Bear from movies turns on handler in Calif., killing him

The women fell asleep to the roars the first night, but on Tuesday they were startled by different sound an urgent yell. About 30 minutes later, sirens wailed as paramedics rushed to an animal trainer who had been bitten on the neck by a 700-pound, 7 1/2-foot-tall grizzly bear. Stephan Miller, 39, died at the scene.

On Wednesday, friends and neighbors tried to make sense of the attack, which from all accounts involved a well-trained and gentle bear and an experienced animal trainer.

"We heard a man yell; it was like he was yelling for help," Giles said of the attack. "We knew something was going on, but we didn't know what it was. Our dogs were going crazy."

Harry Morse, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said Miller was killed by the 5-year-old bear during the making of a promotional video for Randy Miller's Predators in Action center. The bear's fate has not been decided.

The bear, named Rocky, recently appeared in the Will Ferrell sports comedy "Semi-Pro." Center owner Randy Miller, the victim's cousin, was a stunt double for Ferrell in a wrestling match with the bear. The center's animals have appeared in many other movies, documentaries and TV shows, including "Gladiator" and "The Last Samurai."

Ferrell's publicist, Matt Labov, said the actor was working on a film and was unavailable for comment.

The remote Predators in Action campus is tucked off a private, rutted dirt road high in the snow-capped San Bernardino Mountains, a two-hour drive northeast of Los Angeles. Its only neighbors are a few vacation cabins and a campground.

Yellow police tape blocked the narrow trail leading to the animal cages on Wednesday.

From a distance, a bear could be seen lounging in a small cage at the top of the road, while a lion with a fluffy mane sat on top of a wooden platform and a cougar and tiger paced in their enclosures.