Random Actors Who Were Not Happy About Their TV Characters Dying (12 items)

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  (#1) Conleth Hill

  • 51

  Somehow, the scheming and power-hungry Varys (Conleth Hill) survived until the second-to-last episode of Game of Thrones. Varys had bent the knee to Daenerys, and it was his duty to ensure the Queen of Dragons claimed the Iron Throne; however, he soon began to suspect that Daenerys had become overcome with power, and he no longer thought she was the best candidate to rule the Seven Kingdoms.

  Varys told Tyrion he thought Jon Snow would make a better ruler than Daenerys, which was deemed an act of treason. The would-be queen sentenced the Master of Whisperers to perish by fire, and he was burned alive by her dragon, Drogon. 

  After Hill read the script featuring his last scene, he was devastated, even going so far as to say, "nothing could console me." Regarding the manner of his end, he said,

  I took it very personally. I took it as a person, not as an actor or an artist. I understood the reactions of previous actors who had been in the same position a lot more than I did at the time. You can’t help feeling that you failed in some way, that you haven’t lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about.
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  (#2) Maggie Roswell

  • 66

  Maggie Roswell voiced several different characters on Fox's animated show, The Simpsons, including Maude Flanders, Helen Lovejoy, and school teacher Miss Hoover. In 2000, the voice actress asked 20th Century Fox for a raise of about $2,000 per episode, making her pay about $6,000 per show. The corporation countered with a raise of only $150 per episode, which wouldn't even cover Roswell's traveling expenses to the studio.

  Roswell claims she responded to the counter by leaving the show, saying, 

  I was part of the backbone of The Simpsons, and I didn’t think [the requested raise] was exorbitant. I wasn’t asking for what the other cast members make. I was just trying to recoup all the costs I had in travel. If they’d flown me in, I’d still be working.

  Instead of giving Roswell a raise, Fox wrote Ned Flanders's beloved wife, Maude, off the show. In 2000, during Season 11 episode 14, Maude perished via T-shirt cannon while attending an event at the Springfield Speedway.
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  (#3) Nicollette Sheridan

  • 55

  Nicollette Sheridan played Edie Britt on the hit ABC drama Desperate Housewives from 2004-09. The character was ultimately taken out in a car accident during Season 5 of the series. At the time, Sheridan earned $175,000 per episode.

  The show's creator, Marc Cherry, claimed the producers decided to eliminate Edie for financial reasons - cutting Sheridan from the cast would save the show some income. Sheridan, however, alleged she was canned because she had been vocal about the hostile on-set environment created by Cherry.

  After Edie met her demise, Sheridan opted to sue for $20 million. The lawsuit alleged: "The decision to [eliminate] Sheridan’s character demonstrates that Cherry and ABC intended to and did retaliate against Sheridan for her complaints about Cherry."

  Sheridan contended that Cherry was "behaving in an extremely abusive and aggressive manner." The worst of this alleged behavior occurred on September 24, 2008, during a rehearsal session. After Sheridan asked about something in the show's script, Cherry reacted by hitting her in the face and head. The lawsuit also alleged that after the altercation, Cherry "begged forgiveness." Despite Cherry's pleas, the actress opted to report the incident to the network, which only worsened the situation for Sheridan. Just months later, her character perished.
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  (#4) Richard Madden

  • 33

  For the first few seasons of Game of Thrones, Robb Stark (Richard Madden), the oldest son of the deceased Ned Stark, appeared to be the most likely candidate to eventually sit on the Iron Throne. The popular theory crashed to a halt, however, in Season 3 episode 9, "The Rains of Castamere."

  Most fans know the episode better as the Red Wedding, a catastrophic event in which Robb, his mother, and his pregnant wife are all slain by Lord Walder Frey's henchmen at Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey's wedding reception.

  Robb's shocking end was quite a blow not only to GoT fans around the world, but also to the Scottish actor who played the would-be king. "I cried the whole way," he said of his plane trip after filming the scene. "I was the crazy boy on the plane crying at about midnight, landing in London."

  Despite the heartbreak of leaving the hit HBO series, Madden could still appreciate the artistic merit and emotion of the shocking episode:

  The whole episode was so operatic almost, of how the writers had placed little details throughout the whole sequence of events that happen in episode 9. And when we shot the scene, it took a few days because it’s huge, and there’s actually a moment in the scene that [Michelle Fairley and I] look at each other and it’s Robb Stark essentially saying goodbye to his mother and giving up.
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  (#5) John Amos

  • 79

  John Amos portrayed the Evans family patriarch, James Evans, on Good Times for three seasons. Prior to the start of the show's fourth season, creator Norman Lear called Amos to tell him that his character would be written off the show. The news came as a shock to Amos, even though he was aware that many on the set labeled him as "disruptive."

  The actor thought the hit comedy was focusing too much on Jimmie Walker's character, J. J., and he felt the writers should pay more attention to the family's other two children, ultimately relying less on easy laughs and token catchphrases.

  I felt that with two other younger children, one of whom aspired to become a Supreme Court justice - that would be Ralph Carter, or Michael - and the other, BernNadette Stanis... she aspired to become a surgeon. And the differences I had with the producers of the show... I felt too much emphasis was being put on J. J. and his chicken hat and saying "dy-no-mite" every third page, when just as much emphasis and mileage could have been gotten out of my other two children.

  The writers decided to handle the character's shocking end off-screen. The fourth season begins with James's wife, Florida (Esther Rolle), standing in her kitchen. She reads a letter stating that her husband has perished in a car accident.
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  (#6) Samira Wiley

  • 32

  Samira Wiley, who played prisoner Poussey Washington for four seasons on Orange Is the New Black, had to keep a major secret. The show's creator, Jenji Kohan, informed the actress that her character would perish at the end of Season 4, but Wiley couldn't tell anyone. Wiley somehow managed to keep her secret from her close OItNB friends for months.

  "The hardest thing was probably keeping it a secret from everybody else. Nobody else in the cast knew until the script came out. As of now, I have known for over a year," Wiley revealed.

  When Wiley received news of her character's impending end, she was shocked and confused. She later explained:

  I felt a lot of things. The first thing was shock and confusion. You’re on a show for so long and you feel a part of it and then, all of a sudden, you get news like this, and it’s a real shock. I definitely needed the time and am grateful and thankful for all the executive producers being able to understand how delicate and sensitive this situation was. They made sure I was okay throughout the whole process. 

  Wiley's character was accidentally offed by CO Bayley (Alan Aisenberg) during an initially peaceful protest by the inmates in the facility's cafeteria. The CO pushed Washington to the floor and kneeled on her back, but amid the chaos of the situation, Bayley didn't realize he was suffocating Washington by putting too much weight on her.

  Because Bayley was a white guard and Washington a Black prisoner, the scene reflected the political climate of the Black Lives Matter movement. "They wanted it to be really heartbreaking. Fortunately or unfortunately, they definitely succeeded. I think it’s fortunately," said Wiley. "Some people who love Orange Is the New Black don’t know what 'Black Lives Matter' is. They don’t have a Black friend and they don’t have a gay friend, but they know Poussey from TV and they feel... like [they] knew her."
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  (#7) Steve Buscemi

  • 61

  Steve Buscemi was originally supposed to play Tony Soprano’s cousin, Tony Blundetto, for two seasons on The Sopranos. However, Blundetto whacks someone he’s not supposed to and puts Soprano’s crew at risk of retaliation.

  After Blundetto is released from a 17-year prison stint, he fails to find satisfaction in working the straight life as a massage therapist, so he returns to the underworld. He makes a series of ill-informed decisions, the most unforgivable of which is shooting the Leotardo brothers, offing Billy and severely wounding Phil.

  Soprano initially safeguards his cousin, until he realizes that his entire crew is at risk of getting whacked for Blundetto’s error in judgment. Soprano finds his cousin hiding away at a farm and reluctantly decides to take him out with a shotgun - their enemies would have eventually tracked Blundetto down and served him a far worse end.

  The show’s creator, David Chase, regretted his decision to have Blundetto target the Leotardo brothers - he even called the narrative plot point a “blunder.” It meant the only way to satisfy the future story was to have Soprano end his cousin before anyone else could reach him.

  Blundetto's actor, Steve Buscemi, said, “I was really, really sad. That’s really just about missing the greatest job I’ve ever had.”
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  (#8) Aidan Gillen

  • 51

  Aiden Gillen received the dreaded phone call from Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss prior to the start of Season 7. He knew the call meant that his scheming, conniving character, Petyr Baelish - more popularly known as "Littlefinger" - would finally be paying his dues. Littlefinger's end came during the Season 7 finale episode, "The Dragon and the Wolf."

  "You’re left a little bereft," he said of his character's demise, "for your character and for your experience. It also immediately makes you quantify the hugeness of what that experience has been over the last seven years, which has been massive."

  Unlike Conleth Hill, who played Varys, Gillen was pleased with how the writers took out Littlefinger. After trying to manipulate Sansa (Sophie Turner) and control the power of Westeros in his favor for several seasons, Littlefinger finally made the fatal mistake of attempting to come between the recently united Stark sisters. Arya (Maisie Williams) used her Valyrian steel dagger to slit Littlefinger's throat.

  Both Gillen and his character knew that his time in the epic battle for power was coming to an end:

  As soon as he walks in that room and Arya produces the dagger, he knows the game is up. He at least suspected the game was up back in episode 4 when Bran told him, "Chaos is a ladder." For Bran to come up with that is beyond coincidental. That’s when the ground started to shift beneath my feet. At that point, I knew the things I’ve done in private are not necessarily private.
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  (#9) Drea de Matteo

  • 47

  One of The Sopranos' most memorable and hard-to-watch character ends came in the Season 5 episode, "Long Term Parking." Adriana (Drea de Matteo) was engaged to Christopher Moltisanti, but once she got in trouble with the law, the FBI manipulated her into snitching on the Sopranos crew. 

  It was only a matter of time before Christopher found out, and although Adriana's end seemed inevitable, her elimination is considered one of the most heartbreaking in the show's history. The naive Adriana thinks that she and Christopher are going to be taken care of, but it's only a ruse arranged by Tony.

  Silvio drives Adriana to a secluded wooded area, and she finally realizes that Silvio is not there to help her, but to take her life. He drags her out of the car as she tries to crawl away from him, but he shoots her off-camera.

  The actress admitted that her departure from the series was difficult. The character had made de Matteo's career, and she worried that her acting opportunities would end with Adriana's demise. Her next move would be to star opposite Matt LeBlanc on the Friends spin-off, Joey. Unfortunately, the series would only last for two seasons due to poor ratings. 

  "They [took me out] on HBO, and then I went to NBC to [end myself]," said de Matteo. "I can’t lie. I was still in love with Adriana."
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  (#10) Jon Polito

  • 65

  Veteran character actor and Coen Brothers staple Jon Polito initially had no interest in playing Detective Steve Crosetti on the 1990s NBC drama Homicide: Life on the Street. He did eventually sign on but quickly became unhappy with the direction of the series. Following Season 2, the show's producers thought they needed to breathe new life into the police drama by adding a female detective. Polito was told that his character would be written off the show but would be brought back toward the end of Season 3. 

  Polito publicly voiced his disappointment with the show's executive producers, Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. He didn't really believe they would bring him back into the narrative fold:

  I didn't believe that because I'd been screwed by so many producers over the years. [Fontana] is a serious man when he says that. I didn't know that. I didn't trust him. So after he [told me, I] very stupidly went to the newspapers. And I said, rather openly, I said some very vicious comments, both about the way it was being handled by NBC and the way Fontana and Levinson were handling listening to NBC... I was wrong to jump at Fontana and all that... I just didn't trust it because I'd been screwed too many times before.

  His negative remarks prompted the writers to eliminate his character by his own hand. Detective Crosetti's body is found in the bay, and the medical examiner's reports later indicate that he had elevated levels of alcohol and tranquilizers in his system. This angered Polito even further - he resented the notion of an officer taking his own life. Eventually, the producers did bring Detective Crosetti back as a ghost in Homicide: The Movie.

  [Fontana] chose to have me [end myself] in a ridiculous way, I thought. So I never agreed with my [demise], and I never watched the show until they called me years later, and we had sort of patched it up, and he said, "You'll come back as a ghost," which I did.
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  (#11) Ian Beattie

  • 54

  Ian Beattie played Meryn Trant, a knight of the Kingsguard for the Baratheons, on Game of Thrones for five seasons. He became known for being an especially cruel character. The proud knight met his demise in a cat house at the hands of Arya Stark in Season 5.

  The youngest Stark daughter is initially disguised as an escort, until she removes her false face to reveal her true identity. She stabs Trant in the chest and both eyes in the name of Syrio Forel, whom Trant had slain.

  Beattie wore prosthetics to depict the wounds inflicted by Arya, and his face was partially covered in fake blood. The actor was happy to have something on his face to help hide his emotions. After his character's demise, director David Nutter announced the episode was a series wrap on Ian Beattie.

  Hearing the announcement was especially tough on Beattie, who enjoyed his time on the hit HBO series. "It absolutely broke my heart," Beattie says. "It hit me psychically, and thank goodness I was wearing prosthetics because nobody could actually see that I was crying."
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  (#12) Matthew Lintz

  • 18

  In the penultimate episode of Season 9, "The Calm Before," the Whisperers finally enact their revenge for having young Lydia taken away from them. They abduct and slay 10 of the "good guys" - Henry, Ozzy, D. J., Tara, Enid, Tammy, Frankie, Alek, Rodney, and Addy - and place their heads on pikes for everyone to see.

  In particular, the teenage Henry was thought among fans to be a replacement for Carl, who was suddenly eliminated the previous season. Henry was just as ambitious and brave as his predecessor, and he could also supply a storyline centering around young, hopeful love.

  At the time of his end, Henry was learning to be a blacksmith and was clearly developing leadership qualities. Matt Lintz, Henry's actor, said he was saddened his character did not survive:

  I think every character that is [eliminated] is always a missed opportunity - you can always take them down different paths, so to speak. I think Henry definitely had a lot of story to tell, but people have to [pass], and I think Henry was a good shock factor to a lot of fans. You know, I think Henry did have more to give, but sadly he was [taken out].

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