How 40+ TV Shows Have Handled the Death of a Cast Member
A TV showrunner can anticipate or plan for any number of things, such as a cast member walking away from a role that he/she has long inhabited. But the sudden, tragic death of a key player is something one never can, or wants to, expect.
In recent years, FXX’s Archer, Max’s And Just Like That…, Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and BBC One’s Peaky Blinders have been among the shows to account for the absence that had been created by a cast member’s real-life passing. Fox’s The Cleaning Lady is the latest series to do so, following the unexpected death of leading man Adan Canto.
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In such an unfortunate scenario, TV series over the years have opted for one of a handful of approaches, including sending the character “out of town,” having him/her die off-screen, or even trying the (very) rare recast.
TVLine has rounded up more than 40 instances from over the decades and up through to The Cleaning Lady’s own tough call, which came a few episodes into its third season. The list is extensive but not intended to be comprehensive (nor does it include actors whose characters weren’t on the show at the time of their passing), so by all means chime in with any other sad send-offs that struck a chord with you.
Review the round-up below to revisit how more than 40 shows worked through (or sometimes simply braced for) the loss of a cast member.
ALL MY CHILDREN
After a battle with lung cancer, Frances Heflin (far left) died in June 1994; Erica Kane’s mother Mona died peacefully in her sleep that August.
AND JUST LIKE THAT….
Willie Garson reprised his role as Carrie’s BFF Stanford Blatch in Max’s Sex and the City revival, but he was only able to appear in three episodes, with Garson passing away of cancer in September 2021, midway through filming. His death forced the producers to abruptly write Stanford out in Episode 4, sending him off to Tokyo to go on tour with the teen TikTok star he manages.
ARCHER
Jessica Walter had reportedly recorded nearly all of her Season 12 dialogue before her death in March 2021. When that season’s finale rolled around come October, Archer’s mother Malory was MIA for much of it, though she did pop up to kick some bad guy butt (quipping, “Guess the old gal’s still got it”). Later, in a bittersweet coda, Malory was revealed to have slipped away to a tropical somewhere with husband Ron Cadillac (voiced by Walter’s real-life husband Ron Leibman), having decided it “time to pass the torch” to Archer. That final scene, EP Casey Willis told TVLine, was pulled off by recycling some past dialogue that captured “the feeling we were trying to evoke.”
AS THE WORLD TURNS
Benjamin Hendrickson died of what was ruled a suicide in July 2006, and his final pre-taped scenes as Oakdale police detective Hal Munson aired a little over a week later. That October, it was revealed that Hal had died (off-screen) on the line of duty.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, dial “988” for the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
BARNEY MILLER
When Jack Soo, who played Detective Nick Yemana, died of esophageal cancer in January 1979, midway through Season 5, the police comedy ended that season with a special tribute episode in which the cast “broke the fourth wall” and remembered their colleague. (Later, it was implied that Nick died, too.)
THE BIG BANG THEORY
When Carol Ann Susi died after a short battle with an aggressive cancer, the sitcom months later paid tribute to the never-seen voice actress, with an episode in which Howard’s mother Debbie passed away while on vacation in Florida.
THE BOLD & THE BEAUTIFUL
Though Darlene Conley passed away in January 2007 amid reports of a battle with stomach cancer, the larger-than-life Sally Spectra lives on, off-screen, as she has since her portrayer’s death.
CALL ME KAT
The Mayim Bialik-led sitcom bade the late Leslie Jordan the classiest of goodbyes. In a fourth wall-shattering installment, country music legend Dolly Parton appeared to sing a verse from “Where the Soul Never Dies,” which she recorded with Jordan for his 2021 album Company’s Comin’. What followed was a montage of memories from the actor’s two-and-a-half seasons. But that wasn’t all. At the end of the episode, the rest of the cast broke character and gathered around Jordan’s set chair as Bialik said a few words. As for his on-screen character, he and Jalen bought a bakery on Tahiti and eventually got married in an off-screen ceremony attended by Kat, Max, Randi, Carter, Sheila and Larlene.
CHEERS
After being felled by complications from heart disease in February 1985, Nicholas Colasanto made his final appearance as “Coach” in the Season 3 finale. The following season’s premiere established Coach’s death, while introducing his pen pal Woody/new cast member Woody Harrelson.
CHICO AND THE MAN
Freddie Prinze died via suicide in January 1977, at age 22 and midway through Season 3 of this urban sitcom. At first, the show sent the titular Chico off-screen to visit his father in Mexico, then filled his place on the canvas with a young orphan named Raul. Toward the end of the series’ fourth and final season, when Jack Albertson’s Ed (“The Man”) had a breakdown, it was revealed that Chico had at some point died.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, dial “988” for the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
THE CLEANING LADY
Leading man Adan Canto died of appendiceal cancer in January 2024, while production was underway on the Fox drama’s third season. Because the show’s writers had initially hoped to bring Canto back later in Season 3 after he’d completed treatment, his character, Arman Morales, was initially kidnapped in the season premiere and left offscreen, whereabouts unknown, for several episodes. Ultimately, in the season’s sixth outing, Arman briefly returned (via CGI trickery) to be brought home by his captors, but he perished when the vehicle transporting him swerved and fell off a cliff.
COVER UP
While filming the seventh episode of the CBS action-adventure drama, Jon-Erik Hexum between takes accidentally shot himself in the right temple with a blanks-loaded .44 Magnum; one long surgery and six days later, he was declared brain-dead. At first, Hexum’s character, Mac, was said to be away on another mission (and essentially replaced with a new agent played by Antony Hamilton); eventually, it was revealed that Mac was killed on an assignment.
DALLAS
Jim Davis played family patriarch Jock Ewing through much of Season 4, until he died of multiple myeloma in April 1981. Miss Ellie’s husband was kept off screen for the next 13 episodes, and was ultimately killed in a helicopter crash during Season 5.
DALLAS (TNT revival)
Larry Hagman reprised his iconic role as J.R. Ewing right up until he succumbed to myeloid leukemia in November 2012, early into production of Season 2 of the TNT drama. J.R. appeared in several episodes of Season 2, then became the target of a murder mystery, in part thanks to some computer trickery using existing Hagman scenes.
THE DISTRICT
Lynne Thigpen’s run as Washington D.C. police chief aide Ella Farmer ended in spring 2003, when the actress (bottom left) suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Ella, in turn, died suddenly in a late Season 3 episode.
EIGHT IS ENOUGH
The ABC dramedy’s titular Bradford brood was originally parented by Dick Van Patten’s Tom and Diana Hyland’s Joan. When Hyland was diagnosed with breast cancer and it rapidly spread, and she died in March 1977, her character’s own death was written into Season 2, where widower Tom met and fell in love with Betty Buckley’s Abby.
8 SIMPLE RULES
After John Ritter died as the result of an undiagnosed aortic dissection in September 2003, Season 2 of the ABC sitcom took a two-month hiatus, ultimately returning with a special “goodbye” episode in which his character, Paul, died offscreen. James Garner (as Katey Sagal’s TV dad) and David Spade (as cousin C.J.) filled the cast void, after which the show ran another season-and-a-half.
GENERAL HOSPITAL
Anna Lee’s run as the venerable Lila Quartermaine came to an end when the veteran actress succumbed to pneumonia on May 2004; Lila herself then passed away that July.
John Ingle (far right), who had taken over as Lila’s husband Edward when original portrayer David Lewis’ (far left) health sidelined him, died of cancer in September 2012; Edward’s own passing was written in that November.
GIMME A BREAK!
When Dolph Sweet died of cancer in May 1985, so did widower “Chief” Kanisky, leaving Nell Carter’s Nell to run the household for two more seasons.
GLEE
Cory Monteith, who starred as the genial Finn Hudson since Glee‘s inception, died of a drug overdose in July 2013, two months before the Fox dramedy was to return for its fifth season. Monteith was then honored in a Season 5 episode titled “The Quarterback,” which revealed that Finn had also died offscreen, though a cause of death was not given for the character.
THE GOLDBERGS
George Segal died in March 2021, due to complications from bypass surgery. That fall, in the ABC comedy’s Season 9 premiere, it was revealed that Pops had months prior passed away quietly in his sleep.
HILL STREET BLUES
Sergeant Esterhaus urged the boys in blue to “be careful out there” until midway through Season 4, when Michael Conrad died of urethral cancer in November 1983. Esterhaus himself was killed off in that season’s Episode 14, replaced by Robert Prosky’s Sergeant Stan Jablonski.
HOMELAND
James Rebhorn died (as a result of melanoma) in March 2014, months before production on Season 4 began. Carrie worked out of Afghanistan for nearly all of that season, eventually getting word that her father Frank had died in his sleep from a stroke. Upon returning to the States in the finale, a funeral was held.
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL
The November 2019 death of Brian Tarantina — who played Gaslight MC Jackie since the series’ launch — was addressed in Season 4’s third episode when viewers learned that Susie’s fastidious roommate and sparring partner died after suffering a massive stroke.
MONK
When Stanley Kamel died of a heart attack in April 2008, Monk’s shrink, Dr. Charles Kroger, himself suffered the same fate during Season 7, in an episode dedicated to the late actor.
MURPHY BROWN (revival)
During the 20 years that the sitcom was off the air, Robert Pastorelli died of a narcotic overdose, while Pat Corley was felled by congestive heart failure. Upon the series’ revival in fall 2018, it was established that perpetually employed painter Eldin (in an ill-fated run with the Pamplona bulls) and bar owner Phil had both passed on, with the latter’s sister (played by Tyne Daly) now slinging the suds.
NCIS: LOS ANGELES
Barely six weeks after Miguel Ferrer lost a long battle with cancer, Assistant Director Owen Granger vanished from his hospital room, post-mole hunt, leaving behind a note for Hetty saying he had “unfinished business to take care of.” One year after that, it was revealed that Granger died while visiting his daughter in WITSEC.
NEWSRADIO
Phil Hartman was tragically shot to death by his wife in May 1998, after production on Season 4 of the NBC workplace sitcom had wrapped. In the Season 5 opener, it was revealed that his Bill McNeal had died of a heart attack.
NIGHT COURT
This NBC comedy bid adieu to two successive bailiffs when Selma Diamond (who played Selma Hacker) and Florence Halop (as Florence Kleiner) each died of lung cancer, in May 1985 and July 1986, respectively. Marsha Warfield followed as bailiff Roz Russell, for Seasons 4 through 9.
PASSIONS
Scene stealer Josh Ryan Evans (who had the appearance and voice of a small child due to achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism) died at age 20 in August 2002, from complications related to his congenital heart condition. In a sad coincidence, his character of Timmy died on-screen the very same day (though the plan had been to bring the character back after Evans recuperated from real-life surgery).
PEAKY BLINDERS
If filming on Season 6 had begun as originally planned, Helen McCrory — who played Aunt Polly to Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby (and is the wife of actor Damian Lewis) — would have been a part of it. But because her battle with cancer had taken a turn for the worse during the pandemic-related production delay (she died in April 2021), the BBC drama’s farewell run was rewritten.
As revealed in its Season 6 premiere, Aunt Polly had been killed (off-screen) by the IRA, as a consequence of her nephew’s actions after they tried to have Oswald Mosley assassinated. The on-screen farewell included the lighting of a gypsy caravan amid a three-minute-long silence.
PETTICOAT JUNCTION
After missing a series of Season 5 episodes as she underwent treatment for lung cancer, Bea Benaderet (standing in photo), who played Kate Bradley, returned in time for that season’s finale. But when the actress’ cancer returned and it became clear she would not recover, voice-only work by Benaderet and a stand-in were used at first, after which the character was said to be out of town and only mentioned in passing. Meanwhile, June Lockhart was added as a new mother-figure character, Dr. Janet Craig.
RIVERDALE
Luke Perry passed away suddenly in March 2019 following a stroke, and Riverdale addressed his absence in that fall’s season premiere, with Perry’s Fred Andrews dying after being struck by a car while trying to help a stranded motorist. “Very early on, we landed on the idea that Fred should have a heroic death,” executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa explained. “It felt like that’s a way Fred could’ve gone.”
RIZZOLI & ISLES
Some 10 months after Lee Thompson Young died at age 29 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, one of the TNT drama’s first Season 5 episodes established that Detective Barry Frost had perished in a car accident, setting the stage for a funeral including a moving eulogy by his partner Jane.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, dial “988” for the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
ROSEANNE (revival)
Because Glenn Quinn had died in December 2002 (as the result of a heroin overdose), ABC’s early-2018 revival indicated that Mark had died from unspecified causes about a decade prior, right before Darlene and David’s namesake son was born. (During a Season 3 episode of The Conners, Mark’s widow Becky explained that her husband died in a freak motorcycle accident.)
THE ROYAL FAMILY
Redd Foxx’s big comeback vehicle came to a halt when the Sanford & Sons alum died of a very real heart attack in October 1991, early into the sitcom’s freshman run. A “reboot” of sorts, introducing 227’s Jackée Harry as an outrageous relative of Della Reese’s now-widowed character, quickly proved unsuccessful.
SESAME STREET
The iconic children’s program faced an adult dilemma when Will Lee, who had long played Mr. Hooper, died of a heart attack in December 1982. A teaching moment emerged via the “Farewell, Mr. Hooper” episode that aired in November 1983, in which the characters acknowledged the storekeeper’s death.
THE SOPRANOS
A storyline in which Livia Soprano would testify against her son Tony was scrapped when Nancy Marchand was felled by lung cancer and emphysema in June 2000. After appearing in one final scene (by way of computer trickery), Livia herself suddenly died, leaving Tony with so many unresolved feelings for his combative creator.
SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND
When series lead Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in March 2010 and began treatment, Starz postponed production on Season 2 and further bought time by producing a prequel series titled Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. Upon suffering a relapse, Whitfeld vacated the role, and in January 2011 Liam McIntyre was tapped to succeed him. Whitfield died eight months later.
STEP UP
After what was described as “careful consideration,” Step Up decided to recast the role of Collette in the wake of original portrayer Naya Rivera‘s tragic death in a July 2020 drowning accident, at age 33. Actress/singer/DWTS alum Christina Milian took over the part for Season 3.
SUDDENLY SUSAN
After David Strickland (second from left), who played music reporter Todd, died by suicide in March 1999, the sitcom paid special tribute to the actor in an episode that deftly established that Todd had died, too.
If you’re thinking about suicide, are worried about a friend or loved one, or would like emotional support, dial “988” for the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
THE WALTONS
When respiratory failure claimed the life of veteran actor Will Geer in April 1978, Grandpa Walton himself died later that spring, in the Season 6 finale.
THE WEST WING
During the acclaimed drama’s seventh and final season, White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry died of a heart attack – the same sad fate met by portrayer John Spencer in December 2005.
WILL & GRACE (revival)
Debbie Reynolds, who during the comedy’s original run recurred as Grace’s mother, Bobbi, passed away in December 2016 after suffering a severe stroke. When the series returned to NBC in fall 2017, it first paid quiet tribute to Reynolds with a portrait of her glimpsed during a Christmas episode set in early 20th century New York. In a March 2018 episode, Grace and Will traveled to Schenectady to posthumously celebrate Bobbi’s birthday, while a November 2018 #MeToo episode saw Grace visiting her mother’s grave.
THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS
Jeanne Cooper’s May 2013 passing first was addressed in a tribute special that aired that month and featured many cast members remembering the daytime icon. Katherine Chancellor herself was later memorialized in two episodes.
In February 2019, in the wake of longtime cast member Kristoff St. John being found dead at age 52, the daytime serial paid tribute that April to both the actor and his character, Neil Winters, who it was revealed had died of a stroke.
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