Which TV character's death moved you the most?

Hey, Lost City was a great ep.

But yeah, after the end of that season the show went downhill in a hurry.

Jacob's death is one that didn't move you much because it didn't make any sense. They brought up why they couldn't just remove Selmac before he died and they said "Oh it'd kill Selmac." Well yeah, but, it's been established several times that Tok'ra would sacrifice themselves if necessary to save the human host, and he was gonna die anyway so...WTF couldn't they just remove Selmac?!

If they needed to kill off the character for contract reasons or something why not have him sacrifice himself in a grand gesture or something?

 

Mr Hooper on Sesame Street.

 

Going back a few years, Sharon Lawrence's death on NYPD Blue was a bit of a blow.

Another one from years back, the finale of Forever Knight stayed with me for a while. Like burning down the house because the carpet was stained.

 

The death of Dr. Reid Oliver on As The World Turns broke my heart, because of how much it hurt Luke. I was one of the minority of fans who liked Reid and Luke over Luke and Noah (Noah was a self centered ass after all that Luke did for him.) And Reid dying while trying to do the one thing he did without reservation, helping a patient, really really got to me. And he's never coming back.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mxyl9AjAY[/yt]

 

I don't watch soaps, but is that an accident, or is that characters name some sort of nod to Oliver Reed?

 

Blake's 7's final episode.

As a 10 year old I wasn't expecting THAT ending. I'd grown up with that cast (well, through attrition I'd said goodbye to most of them, which in itself shocked me as well).

The Babylon 5 space station.

The show was my teenage years in a nutshell. Seeing her go up was more emotional than Sheridan's death, which was emtional as well!

Mr Hooper on Sesame St.

Very sad.

Dr Ben on StarFleet (X Bomber)

My first death I experienced as a kid (that I can remember; I was a big Dr Who fan so likely experienced lots of deaths but this was my earliest). It was shocking. Good guys don't die, it's how I was raised. And now he gets done in. Sob sob.

 

Not that I know of, Reid was just a Dr. House type character. He was a neurosurgeon know around the world, and arrogant, and stubborn, and straight forward. He pushed off Luke's advances, despite his feelings for Luke, because he knew Luke was on the rebound. He told Noah off for treating Luke like crap, despite the fact that Luke used his and his family's enormous fortunes, and his biological father's underhanded ways to get Reid to come to Oakdale after Noah suffered a traumatic brain injury. Reid never made a move on Luke until well after Noah fired him as his doctor. I loved the verbal ass kicking he gave Noah shortly after that.

Okay, a little more than you wanted to know, but I watched ATWT starting in 1983, while recovering from cataract surgery which then was not an out patient procedure. Watched it through High School, and college, and only started missing episodes when I began working a real job. Then started again in the 2000's when I got a DVR. I watched Luke get SORAS'd twice.

 

This thread's long enough that a new answer seems impossible, but i'll emphatically agree with Mrs. Landingham and every major death ever from the whedonverse, especially Fred (A Hole in the World) and above all the amazing episode devoted to Joyce (The Body).

 

Andy Jr. was a kick in the nuts. It almost destroyed Andy Sr. and made for some damn good drama.

 

I'm glad I stopped when I did because General Hammond left a couple of episodes after. I know he was in a handful of episodes after but both of my favourite characters left within a couple episodes of each other.

 

It's not often discussed, but one typical reason for killing of a character is as a "FU" to the actor/actress for breaking a contract or whatnot. The idea is when the actor's subsequent (in their own mind) A-List career plan crashes and burns, they can't just come grovelling back for their old job regardless, because their character died when they left. Finito.

So usually, they give these cases the stupidest possible death. Something like, I dunno, falling down an elevator shaft or something. They don't usually give them something heroic, because they don't usually want the fanbase to look at these characters with any degree of respect. After all, that's the guy that broke contract, so they want people to stay with the characters that are left, and to be glad that that guy is gone now. Sometimes it won't be a stupid death though, sometimes it'll just be the character doing something corrupt or becoming irredeemable or something, so that when they leave nobody wants them back. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule...

 

Is that what happened with Jacob Carter?

 

Oh lord, yes, I'd forgotten. I didn't stop watching, but I really liked Teryl Rothery.

 

Oh - Kelly Hu's character Michelle on Nash Bridges. It was sudden and pointless, and I think just done for sensationalism. But damn.

 

See also Andrea Thompson and Robert Foxworth on Babylon 5. Andrea even got "dissected" afterward!

 

For me one of the most emotionally impactful deaths was when Denise Crosby's character Vicky in the film Deep Impact hands her infant child over to her daughter while her and her husband prepare to die from the asteroid that is about to hit.

I outright cried the first time I saw that scene.

Same film, Tea Leoni and her father standing on the beach preparing to die from the wave.

Character John Coffey in the Green Mile also comes to mind on film. But the original question was TV

Mrs. Landingham as mentioned on West Wing

Henry Blake on Mash as mentioned

 

Woohoo! Someone else

 

Yep,

 

I have to agree. And Rubinek owned that scene. He put all the fans' emotions into his face.

 

West Wing - Leo McGarry, Mrs Landingham

Game of Thrones - The Red Wedding (even knowing it was coming ....)

HIMYM - Marshall's dad

Person of Interest - Carter

Lost - Yes

Doctor Who - 10th, The ***** (Damn you, Weeping Angels!)

Ugh, there are really so many that have been done so well