Which TV character's death moved you the most?

Peter Capaldi as civil servant John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth. It all happens behind a closed door, but just hearing the sound of the gunshots are enough to get me every single time.

 

As shocking in a similar way, the quorum of 12 on nuBSG getting mowed down by Tom Zarek's loyalists.

 

Agree with Gaith about Eirene in Rome. Just a tragic character too gentle for the milieu in which she found herself. (What puts extra barbs in it is that Gaia, who screws her over, is hard to completely hate; she's not monstrous or psychopathic or anything... uh, well, she kind of is, but she's also up against it and is making the best of the same kinds of shitty circumstances, she just happens to be better and more ruthless at it than Eirene.)

Oddly, Lindsey McDonald in Angel. The circumstances brought out a doomed and semi-sympathetic resonance in the character, so that I felt his shock and disbelief about being ultimately killed by a "flunky."

Jen's death in Deadwood. A sweet girl offed to protect the life of a woman Swearengen liked better. Harsh.

Omar Little in The Wire. A lot of characters in The Wire, really, but Omar in particular was so emblematic of the ultimate futility of being a badass in "the game."

For a currently-running show:

Spoiler: Game of Thrones

Oberyn Martell. I could tell he was marked for death by how cocky and overconfident he was, but he was also sympathetic and interesting in a lot of ways and watching him go -- especially in the way he goes -- still sucked.

 

As a child, who can forget Bugs Bunny being killed by Operatic Elmer?

 

Stargate SG1 had a lot of well executed secondary character deaths. Janet Frasier, Martouf, Cha're. Atlantis had a pretty moving character death but they wussed out of it and reversed it later over fan-bitchery.

 

Alexandra Borgia,the one- season ADA from Law & order.
Shockingly kidnapped and murdered in the trunk of a car.Very brutal,very unexpected.
And the long goodbye for Mark Greene on ER.

 

It was, though she was on the show for 33 episodes in seasons 15 and 16 according to Wiki.

 

Aye, and then an added kicker is, though Pullo genuinely cared for Eirene and was looking forward to being a dad, ones does get the sense that he and Gaia were a better match, and once they get together (though the show barely covers that period, IIRC), he probably enjoyed her company more than he did Eirene's. Heavy stuff...

 

Omar was a great character on a show FULL of great characters. His death and the ultimate fate of the boys from season four are some of the saddest moments from that show.

 

Forgot about that one; that was very well done. I remember crying like a baby during the last of his episodes.

 

Oh, they kill soap characters frequently nowadays - what's rare is when they stay dead (one of the current General Hospital storylines has Robin Scorpio off in some secret Cassadine lab, working to revive Helena and Stavros, both of whom have been killed at least a couple of times previously, and Jason Morgan (shot and presumed drowned when Faison kicked his body into the harbor).

John Ingle had one last scene shortly before he died - when he gave his dose of the tainted-water cure to little Emma Drake. I just sat there and bawled.

What shocked me in that episode was the murder of the little girl in the beginning of the episode. I've imagined an off-screen scene where the mother's friend would have felt awfully bad for not agreeing to look after her when the mother begged her to (not being able to say outright that the family was really being held hostage and were in danger).

 

That was weird timing. R.I.P. James Garner.

 

That last scene with Jack and Vincent, which mirrored the very first scene in the pilot, brought tears to my eyes.

 

Now I'm hearing "Somewhere over the rainbow" in my head and getting all verklempt again.

 

I cried some when Dr. Frasier on Stargate died...

 

I'm sure all who watched Stargate cried.

And in non sci-fi i add Warrick CSI and Speed CSI Miami

 

Actually, I didn't. Didn't really like the whole 2-parter. But I cried my eyes out at Daniel's death in Meridian.

 

The one that comes to mind immediately for me is Wesley on Angel. This guy has gone through hell. He watched the woman he had loved from afar die in his arms, just after she had finally requited his feelings. Then he must watch as the demon that murdered her walks around in her skin. Finally as he lays there dying, she asks him if he wants her to lie to him one last time. When Illyria turns in "Fred" and holds Wesley as he dies, I cannot help but bawl.

 

"Talyn....starburst"

An excellent villain death.

 

On of my runners-up is Neroon's death in the Starfire wheel (Babylon 5: "Moments of Transition").