Janet Leigh – Marion Crane in Psycho
Marion Crane’s death inPsychois so iconic that you don’t need to have seen the 1960Hitchcockclassic to know that she’s stabbed in the shower by Norman Bates—it’s just something that, at some point, you know about. If this scary bit of our cultural lexicon has kept you out of the shower, you aren’t alone.
Janet Leigh, who played Crane, never took a shower at home again. When a bath wasn’t available when traveling, she would go through great lengths to lock all the doors and leave the shower curtain open. “I’m always facing the door, watching, no matter where the showerhead is," she told theNew York Timesin her 60s.
Krysten Ritter — Jane in Breaking Bad
In a TV series known for its dark moments, it’s surprising that the one that the actors remember the most is the death of Jane, Jesse Pinkman’s (Aaron Paul) girlfriend. “ It wasn’t until we shot the scene where Jesse is trying to revive Jane, pretty aggressively, that it started to f*ck with my head,”Breaking BadactressKrysten Ritterlater recalled.
Bryan Cranston, who played anti-hero Walter White, has also spoke about the scene’s impact. “[W]hile Jane was dying, I’m seeing Krysten Ritter give her all and her face kind of blends away and I saw my own daughter’s face come to light and die in front of me,” he told an audience on the show’s tenth anniversary. “It was so upsetting and you couldn’t shake it.”
John Hurt – Kane in Alien
“I have died in so many spectacular ways,”John Hurtwas quoted as saying the year before he passed away in real life, “and I remember shooting them all, too. I imagine all those deaths will flash in front of me when I’m on my deathbed, faced with the real thing.”
Hurt portrayed his characters’ deaths in more than forty films, but none were as gruesome asAlien.After four hours of prep and rain gear for the entire crew, an alien burst out of Hurt’s chest, leaving a trail of “blood” three feet long that smacked co-starVeronica Cartwright(Lambert) in the face and caused her to faint in shock.
Sarah Wayne Callies – Lori in The Walking Dead
Sarah Wayne Callieswent through a lot as Lori Grimes onThe Walking Dead: a post-apocalyptic love triangle that ended in death, giving birth during a zombie attack, and of course, being shot in the head by her child to verify she didn’t become a zombie herself.
“There was a whole emotional process of getting it together and shooting it, grieving and saying goodbye to everyone,” Callies told AMC about Lori’s’ ultimate, brutal demise. “She was a remarkable and powerful woman and she was given a remarkable and powerful death.”
Pedro Pascal — Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones
The actors who work onGame of Throneshave a lot of different reasons to love appearing on the HBO drama: the intricate battle scenes, ornate costumes, dreamy locales, and the notoriety. But everyGame of Thronesactor has the same least favorite part: getting killed off.
Pedro Pascal, whose character Oberyn Martell loses a duel against the giant The Mountain, was heartbroken. “I…found him very, very honorable and very progressive and just an all-around badass,” he told Syfy.com about Martell. “So it was always very hard for me to kind of like, detach myself from my own heartbreak that the character goes out the way that he goes out.”
Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway – Bonnie and Clyde in Bonnie & Clyde
One of the most famous movie endings of all time is also one of its most famous death scenes: the brutal shooting of Bonnie and Clyde. Before the groundbreaking, award-winning film was created, characters shot on camera usually went quickly, with very little blood.
Bonnie & Clydechanged all of that, with a rain of bullets over an entire scene that took three days to shoot.Warren BeattyandFaye Dunaway, who played the bandits, were reportedly so cold they shivered as crew members set up dozens of squibs (blood packets) under their clothes to fire off and blow them to bits.
James Phelps – Fred Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
The Battle of Hogwarts will live on as one of the most infamous fictional battles in all of history, and when Fred Wesley went down, it was a turning point for the character of Harry Potter, who felt if he had given himself over to Voldemort, his friend’s young brother might not have fallen.
James Phelps, the actor who played Fred, also felt the loss. “I feel like a really close friend has died,” hetoldParadeabout his character’s death. “It was surreal….It was more like aSaving Private Ryanscene thanHarry Potter.”
Isaac Hayes – Chef on South Park
South Parkmakes fun of literally everyone and everything, but when they took on Scientology in 2005, one of their cast members took offense.Isaac Hayes, the soul singer who was the voice of the school chef, was a practicing Scientologist whose management team consisted of all folks from the religion, often called a cult by its ex-members.
They prompted Hayes to leave the show, and Chef suffered death by falling off a cliff…and being torn apart by a pack of wild animals…and some gunshots. After having been brainwashed by child molesters. Hayes’ career never recovered and he passed away three years later.
Kal Penn – Lawrence Kutner in House
Dr. Lawrence Kutner onHousewas one of actorKal Penn’s favorite roles, but he was forced to give up the gig when he was offered an even better role—as a real-life advisor toPresident Obamaas theassociate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Penn didn’t know how he would be written off the show and was as shocked as the audience to find out it would be suicide. “[The] news struck me in the same way we hope it strikes the audience: there was a little bit of anger and some depression,” he toldEntertainment Weekly.
Alan Rickman – Hans Gruber in Die Hard
You may never watchDie Hardthe same way again after knowing this bit of trivia:Alan Rickmanlooks genuinely scared when villain Hans Gruber falls to his death because hewaslegitimately frightened after the stunt wasn’t performed as planned.
Rickman reportedly had concerns about the safety of the 25-foot fall before it even happened. But then, just to get a more believable look on his face as his character plunged to his death, stuntmen let go of his hands on the count of “1” instead of “3.”
