Random Actors Whose Deaths Became Storylines (15 items)

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  (#10) Freddie Prinze

  • Dec. at 23 (1954-1977)

  Freddie Prinze, Sr., died in 1977 from a self-inflicted bullet wound to the head. The actor/comedian was filming the television show Chico and the Man at the time of his death. For most of Season 3, characters simply explain that Chico is away on business or visiting a relative.

  The trend continues the following season, until the two-part episode titled, "Raul Runs Away," which airs almost one year after Prinze's sudden death. The episode reveals that Chico has passed; however, no explanation is given. The show was cancelled later that same year.
   
  
   
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  (#8) Larry Hagman

  • Dec. at 81 (1931-2012)

  Larry Hagman died in 2012 at the age 81 from acute myeloid leukemia. At the time of his death, Hagman was once again playing oil tycoon J.R. Ewing in the revival drama Dallas. Ewing, this time around, is killed by two gunshot wounds.

  J.R.'s funeral takes place during the eighth episode of the second season, and several of the show's original cast members attended. Following Hagman's death, the writers reworked the rest of the show's second season to focus on who shot J.R., a homage to the famous cliffhanger from the original series.

  
   
  
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  (#3) John Ritter

  • Dec. at 55 (1948-2003)

  John Ritter died of complications from an aortic dissection in 2003 at the age of 55. At the time of his death, Ritter played a sports writer by the name of Paul Hennessy on the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. He was in the middle of a rehearsal during the second season when he complained of pain and needed to be taken to the hospital.

  On the show, Ritter's character suffers from a heart condition and dies in an episode titled "Goodbye." The sitcom continued on without Ritter. Several different replacement characters followed including James Garner, who played Paul's father, and David Spade. The sitcom even changed its name to 8 Simple Rules. The show never recovered from Ritter's death, however, and was subsequently cancelled after the third season in 2005.
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  (#15) River Phoenix

  • Dec. at 23 (1970-1993)

  River Phoenix died from a drug overdose outside of Hollywood's famed Viper Room in 1993 at the age of 23. The talented young actor was in the middle of filming Dark Blood at the time of his death. The movie gave Phoenix the opportunity to play a villain for the first time in his career. The film was scrapped after Phoenix's death because it was only about 80% complete and several important scenes still needed to be shot.

  The film's director George Sluizer, however, finished the film 19 years later by narrating descriptions of what was missing from the scenes. The film was screened at a few film festivals in 2013 and 2014 but never received a wide release.

   

   

   

   
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  (#4) Redd Foxx

  • Dec. at 69 (1922-1991)

  Redd Foxx died of a heart attack at the age of 69 while filming his comeback series The Royal Family. The sitcom was only seven episodes into its premiere season when Foxx collapsed on the set during rehearsal. Jackée Harry was brought in as a replacement for Foxx (who played the character Al), as the younger sister to Al's wife, Victoria. Harry's character was there to help her sister deal with the loss of her husband, and his passing became a storyline in the show.

  The retooling of the show was unsuccessful, however, and was cancelled later that same season.

   
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  (#2) Cory Monteith

  • Dec. at 31 (1982-2013)

  Cory Monteith died in 2013 at the age of 31 from a drug overdose. He passed before the start of Season 5 of Glee. Initially, producers opted to delay shooting the new season so they could figure out how to handle Finn Hudson's storyline. They opted to not mention Finn's death until the third episode of the season, after the two-part Beatles premiere episode. In the end, producers ultimately decided not to reveal exactly how Finn died.

  In a move that mirrored real life, Rachel Berry (Lea Michele) sang the tear-filled "Make You Feel My Love." Finn's stepbrother Kurt said during the show's opening scene, "Everyone wants to talk about how he died, but who cares? It's one moment in his whole life." The show's lack of closure regarding Finn's death was met with some fan outrage. Glee's co-creator Ryan Murphy explained the producer's tough decision on how to deal with Finn's death: "How somebody died is interesting and maybe morbid, but we say very early on in the episode, 'This is about a celebration of that character's life.' That might be weird for some people, but it felt really exploitative to do it any other way."
  

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