‘Highlander’ Star Christopher Lambert Misses Convention Appearance In Sweden Due To Hospitalization With A Back Injury Caused By A Fall Down Hotel Stairs
Here we are, a quarter of the way through this 21st century, and everyone is ready to lose their heads. The stock market is crashing, self-medication has replaced self-care, envy outweighs gratitude, tribalism strangles truth, and authenticity continues to quietly fade into the shadowy province of extinction.
Nothing lasts forever, and so little changes. It is an age where the mighty have fallen, faltered, or failed themselves, and it appears to also be one where the immortal Connor MacLeod loses to a flight of steps.
Some of the attendees of this year’s SciFiWorld in Jönköping, Sweden, were left heaving a gusty, meatball-scented sigh of disappointment as beloved 80s/90s action icon, Christopher Lambert, had to cancel an appearance he was scheduled to make at the weekend-long convention.
First reported by TMZ, the soon-to-be 68-year-old actor is healing after he took a serious fall down the stairs at a hotel a few months ago, and he is preparing for a role in an upcoming project called Tulipomania which is supposed to start filming in the next couple of days. The organizers of the convention announced Lambert’s cancellation on their Facebook page, but then they got out of pocket by giving inaccurate information.
“Christopher Lambert had a serious accident on Monday and is not allowed to travel or move for 1 month according to his doctor. He apologizes so terribly that he can’t attend Jönköping,” the post reads. “We wish him a speedy recovery and you can leave a greeting for him here, as he reads our comments in English”
Aside from the fact that Christopher Lambert grew up speaking more French than English, they exaggerated his recovery time, or perhaps there was a lapse in communication between both parties. There’s also the chance it was deliberate, and they just wanted to make sure their throng of rebuffed clientele would sheath their sharp Swedish swords (say that one five times fast)!
Lambert’s representative, Lucas Confortini, spoke to Those Mediocre Zealots about the Highlander star’s condition, and to set the record straight.“Christopher tripped on stairs while entering a hotel a few months ago,” Confortini confirmed. “resulting in a back injury. Fortunately, he didn’t break his back, because he’s now recovering.”
“As an actor,” the rep’s statement continues. “filming and promoting his films are an absolute priority and has always been, and while he has the highest respect for people organizing events and fans who attend; unfortunately this time he will not be able to attend the comic con.”
RELATED: Highlander – What Every Sequel Did Wrong
As most convention veterans (Convents) know very well, the experience of these gatherings can take its toll on the body for those attending the whole weekend, and it’s even worse for the celebrity guests.
Anybody with even the most minor of back issues would probably shudder at the thought of sitting at a table all day, and constantly having to stand up out of their uncomfortable chairs to take a picture, or go do a seminar with more sitting down, and getting right back up.
This all goes down while trying to circumvent a giant crowd of awkward, cosplaying humanity reaching out their hands like a sea of lost spirits trying to regain a little bit more life for themselves. Why some people would want to envy them, nobody knows.
Onto less terrible things, Christopher Lambert isn’t a name that gets mentioned very often in modern times, as opposed to three decades ago. However, movie buffs who were around back then will recognize it immediately.
He played John Clayton (aka Tarzan) in the 1984 film, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, the Japanese thunder god, Raiden, in Mortal Kombat from 1995, and convict John H. Brennick in Stuart Gordon’s underappreciated 1992 Sci-Fi/Prison epic, Fortress (remember that crime does not pay).
However, most know him as the sword-wielding Scotsman, Connor MacLeod, from the 1986 cult classic, Highlander. MacLeod is an immortal (as long as his head remains attached to his body) from the 16th century who spends most of his time decapitating others like him in one-on-one sword duels to take their life force and grow stronger.
The “Endgame” for them is to wipe out their entire species until only they themselves are left standing. Once they achieve that, they are granted the ultimate prize of some confusingly opaque God Tier. Because in the end, there can be only one…
The movie doesn’t give much of an explanation of these sword-happy entities with soft necks, or where they came from. However, this question would be answered in the 1991 sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, but believe me when I say it’s not worth finding out. It doesn’t get better from there for the film franchise, and the three dismal entries that followed, but the spin-off TV series with Adrian Paul is worth the watch.
The original Highlander with Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery as a 2,000-year-old Egyptian named Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez (I s—t you not, shir!), the always great Clancy Brown, and an epic soundtrack by Queen is available on TUBI.
READ NEXT: 10 Action Movies With Sequels Better Than You Remember
More About:Movie News