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November 15, 2007
You kill me
I got to thinking today, and as I often do, it was nothing important. But it makes a hell of a blog post. My question is this: who is the most notable actor to have never played a character who dies on screen?
I got to thinking, and I decided that it would be best to limit my query to the most notable actors. Even luminaries like John Wayne have died in their movies. (I suppose this is a good time for a spoiler warning... So if you don't want to find out the endings of some movies, read no more.) I can think of at least two movies I've seen where The Duke gives up the ghost. (This one and this one.) I suppose this also counts, but in my recollection, he doesn't die on screen. Parts of the movie take place around his funeral, but he doesn't actually die as part of the plot.
I am not sure about other luminaries from that era like Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper or Clint Eastwood. Does anybody know if they bite it any of their movies?
Thinking about today's stars, most of them have died in a movie. Brad Pitt gets it here, and here. (Though technically, I suppose as a figment of Ed Norton's imagination, he doesn't technically die.) Russell Crowe doesn't make it through this one. Denzel Washington shuffles off this mortal coil here and here. (I'm not sure if I should count the second one, because he was still a relatively obscure actor at the time, making his death less memorable.) Mel Gibson had a pretty gruesome demise in this movie. Even Tom Hanks gets in on the act. Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio all get rubbed out within the space of minutes in this movie. However, Leo has never had a problem with death, as evidenced here. I have never seen this movie, but having read the book version, I have a pretty good idea what happens to him at the end.
There were a couple of tough ones. I had to look hard to find a movie where George Clooney expires. I found one. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a tough one. I don't consider him to have died in the Terminator movies, because he's a machine. It's like blowing up a car. However, apparently he croaks in this critically-lampooned film. It took me awhile to find a movie where Morgan Freeman gets whacked. Apparently Tom Cruise dies in this movie, but the synopsis suggests his death is off screen, so I don't know if that counts; but Tom Cruise is wacky nowadays and I don't want to give him the pleasure.
Now, I limited myself to the more bankable stars of today. I mean, I'm sure you could say, "Wait a minute, Shia LaBouef doesn't die in any movies!" (Maybe he does, I don't know.) To you I respond, he is outside the scope of this analysis.
So here's what I've come up with. The biggest actor to have never died on screen is... Harrison Ford. Think about it. What movie has Harrison Ford died in? He got worked over pretty well in Witness and the Indiana Jones movies; he was frozen in carbonite (see 9:00 into this video... trust me, it's worth it) in Empire Strikes Back; he had several guns to his head in Air Force One; he was in imminent danger in Force 10 From Navarone; and he was almost run over by a train in The Fugitive. But he doesn't die. Is there a movie where he actually dies? I'd be interested to know. What other famous actors have never died on screen?
entry no. 1011
Posted by oz115 at November 15, 2007 11:14 PM