This evening, France 2 is creating an event by broadcasting Mort sur la piste, a detective TV film with Eleonor Bernheim and Jason Priestley, alias Brandon in Beverly Hills. But did you know that the American star was really a professional pilot?
This evening, France 2 is creating an event by broadcasting Mort sur la piste, a detective TV film with Eléonor Bernheim (The Art of Crime), Olivier Marchal (La Promesse) and Jason Priestley, the unforgettable Brandon Walsh in the cult series 1990s Beverly Hills.
In this thriller, Jason Priestley lends his features to Ryan Martin, a cop from the Los Angeles police who came to France for an observation internship with his local colleagues. He will then support Captain Sabrina Nedjard in investigating the murder of a racing driver whose body was found on the track during the first tests of the 24 hours of Le Mans, the largest endurance event in the world.
However, this is not the first time that Ryan Martin has set foot at Le Mans. It must be said that the American policeman was a former racing driver and that he raced the 24 hours of Le Mans 25 years earlier.
Significantly, fiction meets reality here since the scenario of this TV film strangely echoes the personal life of Jason Priestley. Indeed, the Canadian actor shares something in common with his character.
JASON PRIESTLEY A FORMER CAR DRIVER
Although he has never been a police officer like Ryan Martin, Jason Priestley has, however, been a professional pilot in the past.
“Motor racing was very important to me. It was a big part of my life but now that I’m old and retired, I’m just a spectator“, the actor told us during our visit to the filming of Death on the Track.
Passionate about motorsport, the 54-year-old actor first participated in amateur level competitions before moving to the professional level. It was on August 11, 2002 during testing for a race at Sparta, a racing circuit in the state of Kentucky in the United States, that he came close to death.
While traveling at nearly 300 km/h, Jason Priestley hit a protective wall on the circuit head-on. According to reports published at the time, the comedian was taken to hospital in serious condition. The violence of the impact also caused multiple fractures to his feet and spine as well as a serious head injury.
A serious accident which he miraculously survived and which required him several operations as well as more than two years of rehabilitation. Enough to put a definitive end to his racing career.
Death on the Track is broadcast this Saturday, November 4 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.