Characters who had to die on the screen due to the death of an actor in life
What if you shoot a popular TV series and one of your actors dies in the middle of filming? As blasphemous as it sounds, the show must go on. And most often today, in such cases, the creators of the series are no longer looking for someone to replace, as before, but get out in other ways. There are many such examples. Here are just a few of them.
Actor Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper in the popular children's TV series of the 70s-80s "Sesame Street", died of a heart attack in 1982.
At first, the producers wanted to send his character to Florida to retire, but after thinking about it, they decided that their audience was mature enough to accept death, and shot an entire episode about the death of Mr. Hooper. It was a bold move for a children's series, and the episode won the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television.
Actor Nicholas Colasanto was nominated three times for an Emmy for this role. His character Ernie" Coach " Pantusso was present in the series from the very beginning, and everyone loved him very much. Unfortunately, the actor died of a heart attack at the age of 61 before the start of filming for the fourth season.
It was decided not to replace the actor in the series, but to explain that the Coach had died, and to introduce another character to fill the gap left. This new character was played by Woody Harrelson, an old "pen pal" of the Coach.
Phil Hartman was the most popular actor in American TV series. During his ten-year career, he played many roles. The last project in his life was the role of Bill McNeil, the selfish host of an information program on the radio. In 1998, the actor tragically died – his wife shot him (and then committed suicide).
In the series, his character died off-screen, of a heart attack. The creators of the show managed to maintain balance and a sense of tact. And a new news anchor just came on the radio…
Actor John Ritter was already an established TV star by the age of 29. Later, he starred in films, but the real return to show business came in 2002, when he began acting in a popular TV series for teenagers. His character Paul Hennessy is the father of a teenage girl who tries to keep control of her and track all her boyfriends.
The world was shocked by the sudden death of John Ritter in 2003. He died of an aortic dissection. The actor had already starred in three episodes of the third season of the series, and after his death they were shown, and then the series went on hiatus. When the show returned to the air, its name was shortened to "8 simple rules", and grandfather took the place of the father.
Actor John Spencer played Leo McGarry, the chief of staff and then adviser to the president, for six seasons of The West Wing. He was a very prominent character in the series, the story of which developed from season to season – in the seventh in a row, McGarry was already running for vice president.
Alas, the actor died suddenly on December 16, 2005 from a heart attack, and the creators of the series were forced to come up with some way to get out. It was originally planned that McGarry would lose the election, but after the actor's death, it would be too hard for the audience. So in the new finale, McGarry dies on election night, but his presidential candidate wins.
Actor Christopher Allport was well known on television. Over four decades, he has played almost 100 screen roles. In the first season of Mad Men, he portrayed Andrew Campbell, the father of one of the main characters, Pete Campbell.
In January 2008, Christopher Allport was killed in an avalanche while skiing in the San Gabriel Mountains in California. The writers of" Mad Men " in the second season revealed that Pete's father was killed in the American Flight 1 plane crash, a real-life plane crash in 1962 that claimed the lives of everyone on board.
Actress Marcia Wallace has voiced her character on The Simpsons for more than 20 years. She died of pneumonia in 2013 at the age of 70.
It would seem that we are talking about voice acting and you can easily find another actress who could portray the voice, manner and intonation of Wallace, but the producers out of respect for the actress decided not to do this and abandon the character altogether. They paid tribute to the memory of the departed colleague with a touching opening scene to one of the episodes of the series. Edna's death is mentioned in the 13th episode of Season 25, "The Man Who Grew Too Big".
Miguel Ferrer was a well-known actor with a long career both on television and on the big screen. In 2017, the actor died due to throat cancer. At that time, a series was being filmed for five years, in which he played one of the notable roles.
When it became known about his illness, they began to think about what to do with the character later. There were several options – death as a result of an accident, an urgent departure from the country… In the end, we chose this option: the character died peacefully, sitting under a tree.
Cory Monteith had a short but vibrant acting career. He starred in the films "Stargate", "Supernatural", "Smallville", and then became the star of the TV series" Glee " (Glee). There he played Finn Hudson, an athlete who joined a glee club and turned out to be one of the best.
Unfortunately, Cory Monteith had problems with drug addiction, and despite the rehabilitation courses, he was not able to completely overcome it. In July 2013, he was found dead in a hotel room in Vancouver. An autopsy revealed that the 31-year-old actor died of an overdose of alcohol and heroin. His character Finn Hudson was immortalized in the season 5 episode "Quarterback". He was paid tribute, but the circumstances of his death were not described. Everything was replaced with songs.
Fans of" The Big Bang Theory " didn't know what Mother Wolowitz looked like, but they did know her voice. Howard's invisible but vociferous mother was played by actress Carol Ann Susie. Unfortunately, in November 2014, she passed away after a long battle with cancer, at the age of 62.
There are many references to her death in the series: she died in her sleep, her funeral was held, an urn was lost in an air bag, and the main characters ate one of her huge dinners-thanks to a freezer full of food. Not bad for a character whose face no one has ever seen.
Actor Stanley Kamel played longtime friend, confidant, and therapist Adrian Monk on Detective Monk. Often, his character, Charles Kroger, would help Monk piece together a case he was working on.
At the beginning of season 7, both Monk and the audience were shocked to learn that Dr. Kroger had died of a heart attack. This was due to a real heart attack, from which Stanley Kamel died in April 2008. In the series, Kroger was replaced by a new therapist, but the loss was felt very deeply.
Lee Thompson Young has done a lot in the short time he has had. The kids of the '90s knew him as the famous Jett Jackson, and fans of "Smallville" will remember him as the first living version of Cyborg, a Justice League mainstay. And on the big screen, he had some good roles. Off-screen, however, Young's life was difficult.
He suffered from depression and bipolar disorder. In 2013, after he failed to show up on the set, police officers were sent to his home. They discovered that he had committed suicide. He was 29 years old. At the time of his death, Young had been playing Barry Frost for four seasons on Rizzoli and Isles. After the tragedy, the series was suspended and returned the following season with a story about the death of Barry Frost in a car accident.
Actor Roger Delgado made a splash as a villainous Master in the eighth season of Doctor Who. He was sinister and sly. He had a hell of a beard. In short, he was damn good as a villain. The character has appeared in dozens of episodes plotting to end the world with everything from nerve gas to inflatable killer chairs.
Unfortunately, in 1973, while filming in Turkey, the actor was involved in a car accident and died. He was 55 years old. A character in the series died and was reborn in a new body. For Doctor Who, this is the order of the day. However, not everyone survived Delgado's death so easily. Actor Jon Pertwee, who played the Doctor, soon left the show. Later in the interview, he admitted that this was partly because he missed his friend and co-star Roger Delgado.
For seven years and more than 150 episodes, actor Edward Herrmann played the head of the Gilmore family, Richard Gilmore. When filming began in 2016 for a sequel to the story, titled "Gilmore Girls: The Seasons," fans of the show were acutely aware of the absence of their favorite character.
Unfortunately, by that time, the actor had already been dead for two years – he died in 2014 from brain cancer, at the age of 71. The creators of the continuation series inserted into the plot the story that Richard Gilmore died of a heart attack, and the death of this character was the key moment of the first episode of the sequel.
Actor Luke Perry was a celebrity in the 90s, after a role in the popular TV series "Beverly Hills 90210". His later career was also associated with television. He has been a regular cast member of Riverdale since the show's pilot episode.
Unfortunately, in February 2019, the 52-year-old actor suffered a massive stroke and died a few days later, on March 4. The creators of the series attributed the absence of his character Fred at the end of the third season to a business trip, and then, when the fourth season began, devoted the entire first episode to the story of Fred's death in a car accident and the consequences of this event.
Keywords: Death | Actors | World | Cinema | Society | Screen | Characters