The tragic death of television star Jon-Erik Hexum on October 18, 1984, at just 26 years old, was ruled an accident, but the full story of what happened on the set of CBS’s “Cover Up” has only now emerged in chilling detail, revealing not just a freak mishap but an act of reckless playfulness that ended a promising life and led to an extraordinary act of generosity that saved multiple others.
Hexum, a rising Hollywood heartthrob with a chiseled physique and boyish charm, was on the set of the primetime series “Cover Up” when he picked up a . 44 Magnum revolver loaded with blanks. The weapon was a prop for a scene, but after a delay in filming, Hexum grew restless.
Witnesses say he spun the cylinder, pressed the barrel to his right temple, and pulled the trigger, uttering words like “Can you believe this nonsense?” or “Oh, well, what the hell?”
The blank round produced a shock wave that shattered a quarter-sized fragment of his skull, driving bone into his brain. The hemorrhage was catastrophic. Emergency services rushed him to Beverly Hills Medical Center, where surgeons operated for five hours, but the damage was irreversible.
For six agonizing days, Hexum lay in a coma before doctors confirmed brain death.
His mother, Gretha Hexum, made the heartbreaking decision to let him go. But Hexum had already made his wishes known. He carried a California Organ Donor Card, signed after his roommate’s young cousin needed a liver transplant.
That act of foresight turned tragedy into a life-saving miracle.
Hexum’s body was flown to San Francisco on life support, where surgeons removed his heart, kidneys, corneas, and skin. His heart was transplanted into 36-year-old Michael Washington, a decorated Vietnam War veteran with degenerative heart disease who had only months to live. Washington, who had earned two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, did not know the identity of his donor until a nurse told him hours after the operation.
“I’m alive because of someone else’s tragedy,” Washington later said. He learned that Hexum’s family was thrilled he received the heart because of his active lifestyle. Washington lived 18 more years with Hexum’s heart, passing away in 2002.
One of Hexum’s kidneys went to a severely ill 5-year-old boy, the other to a 43-year-old grandmother who had waited eight years for a match. One cornea restored sight to a 66-year-old man, the other to a young girl. Donated skin helped a 3-and-a-half-year-old boy recover from severe burns.
Hexum’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Daily, had visited him on set just an hour before the accident, describing a divine intuition that led her to see him one last time. She later said, “The ambition itself is what actually ended his life, not taking care of himself around that ambition.” Hexum was stressed in the weeks before his death, she recalled.
Born on November 5, 1957, in Englewood, New Jersey, to a Norwegian immigrant father and a mother of Norwegian descent, Hexum grew up in a broken home. His mother worked two jobs but still found money for piano lessons, theater tickets, and singing and dancing classes. He excelled in high school as a multi-instrumentalist, drum major, class president, and male cheerleader.
After studying biomedical engineering and later political philosophy at Michigan State, he moved to New York to pursue acting. A chance encounter with a talent manager while cleaning apartments led him to Los Angeles. He landed the lead in NBC’s “Voyagers” in 1982, but the show was canceled after one season opposite “60 Minutes.”
Aaron Spelling then cast him in the ABC TV movie “Making of a Male Model” opposite Joan Collins, which made him a household name.
Hexum resented the shirtless exploitation but capitalized on it, appearing in Playgirl. He kept a modest lifestyle, driving a 1954 Chevy Bel Air and living in a bare-bones house in Burbank. He was dating Daily, who described him as “always playing around like a little kid.”
His final role was as Mac Harper in “Cover Up,” a series that combined action and glamour. He insisted on using a . 44 Magnum for a scene, ignoring warnings from co-star Jennifer O’Neill, who had accidentally injured herself with a prop two years earlier.
The show’s executive producer later said Hexum himself wanted the powerful weapon.
The accident happened after a delay in filming. Hexum emptied all but one chamber, spun the cylinder, and pulled the trigger. The force was so great that a fragment of skull penetrated his brain.
He never regained consciousness.
His mother reached an out-of-court settlement with 20th Century Fox Television and Glen A. Larson Productions. His estate totaled $255,000.
His ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean near Malibu.
The “Cover Up” series was eventually canceled after Hexum’s death. But his legacy endures not in the roles he played, but in the lives he saved. Michael Washington named his son after Jon-Erik Hexum.
The 5-year-old kidney recipient grew up to have children of his own. The burns patient recovered fully.
Hexum’s story is a stark reminder of the dangers of prop weapons on set, a tragedy that changed safety protocols in Hollywood forever. But it is also a story of a young man who, even in death, gave everything he had. He was destined to be Hollywood’s next big thing, but instead, he became a quiet hero whose heart continued to beat long after he was gone.
