[Warning: Spoilers ahead. Yes, some of these episodes aired years ago, but others are from more recent — very recent — history.]
For fans, TV characters sometimes feel like old friends. That’s why their death often hits hard — even in the fictional world they live in.
Over the years, several hit shows have killed off major characters at the peak of their popularity, for various reasons. Maybe an actor was ready to leave; perhaps the storytelling necessitated it; maybe the writers were following the original source material; or, in some cases, there was some bad behavior going on behind the scenes.
Whatever the reason, fans are often hit hard by the departures, especially given that the series itself isn’t finished. Here, we’ve rounded up 21 of the most shocking deaths in television history. From Henry Black’s heartbreaking and tragic journey home in M*A*S*H to Glenn Rhee’s brutal end at the hand of Negan’s bat Lucille on The Walking Dead to Logan Roy’s death on an airplane in the fourth season of Succession, every one of these deaths packed a serious punch. Read on for more.
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Joffrey Baratheon, ‘Game of Thrones’
Image Credit: HBO It wasn’t a happy wedding for King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) after all. Thrones made a series-changing move, with Joffrey getting poisoned at his own wedding feast. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklate) is falsely accused and arrested, but the true perpetrators were later to be revealed as Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) and Lord Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen).
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Logan Roy, ‘Succession’
Image Credit: HBO He escaped death in the pilot episode, but it finally caught up to the Roy family patriarch and media mogul three episodes into season four of the HBO drama. While traveling to Sweden for business, Logan (Brian Cox) was found in the bathroom of his private jet. Despite medical attention and a series of chest compressions, he died as his children (except for Connor) took turns saying their goodbyes over the phone. Though it’s the last and final season of the Emmy-winning series, there are still seven episodes left in which to deal with the aftermath of Logan’s death.
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Gus Fring, ‘Breaking Bad’
Image Credit: Everett Giancarlo Esposito had to face hard facts for the Season 4 finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad when creator Vince Gilligan told him his character, drug kingpin Gus, would have his face blown off in the final episode of the year. “He gave me a full heads up. I said, ‘Well, OK, as long as it’s fantastic!’ He said, ‘It will be! We want to to blow your face off!’ We both thought it would be like Gus to survive an explosion for a few seconds — that he would button his jacket, straighten his tie — then just keel over and die,” the actor told THR. “Vince came up with this brilliant way for me to leave — I give him full credit.”
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Lane Pryce, ‘Mad Men’
Image Credit: Everett Nobody messes with Don Draper. Mad Men’s Lane Pryce’s (Jared Harris) office door was never the same. The character opted to take his own life rather than resign his position after Jon Hamm’s Draper found out that Lane forged a company check in Don’s name. “That’s a bad time when someone says, ‘Come on up to my office,’” Harris told THR. “There was some inane chit and chat on the way up the lift, but as we got to the door, [showrunner Matt Weiner] said, ‘So, I’ve got something I want to tell you.’ I went, ‘Uh-oh.’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m sorry.’ And then he offered me some very good brandy.”
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Will Gardner, ‘The Good Wife’
Image Credit: Heather Wines/CBS via Getty Images In The Good Wife’s “Dramatics, Your Honor,” Lockhart Gardner attorney Will Gardner (Josh Charles) was shot in the courtroom by his unhinged client and was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
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Charlie Harper, ‘Two and a Half Men’
Image Credit: Everett After a bitter — and public — dismissal from CBS’ Two and a Half Men, creator Chuck Lorre wrote embattled star Charlie Sheen’s exit into the series when his character, Charlie Harper, was hit by a speeding subway train, opening the door for Ashton Kutcher’s Internet billionaire to arrive.
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Glenn Rhee, ‘The Walking Dead’
Image Credit: Gene Page/AMC With so many shocking deaths, it’s hard to pick which one was the most surprising. But the death of Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), who’d been with the AMC drama since the beginning, hit fans especially hard. His brutal death came at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his bat Lucille in the seventh-season premiere. Glenn’s death also was reminiscent of how the character died in Robert Kirkman’s comic book series. The episode also included the brutal killing of Abraham Ford (Michael Cudlitz), also by Negan.
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Adriana La Cerva, ‘The Sopranos’
Image Credit: Anthony Neste/Getty Images After so many years of reluctantly playing informant to the FBI, Adriana (Drea de Matteo) finally came clean in the fifth season of The Sopranos only to have boyfriend Christopher (Michael Imperioli) sell her out to the family. Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) did the dirty work, taking her out into the woods, never to be seen again.
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Ned Stark, ‘Game of Thrones’
Image Credit: HBO For Game of Thrones fans who weren’t familiar with the George R.R. Martin books, watching Ned Stark’s (Sean Bean) beheading in season one was quite the surprise as the HBO fantasy drama whacked its leading man.
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Charlie Pace, ‘Lost’
Image Credit: Everett Dominic Monaghan’s Charlie Pace made the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow castaways in season three. After Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) begins to foresee Charlie’s demise in dreams and visions, the ex-junkie one-time rock star sacrifices himself by drowning to save the other survivors. His character later appeared in flashbacks and as a guide to his friend Hurley (Jorge Garcia) as well as in the season finale.
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Edie Britt, ‘Desperate Housewives’
Image Credit: Everett Nicollette Sheridan’s Edie Britt died in an accident involving a downed power line after discovering her new husband’s plan for revenge. But behind the scenes, there was just as much drama over her departure: The actress sued ABC and Desperate Housewives creator and executive producer Marc Cherry, claiming she was dropped after she told the network that Cherry had been abusive to her and other cast and crew and had struck her while they were on the set. In October 2013, a judge denied her effort to revive the trial.
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Derek Shepherd, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Image Credit: Bob D’Amico/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Patrick Dempsey’s Derek Shepherd — Meredith Grey’s husband and longtime love interest — was killed off in the season 11 finale. He reappeared in a dream sequence during the season 17 premiere and returned for a subsequent episode as well. For Dempsey, a fan favorite, the decision to exit the veteran medical drama came early, as he still had a year remaining on his contract. “There were HR issues. It wasn’t sexual in any way. He sort of was terrorizing the set. Some cast members had all sorts of PTSD with him,” recalled exec producer James D. Parriott, who was brought back to the series to oversee Dempsey’s exit, in Lynette Rice’s book How to Save a Life: The Inside Story of Grey’s Anatomy.
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Mark Greene, ‘ER’
Image Credit: Everett Anthony Edwards’ fan favorite Dr. Mark Greene was written out in 2008 after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. It was an emotional send-off to the character that came a year after he was first diagnosed that allowed the character to marry Dr. Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) and see the birth of their daughter.
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Gary Shepherd, ‘Thirtysomething’
Image Credit: Everett A big twist for fans waiting to see if Nancy (Patricia Wettig) had gone into remission, the good news at the hospital was followed by word that lead Peter Horton’s character Gary had died in a car crash.
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Kenny McCormick, ‘South Park’
Image Credit: Everett “Oh my God! They killed Kenny! You bastards!” became one of South Park’s catchphrases for its weekly offing of Kenny McCormick in various ways — from getting his head bitten off by Ozzy Osbourne to getting beaten by spastic monkeys — over the course of nearly 80 episodes. But in 2001, co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker killed the hooded fourth-grader for good with a slow, painful death related to a muscular disease. Stone said at the time it was an “easy decision.” “I think a lot of people probably haven’t noticed,” Stone said at the time. “I couldn’t care less. I am so sick of that character.” He was soon replaced by Stan’s new friend Butters.
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George O’Malley, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Image Credit: Frank Ockenfels/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images Whose heart didn’t sink when T.R. Knight’s George O’Malley, unable to speak after being struck by a bus, identified himself by writing “007” in the hand of one of his best friends on the ABC medical drama. His exit came after Knight asked to be released from his Grey’s Anatomy contract after behind-the-scenes clashes about reduced screen time.
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Prue Halliwell, ‘Charmed’
Image Credit: Everett Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty), one of three sisters who were witches, was murdered in season three by Shax, the personal assassin of the dangerous Source of All Evil. Doherty’s departure came amid reports of a feud with co-star Alyssa Milano. While Doherty denied any discord with her co-stars, Milano has admitted to some “rough days” on set. Following her departure, Rose McGowan was brought in as a long-lost Halliwell sister to fill the void.
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Marissa Cooper, ‘The O.C.’
Image Credit: Everett Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper was headed to Greece to live with her father at the end of The O.C.’s season three. As boyfriend Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) drove her to the airport, her vengeful, drunken ex Kevin Volchok (Cam Gigandet) drove them off the road, causing the car to flip several times and leading to her death. Series creator Josh Schwartz later said the decision to kill Marissa was purely a creative one: “It had as much to do with creatively feeling like this was always in the cards for this character and she was an inherently tragic heroine, and part of the Ryan/Marissa story was him trying to save her from a fate that she couldn’t be rescued from.”
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Rita Morgan, ‘Dexter’
Image Credit: Everett Julie Benz’s Rita Morgan was — until the series finale claimed Deb (Jennifer Carpenter) — the biggest victim in life of serial-killer-with-a-code Dexter Morgan. After going head-to-head with John Lithgow’s Emmy-winning Trinity Killer, Dexter’s (Michael C. Hall) discovered his wife dead in a bathtub filled with blood — with their young son Harrison sitting nearby in a scene reminiscent of Dex’s childhood.
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Henry Blake, ‘M*A*S*H’
Image Credit: Everett Lt. Col. Henry Blake, M.D. (McLean Stevenson) suffered one of the more tragic, heartbreaking deaths in TV history. After Stevenson announced his intention to leave the show at the end of season three, it was decided to “use the departure of the character in some meaningful way,” creator Larry Gelbart said. “M*A*S*H was not about everybody having a good time. M*A*S*H was not about happy endings.” So Blake, after finally getting his discharge, says his goodbyes and departs by helicopter. In the final scene of the episode, Radar (Gary Burghoff) announces that Blake was killed when his plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. The character’s fate shocked the nation — and most of the cast and crew.
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Nicholas Brody, ‘Homeland’
Image Credit: Kent Smith/Showtime Networks/Courtesy Everett Collection As one character once eloquently pointed out, Brody (Damian Lewis) was something of a cockroach — until, of course, the Showtime series killed off half of its central duo by hanging him in front of an angry mob at the end of the third season. Brody technically died a hero, though after his rocky three years as a terrorist-turned-informant, his motivations were still a little muddy. However, he wasn’t entirely gone for good: In the fourth-season episode “Redux,” Brody appears in Carrie’s (Claire Danes) drug-induced hallucination.
