15 Lucky Celebrities You Didn't Know Cheated Death

There a guarantee in life that many of us don't want to face: we're all going to die. It's not a pleasant thought that we want to think about on a daily basis, but it's the inevitable that will happen to every person on the planet. However, throughout life some people will knock on death's door and the Grim Reaper, for whatever reason, won't answer. We read stories on the news of people involved in terrible accidents, crashes, or falls, only to walk away with a few injuries and make a full recovery. Those incidents are horrifying and it seems as if these lucky few have cheated death.

While we may think that our favorite celebrities are immune to such tragedies, they'll tell you firsthand that they, too, have come face to face with the Angel of Death only to live. These true stories of these 15 famous figures who barely made it out alive are enough to make you appreciate every breath that you take - but it will make you also face the reality that you can just go about your daily routine not knowing which breath will be your last.

15 Travis Barker And DJ AM

After performing at a special event in South Carolina back in 2008, drummer Travis Barker and DJ AM, known together as TRV$DJAM, were on a private plane headed back to Van Nuys, California. Barker already had a fear of flying, so you can only imagine how he felt as the aircraft was speeding down the runway and sparks began to fly. Everyone on board heard a loud bang as one of the tires blew out. The pilots tried to control the plane, but it sailed through the airport fence and crashed into an embankment. Both Barker and DJ AM were rushed to the hospital where they were listed as being in critical condition. Unfortunately four others, including the two pilots, died. The two entertainers were the only people to survive the wreck.

14 Eminem

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that rapper Eminem had a drug problem. When he first hit the scene and became a forced to be reckoned with in hip hop, many of his songs detailed his experiences with drugs. In 2007, Eminem had a brush with death after he overdosed on methadone, a drug used by heroin addicts who are trying to get clean.

He told MTV, "Had I known it was methadone, I probably wouldn't have taken it. But as bad as I was back then, I can't even say 100 percent for sure. My doctor told me the amount of methadone I'd taken was equivalent to shooting up four bags of heroin. Even when they told me I almost died, it didn't click."

It took some time, but the rapper has been sober for years and continues to be considered one of the best in the music game.

13 Kanye West

It was the near-fatal accident that not only almost killed him, but inspired one of his biggest hits, "Through the Wire." In 2002, Kanye West was leaving a recording session in Los Angeles and making his way home around 3:00 a.m. after working with Beanie Sigel, Peedi Crack and The Black Eyed Peas. He was driving in his rented Lexus when someone suddenly cut him off and he went right into traffic hitting another car. His life hung in the balance and while it was touch and go for a while, he (obviously) recovered from his injuries. However, his jaw was severely fractured and he had to have his mouth wired shut for six weeks. He didn't have an medical insurance, either, and had to pay for all of his hospital bills.

12 Martin Lawrence

Celebrities need to stay in shape and often go to extreme measures in order to slim down. Back in 1999, funnyman Martin Lawrence went out for a jog in the sweltering summer heat. He was trying to sweat as much as possible so he wore multiple layers of clothing to turn up the heat. However, things got a bit too hot and he was found by his girlfriend on his front steps, passed out. His temperature was 107 degrees and doctors said that he collapsed after suffering heat stroke. He was in a coma for three days and was even placed on a respirator. When he woke up doctors kept a close eye on him because his kidney was distressed and they wanted to make sure there wasn't permanent or long term damage. Thankfully he fully recovered and went back to work as soon as he could.

11 Jennifer Lawrence

The Hunger Games films put Jennifer Lawrence on the map, but as we've already learned from Jackie Chan, filming action-packed movies can put an actor at risk. Jennifer was in the middle of a scene for "Mockingjay - Part 1" when a faulty fog machine began to malfunction. She was in an enclosed space and right before everyone's eyes, Jennifer disappeared in the fog. It took a few minutes for the crew to pull her out to safety and the actress emerged gasping for air. She suffered from both nausea and vertigo, and production was halted until Jennifer made a full recovery. It wasn't her first Hunger Games injury, either. "I went deaf in one ear for months," Lawrence said. "I got all these ear infections from the diving and water and all that stuff, and then a jet from one of the cornucopia scenes punctured my eardrum."

10 The Game

Jayceon Taylor, better known as rapper The Game, was once a drug dealer on the streets of Compton, California. He was at his apartment back in 2001 handling his illegal business when a few unexpected visitors showed up at his door. Even though he was robbed and shot five times, Game managed to muster up enough energy to call an ambulance. It didn't take long for him to slip into a coma that lasted for three days. His loved ones didn't know if he was going to make it out alive, but soon he began to get better. While he was going through recovery Game made the decision to become a rapper, professionally. It wasn't the last time that someone would fire shots at him; last year the rapper was in Miami with his crew when gunshots rang out.

9 Jason Priestley

After his heartthrob days playing Brandon Walsh on the hit show "90210," actor Jason Priestley turned his attention to becoming a race car driver. In 2002, Jason was doing a practice run at the Kentucky Speedway when he crashed is car in a horrific accident. He fractured his spine and feet, had a concussion, and broke his nose. That was just one of a number of crashes that nearly took the actor's life. He was driving his Porsche in Hollywood when he, while drunk, totalled the car. He walked away with minor injuries while the friend who was with him broke his arm. Then in 2002 he was racing a powerboat in Miami when he crashed it, cracking the ribs of one of his crew members. When riding with Jason, buckle up.

8 Jackie Chan

He's got fast-hitting moves on the silver screen, but Jackie Chan probably never thought that he'd fight death and win. The international action movie star was in Yugoslavia filming "Armour of God" when he was doing a stunt where he jumped from a castle wall to a tree. He's done many of these stunts before, but this time it didn't go the way he planned. He missed the tree branch and fell straight down, landing on his head. He hit the ground so hard that his skull not only cracked, but pieces of it shot up into his brain. Jackie was taken to the hospital where he underwent emergency brain surgery. The actor will forever remember the moment he almost died and will not just carry the memory of the incident, but he also has a plastic plate in his head.

7 Sylvester Stallone

The "Expendables" movie series proved that a little age doesn't mean that you're not still a badass, but Sylvester Stallone got more than he bargained for while filming a scene with Stone Cold Steve Austin. The two men were engaged in a fight and things got a bit too realistic between the action movie star and the wrestling legend.

Stallone spoke about the fight saying,  “Actually, my fight with Stone Cold Steve Austin was so vicious that I ended up getting a hairline fracture in my neck. I'm not joking. I haven't told anyone this, but I had to have a very serious operation afterwards. I now have a metal plate in my neck.”

That series had another tragedy while filming in 2011 after one stuntman was seriously injured and another was killed during a explosion gone wrong.

6 Joaquin Phoenix

Joaquin Phoenix has many strange stories about his life that set him apart from the others in his Hollywood elite crew, but very few top the tale of his 2006 car accident. The actor was driving along, minding his business on another, normal day in Los Angeles when his brakes suddenly gave out. He crashed into a another vehicle and overturned on the windy Laurel Canyon Road. Someone passing by decided to take action by stopping at the scene and helping Joaquin out of his car. The twist in this story is that the kind stranger was none other than famed filmmaker Werner Herzog.

"I remember this knocking on the passenger window," Phoenix said. "There was this German voice saying, 'Just relax.'… I said to myself, 'That's Werner Herzog!' There's something so calming and beautiful about Werner Herzog's voice."

5 50 Cent

"Get rich or die tryin'" was his motto, and rapper 50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, lived up to every word. He was leaving his grandmother's house in 2000 when a group of men attacked him. They told him to go back into the house and get jewelry. He followed their instructions, but when he got into the backseat of the car, a vehicle pulled up next to his and started firing shots. The rapper was hit nine times as his grandmother watched from her front yard. He was hit in his hand, arm, hip, legs, chest, and face. His speech was slurred as a result of the shooting but it's also become an important part of his signature sound. After five months of rest, he made a full recovery from his injuries.

4 Diane Kruger

Directors often go the extra mile to make their movies come across as realistic as possible, and Quentin Tarantino has a reputation of pushing his actors to the limit. These moments have caused injuries to a few movie stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio who bled through his infamous dinner scene in Django Unchained. Diane Kruger also knows the terror that can come from starring in a Tarantino film after she nearly died on set of Inglourious Basterds. There was a scene where Tarantino had to choke Diane and he told her he wasn't going to fake it.

“I'm gonna just strangle you, alright?," he said. "Full on, I'm gonna cut off your air, for just a little bit of time. We're gonna see the reaction in your face, and I'm gonna yell 'cut.'” This was a terrible idea from the start and Diane ended up passing out. Thankfully she woke up just moments later.

3 Boy George

It isn't as if we want anything terrible to ever happen to music icon Boy George, but there was a way for him to leave this earth, we'd expect a disco ball to do it. In 1999, the singer was rehearsing for a show at the Bournemouth International Center in Dorset when a 62 pound glitter ball fell from the ceiling. The wire holding the disco ball in place snapped, sending the massive prop hurling toward the ground. It clipped his shoulder on the way down and caused severe bruising and minor injuries to his back and ear. It was just a few inches from landing on his head, and if that would have happened, experts say he would have been crushed and died on the spot. Like the professional that he is, Boy George went on to perform just a few hours after his accident.

2 Charlize Theron

During South African beauty Charlize Theron's Aeon Flux days, the actress wanted to do her own stunts instead of using a body double. One of these movies almost proved to be fatal after she was attempting a back-flip for a scene. She landed awkwardly on her neck, herniating a disc that was close to her spinal cord.

Charlize said, “I did a back handspring, gymnastics back handspring, had done 18 of them back to back and I just slipped and landed on my neck with my body straight out so with all my weight onto my neck and herniated the disk between my third and fourth vertebrae. I had some nerve damage, it was numb and on the right side of my body.”

Filming shut down during the eight weeks and doctors were unsure as to whether or not she would lost some mobility in her body. She made a full recovery and decided to let stunt doubles do the action work.

1 Lamar Odom

The former basketball star kissed death on the lips and somehow survived. Following his breakup with Khloe Kardashian, Lamar Odom began to spiral out of control with wild sex and drug abuse. He was at the Love Ranch brothel in rural Nevada when he was discovered to be unconscious. He suffered multiple strokes and had kidney failure, and even slipped into a coma. He was placed on life support while family, friends, and fans all thought that Lamar wasn't going to pull through. His estranged wife rushed to be by his side and supported him throughout his recovery. She even withdrew her request for divorce just in case she needed to make medical decisions on his behalf, but after he made a full recovery, she filed for divorce once again.