What Happened To Jon-Erik Hexum?

Television star Jon Erik Hexum was only 26 when he died on set after a shocking freak accident. But what happened to his body was the most heart-wrenching bombshell of all. With his unparalleled good looks and impossibly chiseled physique, Jon Erik Hexum was destined to become Hollywood’s next big thing. But tragically, he met one of the most devastating ends in television history. Jon Erik Hexum might just as easily have been born in Scandinavia as a Viking lord. Instead, he was born on November 5th, 1957 in Englewood, New Jersey. His father emigrated from Norway, and his mother was a Minnesota native of Norwegian descent. His home life was a little berserk. Hexum’s parents split when he was just four. From that point on, his mother shouldered the weight of raising him and his older brother. She juggled two jobs to keep the family afloat. However, she wasn’t just a provider. She gave her sons everything they would need to succeed in life. Despite barely scraping by, she made sure her boys had a rich inner life. Jon Erik Hexum remembered her fondly, saying she was wonderful when we were growing up, and clearly she prioritized their education. Somehow she found money to buy a piano. Hexum recalled, “We got to go to the theater periodically, and I took singing and dancing lessons. It was money well spent.” Hexum’s mother clearly saw potential in him. By the time he was in the second grade, he got his first glorious taste of acting and never looked back. Then, in high school, he marched up with the school band and could play the horn, violin, and piano. That was only a warm-up for him to showcase even more of his talents. Jon-Erik Hexum wasn’t just a multi-instrumentalist. He took over as a drum major in the marching band, became his school’s first-ever male cheerleader, starred in productions of Carousel and The Pajama Game, and still found time to get himself elected class president. He graduated in 1976 with a resume that set him up for a future in Hollywood. But first, he wanted an education. He enrolled at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, taking biomedical engineering, but quickly decided that it wasn’t for him. He transferred to Michigan State and pivoted to political philosophy. Even as he studied, however, he couldn’t help but perform. At Michigan State, Jon-Erik Hexum continued leaning into his knack for performance.

By night, he hosted local radio shows as Yukon Jack, an ode to his nickname, Jack. During day, when he wasn’t studying, he was putting his Viking physique to good use as a backup on the Spartans football squad and took minor stage roles. Then, he had a fateful encounter. Days after graduating, Hexum packed for New York City to chase the dream. But there were certainly bumps in the road to overcome. To pay rent, he scrubbed apartments for a living. And that’s just when fate intervened. On one of his cleaning gigs, Hexum crossed paths with Bob LeMond of LeMond Management, the same firm that managed John Travolta. Seeing something special in Hexum, LeMond signed him on the spot. Hexum later joked about the encounter, “I guess the guy saw a lot of talent in the way I cleaned Venetian blinds.” LeMond convinced Jon-Erik Hexum to leave New York for Los Angeles and to audition for Summer Lovers. Ultimately, Peter Gallagher snagged the part instead. But, it’s not like Hexum was shy of opportunity. Legend has it that Hexum turned down big roles in a string of daytime soaps before landing his big break. He was practically born for the role that would make him famous. In 1982, Hexum scored the lead in NBC’s Voyagers. In the period piece, he took on the role of Phineas Bogg, a swashbuckling farmer pirate who hops through history righting wrongs. It was a great first gig, paying $10,000 a week.

And it seemed like the perfect platform to launch his career. But, the clock, as it turned out, was already ticking. Voyagers had everything going for it, except the time slot. NBC parked the show opposite 60 Minutes, the most watched program on television. Regardless of Hexum’s talents or impressive physical appearance, the ratings never stood a chance. After a single season and 20 episodes, the network pulled the plug. Hexum, however, refused to stay down. Aaron Spelling had an eye for stars, and in 1983, he cast Jon-Erik Hexum opposite Joan Collins in ABC TV movie Making of a Male Model. Hexum played Tyler Burnett and spent most of the film leaning into his assets, his body. When the film premiered, the final cut featured mostly shots of Hexum without a shirt. Clearly, it worked. The movie cracked the top 10 for its premiere week. Hexum, however, wasn’t entirely thrilled about it. For all its commercial success, Hexum wasn’t pleased with Making of a Male Model. “It turned out to be a lot more exploitative than I anticipated,” Hexum later explained. I didn’t realize how they were going to package the show, how many scenes were going to be shirtless for no apparent reason. He called the whole thing trashy. Trashy or not, he left an impression. People magazine hinted at a romantic spark between Jon-Erik Hexum and Collins during the making of a Male Model shoot. No other outlets reported the story, and neither Hexum nor Collins confirmed or denied the rumors. Either way, after Making of a Male Model came out, Hexum wasn’t short of female admirers. By November 1984, Hexum had become a certified Hollywood hunk, and the ladies wanted more.

Even if he resented the objectification, Hexum capitalized on it, appearing in the provocative publication Playgirl. In it, Hexum posed clothed and shirtless, but never fully unclothed in the accompanying photo spread. The female readers certainly got an eyeful. Hollywood couldn’t stop obsessing over its new hunk. At 6 ft and 1 in tall, Jon-Erik Hexum carried a muscular frame, light blue eyes, and a deep, resonant voice that could make knees buckle at the slightest whisper. It wasn’t long before everyone started calling him the next big thing. Despite his growing fame, however, Hexum remained humble. Hexum’s impeccable physique was partly genetic, but also a ton of hard work. He’d been an athlete since his childhood, kicking a ball around at 8 years old, and picking up wrestling, swimming, and weight training along the way. Even at the peak of his acting career, he hit the gym three times a week to maintain and great physique. Unbeknownst to his admirers, however, Hexum was not on the market. Jon-Erik Hexum managed to keep most of his private life out of the public eye, but he couldn’t hide one fact. He was dating Elizabeth Daily, and their love transcended Hexum’s flawless features. Daily described Hexum as always playing around like a little kid. She saw the humanity beneath the Hollywood hunk, and really, he was just looking for a simple life. For a rising TV star destined to become a leading man, Hexum kept an almost comically modest lifestyle. He called himself an extreme miser, lived in a bare-bones house in Burbank, and drove a 1954 Chevy Bel Air. No flash, no excess, just a guy saving every penny he could. His next role, though, was anything but modest. In 1984, Hexum guest-starred on Aaron Spelling’s Hotel, playing a character called Prince Eric. It was perhaps a little too on the nose for some to see Hexum playing a literal Prince Charming character who sweeps a Cinderella figure off her feet, but it worked. The episode titled Tomorrow’s added to Hexum’s growing star. His own tomorrow looked brighter than ever.

Hexum wasn’t satisfied to rely on his looks. For the 1984 feature film The Bear, a biopic about legendary Alabama football coach Paul Bear Bryant, Hexum portrayed terminally ill quarterback Pat Tramell. Committing himself fully to the role, Hexum chopped his hair short, but that wasn’t all. He also traveled to Alabama to meet the real Tramell’s family and former teammates. The film would carry a haunting footnote. The Bear was supposed to be Hexum’s first foray into major studio productions, the film that would launch him into true superstardom. Instead, it stands as Hexum’s sole feature film credit. The Bear premiered just 3 weeks before the world lost him. To add to the sense of loss, Hexum’s TV career was also heating up. Also in 1984, CBS handed Hexum the role of Mac Harper in the new primetime series Cover Up. Hexum’s character was a former operative posing as a male model alongside Jennifer O’Neill’s fashion photographer character, Danny Reynolds. The show had action, glamour, and intrigue, all the makings of a hit show that played to all of Hexum’s strengths. It was the role he was born to play. Hexum proved that he wasn’t just a pretty face and blazing bod. He was also super eager to take on physical challenges and even rehearsed a high-wire act for Circus of the Stars. Unfortunately, the producers cut the footage from the episode, so the world never got to see Hexum at his most daring. Sadly, his desire to do his own stunts would cost him his life.

October 12th, 1984 started like any other day on the set of Cover Up. The crew gathered on stage 18 of the 20th Century Fox lot to film the seventh episode, Golden Opportunity. One scene required Hexum’s character to load a revolver with blanks. The show’s executive producer, Glenn Larson, would later claim that Hexum himself had insisted on using a .44 Magnum for the scene. His co-star saw tragedy coming. Hexum’s Cover Up co-star, Jennifer O’Neill, knew the danger of having props like a .44 magnum on set better than anyone. Just 2 years earlier, O’Neill had accidentally injured herself with a similar prop at her New York home. Hexum’s casual ease around props on set made her deeply uneasy, and she repeatedly urged him to exercise more caution. Hexum didn’t listen. The episode’s director wasn’t satisfied with how the filming was going, and called for another take, delaying the shooting. In the meantime, as the crew worked to reset the scene, Hexum grew restless. Sensing that the rest of the crew was also getting tired, Hexum started goofing off to break the tension. What happened next, however, would only make the tension worse. With the carefree abandon of someone operating a prop, Hexum emptied every chamber in the revolver, except one, recklessly playing Russian roulette. Then he spun the cylinder and pressed the barrel to his right temple. Witnesses recall him saying either, “Can you believe this nonsense?” or “Oh, well, what the hell?” before pulling the trigger. It was a blank. But blank does not mean harmless. The force of the blank round shattered a quarter-sized fragment of Hexum’s skull and drove it into his brain. The resulting hemorrhage was catastrophic. The crew rushed to get him help, but there was nothing they could have done. Doctors later confirmed that Hexum had virtually no chance of survival from the moment he pulled the trigger. Given the severity of Hexum’s injury, emergency medical services were contacted immediately. An ambulance transported Hexum to Beverly Hills Medical Center as fast as possible. Surgeons worked on him for 5 hours. But the chief surgeon delivered a devastating assessment. The damage to Hexum’s brain could not be undone. Six days of agony followed. After Hexum pulled the trigger, he never opened his eyes again. For six long days, he lay in a coma. Then doctors confirmed the worst of everyone’s fears. His brain had ceased to function entirely. On October 18th, 1984, at 26 years old, Jon-Erik Hexum was gone. His mother made the decision to let him go. However, his star wasn’t done shining.

In the weeks before the accident, Elizabeth Daily had noticed a change. Hexum was very stressed. “More stressed than I remember him ever being,” she said. Looking back, Daily offered a chilling epitaph. “The ambition itself is what actually ended his life, not taking care of himself around that ambition.” Thankfully, he still had life left to give. Hexum got to say final goodbyes, even if he didn’t know it. His girlfriend, Daily, had planned to have lunch elsewhere that day, but something stopped her. What she later described as divine intuition. Instead, she visited Hexum on the Cover-Up set and saw him one final time. Less than an hour after she bid him goodbye, Hexum was unconscious. Hexum was determined to share his gifts with the world, one way or another. That’s why he carried a California Organ Donor Card. His roommate, Nick Allen, later revealed that Hexum volunteered after learning that Allen’s young cousin needed a liver transplant. He called me up and said, “Meet me at the post office.” Alan recalled, “Because back then, you had to have a witness sign your driver’s license.” Hexum’s generosity was about to outlive him. With her son gone in every way that mattered, Gretha Hexum gave permission for what Jon-Erik himself had requested. She agreed to let medical staff fly his body to San Francisco on life support, where Gretha and Jon-Erik’s brother stood by his side for the final pronouncement. At Hexum’s request and with his family’s blessing, his organs were donated.

Several people would owe their own lives to him. Hexum’s body traveled across the state to California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. There, surgeons removed his heart, placing it inside the chest of 36-year-old Michael Washington, a Las Vegas man who ran a small advertising firm and had an escort service. Washington had been battling degenerative heart disease and had a mere months left. He was no ordinary patient. Michael Washington wasn’t just a Las Vegas businessman. He was a decorated veteran. Washington had served two tours in Vietnam, earned two Purple Hearts for combat injuries, and received the Bronze Star for valor. At the time of the transplant, he was raising two sons aged 11 and four and faced a 60% survival rate on the operating table. Hexum’s strong heart pulled through for him. At first, Washington didn’t know whose heart was beating inside his chest. “Here I’m alive because of someone else’s tragedy.” he later recalled. “These must be really special people. How do you thank someone for this kind of gift? Hours after the operation, a floor nurse told Washington the touching truth. He had a TV star’s heart in his chest. But he wasn’t the only happy person. If Hexum’s family had any concerns about who the recipients of his organs would be, they quickly forgot them. When they learned that Washington was getting Hexum’s heart, they were tickled to death because of his active lifestyle. Further, they stated that Washington’s race never came into question. Washington put Hexum’s heart to good use. Washington threw himself into learning everything about the man who saved his life. I’m alive because of him. So now I want to know about Jon-Erik Hexum, he said. He watched episodes of Cover Up, admitting they brought tears to his eyes. Nevertheless, Hexum’s family declined to meet Washington, saying it would be way too painful. Washington passed on in 2002, having lived 18 more years with Hexum’s heart.

Hexum’s heart was only the beginning. One kidney went to a severely ill 5-year-old boy. The other went to a 43-year-old grandmother who had patiently waited 8 years for a match. One cornea restored sight to a 66-year-old man. The other went to a young girl. Donated skin helped treat a 3 and 1/2 year-old boy recovering from severe burns. Jon-Erik Hexum didn’t just leave a legacy. He became it. Authorities ruled Hexum’s passing accidental. After 10 days at the coroner’s office, his body was flown to Los Angeles and cremated at Grand View Crematory in Glendale, California. His mother scattered his ashes in the Pacific Ocean near Malibu, and the family held a private ceremony wanting to keep the details out of the press. He still wasn’t done leaving a legacy behind. With a rising star, Hexum’s estate totaled $255,000. It wasn’t the fortune that he would have made, but it was something. Further, Hexum’s mother later reached an out-of-court settlement with 20th Century Fox Television and Glen A. Larson Productions, the company behind Cover Up. He was, after all, the star of the show. If you enjoyed this Factinate video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more incredible stories. Your support means everything to us. Want to stay in who we cover next? Join our membership program through the link in the description for exclusive perks. And check out the videos on screen for more amazing Factinate stories.