9 TV characters who were killed off after the actor playing them died

David BenjaminOctober 20, 2025

It’s always sad when notable actors pass away, leaving behind a legacy of iconic characters fans know and love. Over the decades many stars who made their name in signature small screen roles passed away while they were still playing the character in question, leaving producers with the dilemma of whether to recast them, write the character out or kill them off. Often it’s the latter. As painful as this can be, it can also serve as a way to pay tribute to somebody who might well have been a special part of a show and instrumental in its success. Read on to find out about some actors who sadly died while filming their TV shows, leaving their characters to ultimately die with them (Picture: BBC / REX)

1. Luke Perry – Fred Andrews (Riverdale)

No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book Cover Usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by CW Network/Everett/Shutterstock (14218888c) RIVERDALE, (from left): Luke Perry, KJ Apa, 'Chapter 4: The Last Picture Show', (Season 1, ep. 104, aired Feb. 16, 2017). photo: Dean Buscher / ?The CW / Courtesy: Everett Collection Riverdale - 16 Feb 2017 — Actor Luke Perry, who originally sprang to fame in the 90s as Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills 90210, had been enjoying further small screen success as Riverdale’s Fred Andrews when he tragically died in 2019 after suffering a stroke. This was subsequently reflected in the Netflix series, which paid heartbreaking tribute to the 52-year-old with an episode entitled In Memoriam. The instalment saw his screen son Archie (KJ Apa) learn of his tragic death in a hit and run accident after he stopped on the side of the road to help a stranger. In an equally touching twist, that character was played by the late Shannen Doherty, Perry’s co-star and love interest in 90210 (Picture: CW Network/Everett/Shutterstock)

2. Cory Monteith – Finn Hudson (Glee)

Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by 20thC.Fox/Everett/Shutterstock (1883640an) GLEE, (from left): Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, 'The Break-Up', (Season 4, ep. 404, aired Oct. 4, 2012) Glee - 2012 — Actor Cory Monteith sprang to fame as quarterback Finn Hudson in TV series Glee, playing the role for the first four series of the show, until he died aged just 31 in 2013 from an accidental drug overdose. The character’s death was subsequently addressed in the fifth season of the show, with the episode The Quarterback focusing on Finn’s funeral, and the planting of a memorial tree in his name on campus at McKinley High. No cause of death was ever given for the character, with instead fellow student Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) saying in voiceover that it was not the circumstances of his death that matter but how he lived his life (Picture: 20thC.Fox/Everett/Shutterstock)

3. John Ritter – Paul Hennessy (8 Simple Rules…For Dating My Teenage Daughter)

Editorial use only. No book cover usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Abc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock (5880925c) John Ritter, Billy Aaron Brown 8 Simple Rules...For Dating My Teenage Daughter - 2002 ABC-TV USA Television — Actor John Ritter was something of a sitcom legend in the US, making a name for himself in such shows as Three’s Company as well as appearing in over 100 movies and TV shows including It, Sling Blade, Bad Santa, Stay Tuned and Problem Child. However it was while filming his final small screen role as overbearing dad Paul Hennessy in 8 Simple Rules…For Dating My Teenage Daughter that he was taken ill and tragically died of an aortic dissection, aged 54. The show subsequently took a break in production, before returning – now retitled 8 Simple Rules – with an hour-long episode which revealed Paul had died, and showed his family grappling to come to terms with the loss. The series continued with new characters played by David Spade and James Garner replacing Ritter, until it was eventually cancelled in 2005 (Picture: Abc-Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock)

4. Nicholas Colasanto – Coach Ernie Pantusso (Cheers)

Editorial use only. No book cover usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Paramount/Everett/Shutterstock (567450b) CHEERS, 1982 - 93 - Nicholas Colasanto VARIOUS — Actor Nicholas Colasanto had a career which included roles in the likes of Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, Starsky & Hutch and Bonanza, as well as the Oscar-winning movie Raging Bull. But he’s best remembered for playing baseball-coach-turned-bartender Ernie Pantusso in the iconic US sitcom Cheers. The actor appeared in the first three seasons of the show, although his health had declined significantly by series three – a fact he kept from his co-stars. He died of a heart attack aged 61 in February 1985, with his character’s death later being addressed in the season four opener Birth, Death, Love and Rice. That series also introduced Woody Harrelson as his successor, Woody Boyd (Picture: Paramount/ Everett/Shutterstock)

5. Marcia Wallace – Edna Krabappel (The Simpsons)

Mandatory credit: TM & ? 20th Century Fox. No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book or TV usage without prior permission from Shutterstock Editorial Mandatory Credit: Photo by 20thCentFox/Everett/Shutterstock (14219155j) THE SIMPSONS, from left: Edna Krabappel (voice: Marcia Wallace), Bart Simpson (voice: Nancy Cartwright), 'Diary Queen', (Season 32, ep. 3205, aired Feb. 14, 2021). photo: ?Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection Everett Collection - 14 Feb 2021 — While actress Marcia Wallace was never actually seen onscreen, she was certainly familiar to viewers as the voice of Bart’s long-suffering teacher Edna Krabappel in The Simpsons. Sadly Wallace died aged 70 in 2013 from pneumonia and sepsis – and while the character’s death was never actually announced on the show, it was alluded to, with Bart’s chalkboard gag in the episode Four Regrettings And A Funeral simply reading ‘We’ll really miss you Mrs K’. Ned Flanders, who was revealed to have married Edna in a 2012 episode, is also seen mourning her in 2014’s episode The Man Who Grew Too Much, wearing a black armband and hanging her portrait alongside that of his first wife Maude. A subsequent 2021 episode paid belated tribute to Edna using previously unseen flashback footage (Picture: 20thCentFox/Everett/Shutterstock)

6. Lennard Pearce – Granddad (Only Fools And Horses)

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Victor Watts/Shutterstock (690875w) Cast of 'Only Fools and Horses' - David Jason, Lennard Pearce and Nicholas Lyndhurst - Various — Actor Lennard Pearce began his career in the 1930s and went on to notch up notable roles on TV and onstage. However, he’s best remembered for playing Grandad in the first three series of Only Fools And Horses, delivering more than his fair share of memorable moments alongside David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst (chandelier, anyone?). Sadly the actor died, aged 69, of a heart attack in December 1984, while series four of the show was in production. Episode two of that series, Strained Relations, subsequently centred around Grandad’s funeral, and introduced the character of Uncle Albert (Buster Merryfield), who became Pearce’s replacement in the show. The next episode, Hole In One, had already begun production at the time of Pearce’s death, and scenes featuring him were reshot featuring Merryfield instead (Picture: Victor Watts/Shutterstock)

7. Jerry Orbach – Lennie Briscoe (Law and Order)

Editorial use only. No book cover usage. Mandatory Credit: Photo by Universal Tv/Wolf Film/Kobal/Shutterstock (5886146u) Jesse L. Martin, Jerry Orbach Law and Order - 1990 Universal TV/Wolf Film USA Television — If you were an avid viewer of US legal drama Law and Order, you’ll be all too familiar with the character of Lennie Briscoe, played in the show by Broadway veteran Jerry Orbach. The actor won a Screen Actors Guild award and was Emmy nominated for playing the NYPD Detective – but unbeknown to many, he had been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer for much of his time on the show. He left the main series at the end of the 2003-2004 season but had been due to reprise his role in the spin-off show Law And Order: Trial By Jury. Sadly it never happened as he died in December 2004 aged 69. Although the main series did not confirm the character’s death until 2008, it was alluded to on the show in 2005 and confirmed in the spin-off show Law and Order: Criminal Intent two years later (Picture: Tv/Wolf Film/Kobal/Shutterstock)

8. Christopher Evan Welch – Peter Gregory (Silicon Valley)

Christopher Evan Welch (as Peter Gregory in Silicon Valley) — Actor Christopher Evan Welch found fame as the narrator of Woody Allen’s Oscar-winner Vicky Cristina Barcelona, before he went on to star as Peter Gregory in the HBO show Silicon Valley. He’d filmed five episodes of that show prior to his death from lung cancer in 2013, aged just 48, and four months before the series was premiered. Ultimately the character was written out of the show in the second series, when it was explained that Peter had died following an accident with a hippo while he was in the Serengeti. Executive producer Alec Berg later told Rotten Tomatoes: ‘He was such a delightfully silly character that it just seemed like the details of his demise had to match sort of his demeanor’ (Picture: HBO)

9. Helen McCrory – Polly Gray (Peaky Blinders)

WARNING: Embargoed for publication until 00:00:01 on 03/09/2019 - Programme Name: Peaky Blinders V - TX: n/a - Episode: Peaky Blinders V Ep 4 (No. 4) - Picture Shows: Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin), Polly Gray (Helen McCrory) - (C) Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd. 2019 - Photographer: Robert Viglasky — Helen McCrory had a prestigious acting career which spanned everything from appearing onstage at Shakespeare’s Globe to playing an MP in the Bond movie Skyfall. Many will remember her as Polly Gray, the matriarch of the Shelby family in TV series Peaky Blinders. The actress sadly died aged 52 in April 2021 after a private battle with cancer. With the series still underway at the time, the character died at the start of season 6, being murdered by the IRA as revenge for Tommy Shelby’s (Cillian Murphy) actions against them. Her character’s funeral subsequently aired in heartbreaking scenes(Picture: BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd 2019/Robert Viglasky)

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