History Main / ActorLeavesCharacterDies

* In [[Wrestling/WWENXT]], after Troy "Two Dimes" Donovan was released for failing a drug test, it was revealed that his stablemate Tony D'Angelo had "made him sleep with the fishes"

* In Wrestling/WWENXT, after Troy "Two Dimes" Donovan was released for failing a drug test, it was revealed that his stablemate Tony D'Angelo had "made him sleep with the fishes"

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Subverted in the case of Maggie Roswell walked out over a pay dispute due to being tired of always having to travel from Denver to Los Angeles to do voice work, her characters would later be voiced by Marcia Mitzman Gaven, but it was decided that the crew should just kill off Maude Flanders in a tragic T-shirt launching accident in the episode "Alone Again, Natura-Diddily" (where Gaven voiced Maude in that episode), in order to open up new storylines for Ned Flanders. Roswell was eventually rehired and given all those characters back when she was given a new contract of allowing to do her voice work in her home in Denver, [[StatusQuoIsGod but Maude remains dead, reappearing only in flashbacks]].

* ''Series/TheGoodWife'' used this for maximum emotional impact when the ''de facto'' male lead Josh Charles wanted to leave. Although the writers initially considered writing his character, Will Gardner, out by [[PutOnABus having the ethically challenged attorney disbarred]], they instead killed him off when his unhinged client went on a shooting spree in their courtroom, about two-thirds of the way through Season 5. Between killing off arguably the most important male character and having no precedent for such violence on the series, it made for quite the WhamEpisode.

[[folder:Anime]]
* This is extremely common in anime as since seiyuu are often treated with respect, characters cannot be recast if their actor retires and is still alive, only being replaced if said actor [[DiedDuringProduction dies during production]], and as a result they are either written out or even killed off.
[[/folder]]

** ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had one that was a subversion: Vanessa Ferlito left, and Aiden Burn was fired by Mac for starting to tamper with evidence. But near the end of the season, she was StuffedInTheFridge.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': When Music/IsaacHayes left the show because of ill health resulting from a stroke[[note]]It was initially thought that he left because of its satirical treatment of Scientology; Hayes's son debunked this, revealing that an unidentified member of his entourage had been offended by the episode and wrote a statement as Hayes (who had no intention to leave the show and did not complain about episodes satirizing other religions), effectively "quitting for him," in his son's words[[/note]], Chef joined a club of brainwashed pedophiles, then was [[RasputinianDeath burned by a lightning strike, dropped]] ''[[RasputinianDeath off a bridge]]'', [[RasputinianDeath impaled on a large branch, shot multiple times and then had his face and limbs eaten by a mountain lion and a grizzly bear]]. However, he was later revived as [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Chef]]. While parts of it (the burning and limb-losing mutilation) can be credited as a ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' parody, it still seems like an [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill over the top]] retaliation. The episode in question might even be considered a parody of these kind of deaths, especially since the resolution says not [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall to blame Chef for the evil cult driving him crazy]]. The parody is more obvious in that part of his 'acting crazy' is that every one of his spoken lines are [[StylisticSuck (poorly)]] [[MadLibsDialogue clipped together quotes from previous episodes]].

** Terry Farrell declined to renew her contract for the final season of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' as she had been offered a role on ''Series/{{Becker}}'' and wasn't happy with how Rick Berman had been treating her. As a result, Farrell's character Jadzia Dax was killed off at the end of the sixth season, however the Dax symbiont went on to a new host named Ezri.

* When Creator/SeanConnery decided not to come out of retirement for ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', it was decided Henry Jones, Sr. had died in the years since ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''.

** Creator/GarethThomas actually insisted on this as a condition of coming BackForTheFinale, hence the unusually graphic blood effects used when Blake gets shot. In the end, it turned out to be academic, as the mooted fifth season never happened.

** A show in which every major character has been killed, some as many as nine times over eight years (including Prue once, she was brought back by a genie), explained that Prue was "dead for good" when Creator/ShannenDoherty was kicked off the show. (And unavailable as a SpiritAdvisor, unlike every other female member of the Halliwell family who was still dead.) Death was suddenly tragic, to the characters at least. The {{Handwave}} for Prue's unavailability is that her death is still too recent for her sisters. For the several years' worth of time the rest of the shows takes place over. The comic continuation, of course, has no actor availability problem, so Prue is able to appear as a spirit advisor.

* Creator/AidanTurner's character in ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' was killed off when he was casted for ''Film/{{The Hobbit}}''.

** B5 also had one of the most insane cases of this with a very important and critical role to the plotline. [[spoiler: Namely the role of the temptress to lure the protagonist to Z'ha'dum at the climax of Season 3. At first, the role was given to the character of Carolyn Sykes in "The Gathering" but Sykes' actress, Blaire Baron, then declined to join the series as a regular. JMS course corrected by saying that Sinclair and Sykes had broken up and introduced Catherine Sakai, played by Julia Nickson-Soul, who played the role throughout Season 1. However, at the end of Season 1, Sinclar was written out of the show because of Michael O'Hare's mental illness so Sakai could no longer be the temptress as the person she was tempting was, of course, no longer the lead character of the show. Enter John Sheridan as his missing, presumed dead wife, Anna Sheridan. Anna in her first appearance was played by Beth Touissant, who was unable to reprise the role of Anna, and thus, JMS cast Bruce Boxleitner's actual then-wife, Melissa Gilbert to play the role throughout Season 3 through to her character's intended death at Z'ha'dum.]]

* Some of the early drafts of ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheCrystalSkull'' featured Indiana's father Henry Jones Sr. But as Creator/SeanConnery retired from acting in 2006, in the finale film it was stated that Henry has died off-screen.

* Actor Creator/KevinSpacey's VillainProtagonist character, Frank Underwood, was killed off-screen at the start of what became the final season of ''Series/HouseOfCardsUS'', because of the actor being accused of sexual assault and other bad behaviors over the years had surfaced not long after the end of Season 5.

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had one that was a subversion: Vanessa Ferlito left, and Aiden Burn was fired by Mac for starting to tamper with evidence. But near the end of the season, she was StuffedInTheFridge.
* Creator/RoryCochrane's character Tim Speedle was killed off on ''Series/CSIMiami'' when he wanted to leave.
* Warrick Brown on original ''Series/{{CSI}}'' was not killed as many believe because of Gary Dourdan's arrest, but the actor's personal issues had led to Warrick's death being planned just before it happened and played out just after.
* ''Series/{{Dallas}}'':
** When Creator/PatrickDuffy left for a film career in 1985, the producers killed Bobby Ewing in an auto accident. When they had to bring him back to save the show, [[ExecutiveMeddling they decided]] that the accident and the ''season's worth of episodes that took place after it'' were AllJustADream.

** Similarly, there was Frank Conniff's departure at the end of Season 6. As he decided to leave the series after the season ended, his character, TV's Frank, was given a loving sendoff, [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascending to Second Banana Heaven]] alongside Torgo the White. As well, since Conniff loved Spanish wrestling movies, his final episode was ''Samson vs. the Vampire Women''. He was able to make a guest reappearance in the Season 10 episode "Soultaker" because he was still on good terms with the team and the movie had ghosts in it.