so i was thinking of how having Sean Bean in a movie is almost like an automatic spoiler and i easily found lists of actors who have died onscreen. however, i couldn’t find any such list for actresses. do women simply die less often onscreen? or is it the relative lack of female villians? anyway, which actress holds the most number of deaths onscreen?
It might be a step in the direction of “the most” to mention those that have died onscreen at all.
To that end:
Glenn Close
Rebecca DeMornay
Mercedes McCambridge
Margaret Hamilton
Ali MacGraw
Joan Crawford
Susan Hayward
well, Sigourney Weaver has died at least twice that i know of.
Notorious for even generating a movie cliche:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19950820/GLOSSARY/508200301/1023
As noticed by Ebert also: Greta Garbo was also affected by it.
Without doing any research, my gut would say Tilda Swinton, as she seems to get cast as villains a lot.
Others I’ve thought of:
Shelley Winters
Kim Novak
Charlize Theron
How about Jamie Lee Curtis, from her ‘Scream Queen’ days?
For sure: Drew Barrymore
Even though woman villains are less common, “Girlfriend dies, sending the hero on a mission of revenge” is has got to be one of the most overused movie cliches, so I imagine the answer is some mid-level actress who is popular enough to frequently play the gf of the lead, but not so popular that the director has a problem killing her off early on.
Other categories/genres where a particular actress gets cast as a victim in multiple roles:
vampire
zombie
film noir
sci-fi monster
gang war
dying maiden
evil mother
“bad seed” girl
doomed sweetheart
outlaw’s bitch
Liz Taylor dies in Cleopatra and BUtterfield 8.
Well, two isn’t exactly hard to beat, but I guess we have to start somewhere.
Female characters in Chinese films seem to die more frequently then their western counterparts. That’s probably another fruitful place to look.
Zhang Ziyi dies in Rush Hour 2, House of Flying Daggers, Hero (sort of, she had a death scene anyways), Crouching Tiger (maybe), the Banquet and The Grandmaster.
So that’s six (and I imagine she dies in other films as well, hopefully someone else can fill in).
So can anyone beat six (or add to Zhang’s total)?
Daryl Hannah?
Blade Runner
Kill Bill?
I came in to mention her. She dies in a pretty ridiculous % of her movies.
Michelle Rodriguez is up there for sure, she dies as often as Sean Bean at least proportionally.
Sarah Michelle Gellar dies:
2x on Buffy
1x in Scream 2
1x in I Know What You Did Last Summer
1x in The Grudge 2
1x, fake, in Ringer
1x, brutally, in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
I may have made that last one up.
Alien[sup]3[/sup]
Alien Resurrection
Avatar
Gorillas in the Mist
The Cabin in the Woods
possibly more
Yes, listing them would be helpful and I now see my previous poster has done so for her.
Can you spoil us and tell us movies she dies in?
Avatar
LOST
are the only ones I know of, but I’ve hardly seen her.
Do the actresses playing replicants in Battlestar Galactica count? Most of them died at least a half-dozen times during the course of the series and that’s not even counting when they blew up the resurrection ship.
Tricia Helfer (Six/Gina/Caprica)
Grace Park (Boomer)
Lucy Lawless (D’Anna Biers)