company production of Happy Birthday.[1] He appeared on stage in Chicago and in a number of successful Broadway plays, including the musical Plain and Fancy. He began acting in television shows about the same time. Fleming then moved to Hollywood and starred in several low-budget films, including Fright, Curse of the Undead, and the cult classic Queen of Outer Space.[citation needed]
RawhidePoster with Fleming on horseback
In 1958, the 6-foot, 3?-inch (192 cm) Fleming landed the starring role as trail boss Gil Favor in Rawhide. Set in the 1860s, Rawhide portrayed the challenges faced by the men of the cattle drive from San Antonio, Texas, to Sedalia, Missouri. Producer Charles Marquis Warren called on the diary written in 1866 by trail boss George C. Duffield to shape the character of Favor: a savvy, strong, and fair leader who persevered and got the job done.[5]
The top-rated Western, with co-stars Clint Eastwood, Sheb Wooley, and Paul Brinegar, ran from 1959 to 1966. Fleming and Eastwood more or less rotated in playing the lead from week-to-week, but the former was always billed first. Fleming also co-wrote two Rawhide scripts?"Incident of the Night on the Town" (season three, episode 29) and "A Woman's Place" (season four, episode 25).
Fleming, Wooley (trail scout Pete Nolan), James Murdock (Wishbone's clumsy meal assistant Mushy), Robert Cabal (wrangler Hey Soos), and Rocky Shahan (drover Joe Scarlet) were all dismissed by Ben Brady during Rawhide?s summer 1965 hiatus prior to shooting the eighth season. The recently installed sixth executive producer of Rawhide had been tasked with revitalizing the series and reversing declining ratings. Fleming boasted to TV Guide that "CBS fired me because they were paying me a million dollars a year" (only $220,000 to be exact).[6]
With Eastwood promoted against his better judgment to trail boss, the cattle drive continued for 13 episodes before CBS chief William S. Paley preemptively axed it that December.[7] Another cancellation factor, according to Eastwood, was that "Rawhide had been the network's only show to get a rating on Friday night, so they switched us to Tuesday opposite a show with the same type of male audience, Combat!" (ABC's gritty World War II drama starring Rick Jason and Vic Morrow involving the Western Front).[8]