Best TV character deaths (Major spoilers, obviously)

[JirinPanthosa]

What do you feel are the best deaths in TV history? Spoilers spoilers spoilers SPOILERS

Yes, my top ten are all 1989 or later, and most are this century. Cause I was born in 1983, so sue me.

1. Laura Palmer, Twin Peaks
No competitor for this, in my opinion, the inciting event of the best show ever.
2. Gus Fring (Honorable mention Hector Salamancha), Breaking Bad
Maybe the best choreographed character death ever. Pushing Walt to the wall, finding his one emotional weakness by poisoning a child to get Jesse back on his side.
3. Charlie Pace, Lost
Loveable character, great buildup, self sacrifice.
4. Ford, Westworld
Makes the entire season to have Ford set himself up for assassination in order to give real life to his characters.
5. Daniel Farraday, Lost
Killed by his mother in the past while she was pregnant with him. She knows her entire life she's the one who kills him, and that she MUST kill him or the light goes out everywhere. Man. Sucks to be her.
6. Peter Baelish, Game of Thrones
The man talks his way out of everything and screws everyone season after season, then Sansa is the one to finally call him on it. So cathartic.
7. Pussy, The Sopranos
Another very choreographed death, the rat and Tony's best friend. The episode of his death perfectly executed. Tony, sick with food poisoning, who has been denying the signs he is a rat all year, admits it to himself in a dream then goes out to find out for sure, and even in murdering him still has a final drink with him.
8. Londo, Babylon 5
Show a major character's death 20 years in the future in various future flashes and then gradually reveal more and more information about the context. Perfect.
9. Jake Sisko, Star Trek DS9
Talking about The Visitor of course, the standalone episode in the show famous for its arcs, a man who spent his entire life trying to bring his father back sacrifices his life so he can live his life again without ever losing him.
10. Hank Schraeder, Breaking Bad
For the entire series, Walter White was causing harm to people he didn't intend, but it wasn't until Hank's death that he truly suffered irreversible harm to his own family and inner circle. The one moment in the entire series he finally pays the piper.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Henry Blake, M*A*S*H
Beth Childs, Orphan Black
John Reese, Person of Interest
Joss Carter, Person of Interest
Shayla Nico, Mr. Robot
Sophia Peletier, The Walking Dead

 

[Gary Mitchell]

Gary Mitchell - Star Trek (got flattened)
Aeryn Sun - Farscape (luckily she got better)
Zhaan - Farscape
Bobby Simone - NYPD Blue
Caitlin Todd - NCIS

 

[auntiehill]

Dr.Greene, ER. A lovely, heart-breaking episode.
Hodor, Game of Thrones. see above
Bobby, Supernatural. I wept buckets.
Sybil, Downton Abbey. Soul-crushing to watch.
Sayid, Sun & Jin, LOST. All three in one go. Seeing Hurley weep for them just did me in.

 

[Jayson1]

Gordon dying on "Halt and Catch Fire." His final dream/moment was both eerie and very moving. You also didn't see it coming.

Glenn and Abraham dying on "Walking Dead." Both brutal and soul sucking, I think one of the reasons people are unhappy with the show today is that it hasn't fully paid off on some kind story that is worthy of following such a dark moment on the show.

"South Park" Cartman tricking that mean kid into eating his parents through chilli.

Fry's dog on "Futurama."

Jason

 

[bigdaddy]

Best fun death...
Tarsha Yar - Star Trek TNG

Best off screen deaths...
Richard Gilmore - Gilmore Girls
Leo McGarry - The West Wing

 

[Owain Taggart]

6. Peter Baelish, Game of Thrones
The man talks his way out of everything and screws everyone season after season, then Sansa is the one to finally call him on it. So cathartic.

God, yes. Seeing the uncomfortable look on his face after realizing he couldn't weazle his way out of that one and having no one listen to his orders. He had it coming. Probably the best, most rewarding death on the show.

10. Hank Schraeder, Breaking Bad
For the entire series, Walter White was causing harm to people he didn't intend, but it wasn't until Hank's death that he truly suffered irreversible harm to his own family and inner circle. The one moment in the entire series he finally pays the piper.

I have to admit, that one made me uncomfortable. I was half hoping that Walt would finally be caught and not just shot, what with Hank building up his case over the period of several seasons. If I had to pick something about the series being disappointing, after all the great writing and all the build up, it would be that.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Spike on Buffy.
Talk about a working redemption arc for a character that should be irredeemable.

(Never mind his resurrection on Angel).

Wesley on Angel

 

[Qonundrum]

Roj Blake and Kerr Avon both got, um, memorable exits. So did Vila, Dayna, Soolin, Tarrant...

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Dr.Greene, ER. A lovely, heart-breaking episode.

I would swap that with Lucy Knight's murder. That was not telegraphed or expected (the Greene death was), so the fight to save her, only for a P.E. to slip her away was solid drama, capped off by Carter asking what he already sensed, only for Benton to remain silent while looking away.

Glenn and Abraham dying on "Walking Dead." Both brutal and soul sucking, I think one of the reasons people are unhappy with the show today is that it hasn't fully paid off on some kind story that is worthy of following such a dark moment on the show.

I would say Hershel Greene's murder (at the hands of the Governor) was the most effective death in The Walking Dead's history. In the face of relentlessly immoral acts by the living, he maintained his Christian faith and approach to life until the end, where he still tried to make the soulless Governor see the possibility of a different path. The second Hershel died, near total nihilism took over the majority of characters in one way or another, as the "kill or be killed"/"take no prisoners" mentality was adopted.

The third Doctor (Doctor Who) in "Planet of the Spiders". Yes, yes, the Doctor did not die in the clinical sense, but a number of in-series and external factors made the scene carry the finality of death. Jon Pertwee stated the departure of Katy Manning (Jo Grant--IMO, in the best companion exit in series history), producer Barry Letts and death of Roger Delgado (The Master) were the motivators for his own departure, and one could see the increasingly grim, reflective portrayal of the Doctor, as if he was drained from the fight and ready for it to all come to an unavoidable end. So, as the Doctor fell to the floor, even his final "while there's life, there's...." line to Sarah Jane did not erase the feeling that so much was "dying" with this episode.

 

[sbk1234]

Rosalind Shays on LA Law

(off screen) Chuckles the Clown on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

 

[Jayson1]

Rosalind Shays on LA Law

(off screen) Chuckles the Clown on The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Was she the one played by Doctor Pulaski who fell down a elevator shaft?

Jason

 

[tharpdevenport]

Seconding mentions from other contributors:

Wesley on "Angel"
Howard Blake on "M*A*S*H" (see story below)
And the dog on "Futurama"

I see "Angel" and raise you Buffy's second of three deaths on the season five finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

And though not a main character and only in this one episode (well, partially in the episode before it), I thought this was a particularly powerful death scene from "Scrubs":

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(link for those who can't see Youtube embeds: youtube.com/watch?v=rSMITAolIGc)



Regarding that "M*A*S*H" character death:
I saw a bit on trivia on TV that none of the actors knew this was going to happen. They gave the actor who played Radar the script page at the last moment and had him walk into the operating room to tell that to all the actors. The reactions you see are real. I think it was Alda who said something like, "You son of a bitch, you're gonna win an Emmy for this!" (or Oscar).

 

[Jayson1]

Got a few more.

The entire family and species on "Dinosaurs" when the dad accidently creates the ice age that will kill all the Dino's.

Finn on "Glee" The fact that the actor had really died made that episode one of the most emotional tv episodes ever.

Johnathan Kent on "Smallville." You know it had to happen because that is what always happens to him except in "Lois and Clark" but it was still major league sad. The funeral is what is really brings out the feels.

Pablo and his girlfriend who were diamond thieves on "Lost." They contributed nothing to the show except one good stand alone grim episode who end up being buried alive. No the typical "Lost" episode.

Jason

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Another:

Claire Kincaid on Law & Order.

 

[J.T.B.]

Agreed with Laura Palmer, Henry Blake, Hank Schraeder. Some that haven't been mentioned:

Jake Spoon, Lonesome Dove
Phil Esterhaus, Hill Street Blues
Nina Morrison (Jack's wife), St. Elsewhere
Omar, The Wire
Adriana, The Sopranos
Mac MacReynolds, Magnum PI

 

[auntiehill]

Agreed with Laura Palmer, Henry Blake, Hank Schraeder. Some that haven't been mentioned:
................
Mac MacReynolds, Magnum PI

YES!! That was a really devastating episode; main characters didn't get killed off, at that point in the show. It was quite shocking and the reverberations of the event were felt even much later in the run.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Forgot one from one of TV's greatest single appearance characters:

Frank Grimes, The Simpsons

The writers make the observation that Homer Simpson acts like a clueless selfish buffoon then has a comfortable, happy life gifted to him, and respond with the exact opposite, a man who worked hard for everything he ever got, who is then driven insane by Homer's very existence.

Totally forgot about Buffy, that show is great at killing its villains properly.

And of course, Lil Sebastian from Parks & Rec.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Johnathan Kent on "Smallville." You know it had to happen because that is what always happens to him except in "Lois and Clark" but it was still major league sad.

Didn't happen in "Superman: The Animated Series". Didn't happen in the "Justice League" series which was the same Bruce Timm-verse.

Pretty sure it didn't happen in the 1988 "Superman" animated series.

Don't think it happened in that AWFUL "Superboy" live-action series.

Didn't happen in the first "Superman" movie. Don't recall it happening in any of the shitty sequels (not counting that quote unquote sequel from 2006. which I have only seen parts of).

That most of Superman.

 

[J.T.B.]

Didn't happen in the first "Superman" movie.

Clark Kent's Pa? He died in the '78 Superman, Glenn Ford played him.