Mike Barnes actor Sean Kanan (55) almost died of internal bleeding while filming “Karate Kid 3” (1989). Kanan had been working on the film for about six weeks when production was put on hold for the Christmas break. He had significant pain in one thigh, which he treated with aspirin, believing it was a harmless side effect of karate, he told the Daily Mail.
He and a friend got in the car and drove to Las Vegas – a more than four hour drive from Los Angeles. “I passed out at Dunes Casino and it turned out the pain in my leg was internal bleeding and blood was dripping down my femoral artery,” revealed the performer. “I’ve been bleeding all day and they took me to the hospital straight away.” He recalled what the doctors said: “‘We don’t know if we can save your life, but we will try.’ It was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” Kanan said.
At that moment, his biggest concern was not surviving the operation, but whether he could stay in the film: “I knew if they cut the abdominal muscles, I would be out of the film. There’s no way, like that recover quickly,” he said. Not only did the doctors save his life, but they also refrained from cutting open his abdominal muscles at his request in order to ensure a speedier recovery.
But then he got a call from the studio: “No flowers, no balloons — just you have to be back at work in, I think, 12 days or so or we’re going to be recast,” the actor said. “I was devastated, and then I wasn’t devastated, I was really freaking angry.” However, he did not want to comment on the behavior of the film studio: “That was not good, I will leave it at that.”
Kanan risked his recovery to avoid being forced out of the film. “I discharged myself against medical advice,” he revealed. The studio kept it because they already had enough usable material. He also forced himself to act out the rest of the fight scenes himself, with help from director John Avildsen (1935-2017) and a professional soccer player.
Kanan recalls that while filming he was “faced with my own mortality”. He still wears the 38 centimeter long scar “with pride”, according to the actor.
