TIMBERLINE LODGE, Ore. -- Film director Boris Sagal, who directed the recent television miniseries "Masada" and the earlier miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man," was fatally injured Friday when he walked into the spinning rotor blades of a helicopter at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, authorities said. He was 58.
A spokesman for Timberline Lodge said Mr. Sagal left the helicopter, which was used in the filming, by the right door and continued off to the right, walking into the tail rotor blades. He was airlifted to a hospital in Portland, Ore., about 50 miles west of Mount Hood, with severe head injuries. He went into surgery about 7:40 p.m. and was pronounced dead at 9:44 p.m. His wife, Marge Champion, was with him at the hospital.
Mr Sagal's theatrical film credits include the 1960s movies, "Twilight of Honor," with Richard Chamberlain, and "Made in Paris," starring Ann Margaret and Louis Jourdan, and "The Omega Man," a 1971 film starring Charleston Heston and Anthony Zerbe.
His other television work included the 1967 series "T.H.E. Cat," "A Case of Rape," "Indict and Convict," "The Dream Makers," "The Oregon Trail," and "Ike."
