Game of Thrones is known for killing off characters, so we’re not going to list everyone who’s died in the show. We are, however, going to bring up the death of Eddard "Ned" Stark.
See, at the time, anyone who hadn’t read the books thought he was going to be our hero – our savior. Then, he lost his head.
John Ritter was one of the best comedic actors on TV in 8 Simple Rules, but he died unexpectedly during the show's filming. The only thing the show could do was also have him die in the show.
The series had two episodes titled “Goodbye” that handled the family’s reaction to patriarch Paul's deal. It was heartbreaking, and we cried with them.
Grey’s Anatomy is another series that loves killing its characters, and fan-favorite anxious lad George O'Malley hit us like a bus— oh, too soon? George was hit by a bus while trying to save a woman. George, unrecognizable due to his injuries, had been fighting for his life. The doctors, including his friends, didn't realize it was him until he managed to weakly trace "007" on Meredith's hand.
Despite surgery, complications arose, and George's brain swelling became fatal. Actor T.R. Knight's departure from the show coincided with George's death due to alleged behind-the-scenes tension. From a character development perspective, some fans felt George was finally finding his footing as a surgeon, making his death feel premature.
It seems like The Walking Dead can’t keep their actors and actresses alive! We know it’s a zombie apocalypse but wow. Lori was one of the first, but a lot of people were happy to see her go.
People weren’t happy after what happened to Abraham and Glenn. In fact, the show lost a lot of viewers after this choice.
Grey's Anatomy dealt another heavy blow to fans with Derek Shepherd's death in Season 11. In a shocking turn, Derek gets into a car accident on the way to work. While the initial impact seems survivable, a series of unfortunate mistakes at an under-equipped hospital lead to fatal complications. Faced with a brain-dead Derek, Meredith is forced to make the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support.
Actor Patrick Dempsey's exit from Grey's Anatomy necessitated Derek's death, leaving fans divided. Some felt his death, while impactful, cut short the central love story of the show with Meredith Grey. Others questioned the contrived circumstances of the car accident and medical errors. Regardless, Derek's demise changed the entire tone of the show, much like George's in Season 6.
You wouldn’t think that a courtroom drama would have character deaths, but here we are — especially a show called The Good Wife.
In the show, Alicia Florrick’s once-lover and old friend, Will Gardener, is killed off suddenly in season five when an angry client shoots him in court. It was tough and had a huge impact on the show.
Anyone who watched Charmed can tell you that Prue’s death was a blessing and a curse. Prue had conflict with her castmates, and fans could see it in the show.
Once she passed, the show replaced her with Paige, their half-sister. It was clearly a good decision, considering it lasted five seasons after the swap.
Scandal was by the same person did Grey’s Anatomy, so deaths were going to happen. Harrison Wright’s death wasn’t just because it was time for his character to go.
It wasn’t a secret that he had been having drug problems, and that wasn’t sitting right with the creator. The character was killed and removed from the show.
Long before the crushing blow in Season 5, Downton Abbey fans were left devastated by the sudden death of Lady Sybil. In a tragic turn during childbirth, complications arose from undiagnosed pre-eclampsia. Despite medical intervention, Sybil's condition worsened rapidly, leading to seizures and her heartbreaking passing surrounded by loved ones.
The actress, Jessica Brown Findlay, reportedly decided to pursue other roles, which is why she was written out. While some felt robbed of seeing Sybil blossom as a mother and navigate the changing social order, her death wasn't completely in vain. It served as a stark reminder of the show's high stakes, proving no character was safe. The loss also deeply affected Tom Branson and the entire Crawley family, shaping their dynamics for seasons to come.
Lost saw a lot of character deaths during its run, but few were as hard as Charlie and Juliet Burke. People came to love Charlie, even if he was a little crazy at times.
Then there was Juliet who everyone was sure was one of the “bad guys,” so to speak. Then there was the finale… We’re not gonna talk about that. Just focus on Charlie. At least losing him was semi-bearable!
One of the most shocking things to happen to any series was that the This Is Us writers killed Jack. The tricky part was that the audience expected him to die, but we just didn't know how.
Then, we suspected it was in a house fire, but he escaped! Sadly, he died of cardiac arrest hours later due to smoke inhalation. Jack’s death was shocking and devastating.
NCIS has a habit of killing off several characters that emotionally break fans. It’s hard to pin down the one that lands it on this list. Was it Mike Franks?
Or how about Jenny Shepard? Could it be Paula Cassidy? We’re going with Jenny Shepard since she was a main character. As hard as it was to see Mike Franks and Paula Cassidy go, they were more side characters.
If 24 is known for anything, it was the death of Teri Bauer. She was Jack Bauer’s wife, and audiences watched her die at the very end of the first season.
Then there was George Mason, President Palmer, and Edgar Stiles. We’re just scratching the surface. How could you do this to your characters, 24?!
The actor who portrayed Matthew Crawley asked to be written off Downton Abbey, but they could have executed it in a better way... Pun intended.
We were left in shambles when his character died in a car accident on the way back from meeting his newborn son—his new son! Our hearts!
Out of all the character deaths out there, none hit as hard as Mrs. Landingham’s in The West Wing. She’d gone through so much, but she was still killed by a drunk driver in the second season of the series.
This episode will always break our hearts. What is it like to be a writer in these rooms, just picking our favorites and torturing them? Is it fun?! Are you happy!?!
Richard Gilmore managed to survive the entire original run of The Gilmore Girls, but the poor guy didn't make it through the show's 2016 revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
Season seven of the show ended with Richard having a heart attack, but his ultimate fate was left unknown. In the revival series, it's revealed that he ultimately passed of his condition, and much of this new series focuses on the characters dealing with the aftermath of his death.
Bronwyn was a character in the controversial Amazon series The Rings of Power that took J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world and ran with it in new (and mostly hated) ways. At the end of season one of the series, Bronwyn had been wounded by an arrow, but her fate was still ambiguous.
However, in season 2, episode 3, it's revealed that the arrow that hit Bronwyn was poisoned, and she has died from her injuries. If her death seems abrupt and out-of-place, that's because it was; the actress portraying Bronwyn decided to step away from the show after season 1.
Even if you haven't seen the show White Lotus, you probably have at least a passing familiarity with Tanya McQuoid, the hilarious character that Jennifer Coolidge played. She was a breakout star in the first season, which made her death in the second all the more shocking.
After discovering a plot to assassinate her, Tanya somehow manages to take out all of her would-be killers...only to fall off a boat into the ocean and drown. While it was no doubt an appropriate and hilarious send-off for such a ridiculous character, fans definitely wanted to see more of Tanya.
Fans of House of the Dragon have almost certainly also watched the show that spawned the spin-off, Game of Thrones, so they should be more than prepared for most characters to meet bloody and unexpected ends. However, the death of Lucerys Velaryon still caught some people off guard.
As you would expect from a show called House of the Dragon, Lucerys meets his end at the hands (or jaws, rather) of the dragon Vhagar, who manages to take the young lad and his dragon out with just one bite.
Regardless of how you feel about the real-life Roseanne Barr's thoughts on politics, we can all agree that the TV world lost a great when her fictionalized persona was killed off on The Conners, a revival of her original show, Roseanne.
The spin-off show wastes no time in killing off Roseanne, letting viewers know in the first episode that she died of an opioid overdose. It's clear the show was really trying to rub salt in the wound and make Barr's firing really sting.
Lucy Knight was a medical student introduced in season 5 of the medical drama ER. Portrayed by Kellie Martin, the med student featured heavily in her first season, while only having a few minor parts in season 6.
According to producers (and Martin herself), the character just wasn't working out, so they decided to kill off Lucy. In the episode "Be Still My Heart", Knight is stabbed by a schizophrenic patient and later dies from her wounds.
In the AMC drama Breaking Bad, Hank Schrader is Walter White's DEA brother-in-law who, for most of the series, is on the hunt for the elusive "Heisenberg", unaware that he's right under his nose.
In the final season, things finally come to a head, and Hank ends up shot by one of Walt's seedy associates. While fans were sad to see him go, his death started to feel inevitable and took place pretty close to the end of the series.
As the protagonist of Sons of Anarchy, Jax Teller was no stranger to danger and violence. However, in the finale, he ended up doing himself in. During season 7, Jax goes off the deep end and leaves a trail of violence in his wake.
In the end, Teller ends up leading law enforcement on an interstate chase before intentionally swerving in front of a semi-truck.
Peter Quinn managed to escape the bad guys for six seasons, but he eventually met his end on Homeland when he was gunned down helping Elizabeth Keane and Carrie Mathison escape to safety.
According to Rupert Friend, the actor who played Quinn, he said he was "relieved" when he got word that Quinn was finally going to be killed off, as there was a bit of a running gag with his character where he would be presumed dead, only to pop back up to life.
When actress Julie Benz got word that her Dexter character Rita Bennett was being killed off, she said she was "disappointed" but glad that her death was at least "poetic." However, fans took no solace in the poetry of the situation and were outraged that Rita had been offed.
In the season four finale, Bennett is murdered by the Trinity Killer (portrayed by John Lithgow), and Dexter stumbles upon her body in the aftermath. It was a shocking scene, to say the least, and some say it was one of the most controversial character deaths of all time.
Zeek Braverman (portrayed by Craig T. Nelson) made it through six seasons of Parenthood without dying, but he couldn't quite make it over the finish line and survive the series finale. In the final episode, Braverman dies of heart problems.
After his death, family members scatter his ashes across a baseball diamond and play a game afterward, as per his wishes. It was a fitting end to this fantastic character.
Edith Bunker, wife to the prickly but loveable Archie Bunker on All in the Family, ??????is one of the most beloved characters of all time. However, when producers wanted to create a continuation series to All in the Family, called Archie Bunker's Place, actress Jean Stapleton wasn't interested in reprising her iconic role.
Producers managed to get her to agree to appear in a few episodes to help ease the transition, but it was announced at the beginning of season two that Edith had died of a stroke off camera. It was a sad ending, but an inevitable one when an actor no longer wants to play a character.
Jimmy Darmody was a main character in the early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and one of the few characters who were not directly inspired by real-life people. While writers and producers intended him to survive much longer, he met his untimely end in season two.
When Dabney Coleman, who played the Commodore, was diagnosed with cancer, that obviously disrupted his filming schedule, which led to writers making Jimmy a more prominent nemesis for Nucky. This new direction for the storyline ultimately ended with Nucky shooting Jimmy.
Francis Underwood is easily one of the best villains of all time, and fans loved watching him rise to the presidency by any means necessary on House of Cards. What fans didn't love was actor Kevin Spacey's off-screen behavior.
Underwood was killed off between seasons five and six, and it was eventually revealed that he was poisoned by his close associate Doug Stamper.
Actor Kal Penn made his first appearance as Dr. Kutner on the medical show House in season four. Unfortunately, his time on the show would be over by season five, when his character is discovered to have taken his own life.
This unfortunate turn of events was necessary, as Penn had recently received an offer to work in the Obama White House, and he couldn't turn that down. Not a lot of reasoning was given in the show in terms of Kutner's motives, as they wanted his death to remain a mystery.
