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SYDNEY - AN AUSTRALIAN stuntman injured on the Sydney set of the Tom Cruise blockbuster 'Mission Impossible II' won a million-dollar payout just hours before dying of cancer, it was reported on Wednesday.
Australian newspapers reported that Mark Joseph Connolly was granted A$1 million (S$1.3 milliom) compensation last Friday as he was on his deathbed suffering from pancreatic cancer not directly related to his filming accident.
The 45-year-old died less that four hours after hearing the news, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported.
The New South Wales Supreme Court was told Connolly was hired as a stuntman on the Cruise film in 1999, in his first big break.
He was filming a stunt on the Sydney shoreline when he was hit by a motorcycle that was supposed to jump over him, suffering injuries that forced him out of the stunt business.
He sued Paramount Pictures' second unit director Billy Burton, who directed the action sequence, over the accident which shattered his collar bone and forearm and left him with restricted movement and in constant pain.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that Connolly's lawyer Elizabeth Ramsey said outside the court that her client believed the lengthy court case had contributed to his cancer.
'We could not say it in court, but Mark always said that he only got it because of the stress and length of the court case,' she said. -- AFP
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