- While filming You Only Live Twice (1967), Johnny was leaning out of a helicopter to get a better shot. Another helicopter was caught in a gust of wind and was blown closer. The rotor blade cut Johnny's leg which had to be amputated. Three years later, he was filming Catch-22 (1970) over the Gulf of Mexico when another plane passed close by. He was sucked out of the open doorway and fell 2,000 feet to his death. He had always refused to wear a safety harness and with his artificial leg wasn't as agile as he used to be.
- He developed a special helicopter harness for filming aerial shots of the mountain slopes and action sequences in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). He would hang eighteen feet below the chopper from a large round metal support apparatus.
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