# Difficult actors on TV shows whose characters are killed off **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 7, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674 "2025-01-07T14:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/41 "2025-01-07T17:32:44Z")
This far in and nobody’s mentioned Shannen Doherty? She was written off the show and her character killed because she had a hard time getting along with other people on set. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/42 "2025-01-07T18:05:43Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Michael Dorn refused to appear in the episode You’d think, especially on a show that was supposed to be about progressive ideals, that when one of their most prominent Black cast members refused to appear on the episode, the show runners might have paused to think “hmm, maybe a plotline about a planet of Black people stereotypically depicted as African tribesmen, who kidnap a white woman from the Enterprise, may _not_ be the _greatest_ idea”. Surprised they didn’t title the episode “Fear of a Black Planet” 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/43 "2025-01-07T18:09:28Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > O’Hare was concerned that his condition would put the series in jeopardy, risking the livelihoods of the cast and crew so he voluntarily left the show. Straczynski for his part was supportive and made a good faith effort to protect the dignity of O’Hare. They really took a bad situation and made the best of it. This is very similar to what happened with the TV show _[Spartacus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartacus_(TV_series))_. > lead actor [Andy Whitfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Whitfield) was diagnosed with early-stage [non-Hodgkin lymphoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Hodgkin_lymphoma) They made a short prequel season without him, while he was in treatment, and then replaced him for the second proper season after he died. But, he supported all of that, not wanting the rest of the cast and crew to lose their jobs just because he got sick. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/44 "2025-01-07T18:14:20Z")
Ooh! I got a good one! On _The Expanse_–the best SF show ever, in my opinion–the pilot Alex died a heroic death at the end of Season 5. The actor, Cas Anvar, was a superb actor, but a terrible human: he had a habit of parlaying his fame into sexual harrassment, sexual assault, and possibly statutory rape at various cons. > **[Why Alex was killed off on The Expanse](https://winteriscoming.net/2022/01/19/why-alex-was-killed-off-on-the-expanse/)** > > Alex Kamal's surprise death in The Expanse season 5 finale was somewhat anti-climactic, but unavoidable. Here's the horrible reason why it had to happen. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/45 "2025-01-07T18:22:01Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > _Rizzoli and Isles_ was 7 years after she left _NCIS_ her family situation could change a lot in 7 years. Also _NCIS_ shot 23 episodes. R&I never had more than 18 in a season and the 1st season was 13. On an hour long drama that is a big difference in time. IANA expert on either show. Were they shot in different locales? The effort required to work a long-running show shot in your hometown is rather different from one shot half a continent away. > [@zimaane](#): > > Her character was used again in a time travel episode and she played her character’s daughter in a few other episodes. A woman able to play both roles of a mother-daughter pair, and play the daughter some years after playing the mother must be one heck of a woman. Or have one heck of a makeup team. My meagre contribution which may or may not quite fit the thread criteria … Vanessa Ferlito played Detective Aiden Burn in the first two seasons of CSI:NY. In the show arc her character got fired from her job with NYPD for tampering with evidence related to a rapist stalking other women. Then a few episodes later her character was ambushed and gruesomely killed by the same rapist who she’d still been pursuing on her own as a civilian. ISTM the character’s firing would have been a reasonable way to write out a character whose actor decided to move on or one who TPTB wanted to fire for whatever reason. Killing her a few episodes later seemed spiteful to me. So probably some bad blood somewhere there. Some pictures taken after she’d left the show permanently look pretty raggedy and suggest maybe she was having growing substance abuse problems the show wanted to head off by getting rid of her before it got obvious. She did have a child a couple years later, so (that) pregnancy was definitely not the reason to move her off the show. I’m not the sort to watch the “inner show” of what the actors, writers, and producers are doing. Usually to me the on-screen characters are all there is. So the fact I noticed this case is striking, at least to me. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/46 "2025-01-07T18:36:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Vanessa Ferlito played Detective Aiden Burn in the first two seasons of CSI:NY. > > In the show arc her character got fired from her job with NYPD for tampering with evidence related to a rapist stalking other women. Then a few episodes later her character was ambushed and gruesomely killed by the same rapist who she’d still been pursuing on her own as a civilian. > > ISTM the character’s firing would have been a reasonable way to write out a character whose actor decided to move on or one who TPTB wanted to fire for whatever reason. Killing her a few episodes later seemed spiteful to me. So probably some bad blood somewhere there. Some pictures taken after she’d left the show permanently look pretty raggedy and suggest maybe she was having growing substance abuse problems the show wanted to head off by getting rid of her before it got obvious. That reminded me of [Gary Dourdan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Dourdan), who played Warrick Brown in the original CSI, and whose character was killed off at the end of season 8. He had some drug issues, including an arrest for possession of various drugs, though supposedly the decision for his departure from the show came before the arrest, and was due to a breakdown in contract negotiations. But if you click on that Wiki link on his name there and look at his profile pic from 2023, yikes. He looks like one of the Walking Dead, or the ‘after’ pic of an anti-meth ad. Guy’s two years younger than me. Don’t do drugs, kids! ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/47 "2025-01-07T18:37:24Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > In real life, Ned Flanders’ wife was killed off because the actress who voiced her had a pay dispute. In this case I think it was Fox that was being difficult, not Maggie Roswell, who was way underpaid compared to the main cast. This despite doing several iconic voices. Her demands were pretty reasonable in context and Fox’s counter-offer pretty insulting. The fact that she was brought back on board a few years later after she was allowed to telecommute seems to indicate she wasn’t that problematic as a person. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/48 "2025-01-07T19:24:57Z")
Jean Hagen had frequent clashes playing Danny Thomas’s wife on _The Danny Thomas Show._ She also was dissatisfied with her role, so she left. The producers decided that her absence would be explained by having her die. (A divorce just wouldn’t fly back then). She is the first sitcom character to be written to pass away during the show. Danny spent a season or so as a widower, but then he met Cathy who he eventually married. The courtship was a four-episode story arc instead of it happening in one. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/49 "2025-01-07T19:36:25Z")
> [@mtnmatt](#): > > My first thought when seeing this thread was Heidi Swedberg, George’s fiancee Susan on Seinfeld: Jason Alexander walked back his comments about that, saying that he didn’t mean for it to come out so personally. I think her acting and comedic sense didn’t mesh with the rest of the cast very well. I’ve met Heidi on several occasions\*, and she does have a very odd sense of humor (delightfully so, IMO), so that makes sense to me. It just wasn’t a good fit. - Heidi and her husband Daniel are regular headline performers at ukulele festivals. If you ever get a chance to see them, they’re pretty great, and their workshops are fantastic. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/50 "2025-01-07T19:37:40Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Similar to the fate of the lead actor of Death in Paradise, the Inspector played by Ben Miller (a Brit) was murdered on the first show of the 3rd season because he just didn’t want to be stuck in the Caribbean, away from family and friends, for another production season. It’s not that he was difficult, but wanted out. Brilliantly, the first job of the new Inspector on that episode was to solve that murder (and prove himself to the Commissioner and the other 4 members of the police force). What’s kind of funny (in the spirit of the thread) is that in the pilot episode, Miller’s character is sent to the Caribbean to solve his predecessor’s murder _because nobody in London_ could stand working with him! So he basically got exiled because he was difficult to work with. (Although he was an excellent detective.) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/51 "2025-01-07T20:13:10Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Valerie Hartman was killed off on the show _Valerie_ after contract negotiations failed between season 2 and 3. The show was renamed _The Hogan Family_. Good one, but Valerie’s last name was Harper. > **[Valerie Harper](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Harper)** > > Valerie Kathryn Harper (August 22, 1939 – August 30, 2019) was an American actress. She began her career as a dancer on Broadway, making her debut as a replacement in the musical Li'l Abner. She is best remembered for her role as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977) and its spinoff Rhoda (1974–1978). For her work on Mary Tyler Moore, she thrice received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and later received the award for Outstan ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/52 "2025-01-07T20:20:54Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Valerie Hartman was killed off on the show _Valerie_ after contract negotiations failed between season 2 and 3. The show was renamed _The Hogan Family_. Which reminds me of a classic _Cracked_ “After Hours”: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/a9m_Vy9kIf0/maxresdefault.jpg "Why Every 80's Sitcom Decided To Kill Off The Mom - After Hours") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9m_Vy9kIf0) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/53 "2025-01-07T20:41:36Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > _Rizzoli and Isles_ was 7 years after she left _NCIS_ her family situation could change a lot in 7 years. Also _NCIS_ shot 23 episodes. R&I never had more than 18 in a season and the 1st season was 13. On an hour long drama that is a big difference in time. > > IANA expert on either show. Were they shot in different locales? The effort required to work a long-running show shot in your hometown is rather different from one shot half a continent away. Also the amount of screen time per episode can make a difference. I’ve never watched Rizzoli and Isles, but with two female co-stars in different jobs, maybe she had less screen time than NCIS, where she seemed to be on screen a lot, as the only woman character working in the field. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/54 "2025-01-07T20:56:09Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Jason Alexander walked back his comments about that, saying that he didn’t mean for it to come out so personally. I think her acting and comedic sense didn’t mesh with the rest of the cast very well. The article @mtnmatt cited makes that same point if you read past the first row of annoying ads. Which I rarely do, so it’s sure a forgivable oversight if anyone did that. He meant the character Susan didn’t work well with others, not that the actor Heidi was a problem off camera. And said so repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/55 "2025-01-07T20:58:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A woman able to play both roles of a mother-daughter pair, and play the daughter some years after playing the mother must be one heck of a woman. Or have one heck of a makeup team. This being Star Trek, there was time travel involved. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/56 "2025-01-07T20:59:05Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > IANA expert on either show. Were they shot in different locales? It looks like both were primarily, if not exclusively, shot in the L.A. area. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/57 "2025-01-07T21:06:44Z")
Case of actor wasn’t difficult…their parent was… Timothy Olyphant - Sheriff Bullock on “Deadwood” tells a story about working with a child actor on the show–he won’t say who but there were like two kids in actual roles on that show and it can only be one them… After a difficult day of shooting…the dad of the kid and David Milch got into it on set and a little while later, Milch came to Olyphant’s trailer and sat down “Ummm…so we’re going to kill the kid…” So apparently the original plan WASN’T for Bullock’s son to die in an accident by getting kicked in the head by a horse… ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/58 "2025-01-07T21:08:37Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Harold Perrineau said he was canned because he asked for more depth in his character, and to be honest I was tired of him yelling, “Walt! Where are you! I have to find my son!” every time I saw his face. Yeah that was bad, but not nearly as awful as Emilie de Ravin screaming “MOY BOYBEEEEEE” at least 8x per episode. LOST wasn’t good at character development. They kept mistreating characters the same way they mistreated the plot, just bolting on extra stuff trying to make it more complex, but just making it more convoluted. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2025, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/59 "2025-01-07T22:47:15Z")
> [@solost](#): > > > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > > Vanessa Ferlito played Detective Aiden Burn in the first two seasons of CSI:NY. > > > > In the show arc her character got fired from her job with NYPD for tampering with evidence related to a rapist stalking other women. Then a few episodes later her character was ambushed and gruesomely killed by the same rapist who she’d still been pursuing on her own as a civilian. > > > > ISTM the character’s firing would have been a reasonable way to write out a character whose actor decided to move on or one who TPTB wanted to fire for whatever reason. Killing her a few episodes later seemed spiteful to me. So probably some bad blood somewhere there. Some pictures taken after she’d left the show permanently look pretty raggedy and suggest maybe she was having growing substance abuse problems the show wanted to head off by getting rid of her before it got obvious. > > That reminded me of [Gary Dourdan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Dourdan), who played Warrick Brown in the original CSI, and whose character was killed off at the end of season 8. He had some drug issues, including an arrest for possession of various drugs, though supposedly the decision for his departure from the show came before the arrest, and was due to a breakdown in contract negotiations. But if you click on that Wiki link on his name there and look at his profile pic from 2023, yikes. He looks like one of the Walking Dead, or the ‘after’ pic of an anti-meth ad. Guy’s two years younger than me. Don’t do drugs, kids! They did do his death right. It made for probably the best episodes of the entire run. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > _Rizzoli and Isles_ was 7 years after she left _NCIS_ her family situation could change a lot in 7 years. Also _NCIS_ shot 23 episodes. R&I never had more than 18 in a season and the 1st season was 13. On an hour long drama that is a big difference in time. > > IANA expert on either show. Were they shot in different locales? The effort required to work a long-running show shot in your hometown is rather different from one shot half a continent away. _NCIS_ is set in Northern Virginia but filmed in California. _Rizzoli and Isles_ was set in Boston but filmed in California. As I mentioned before NCIS filmed 23 episodes. R&I filmed 13 in the first season. That’s like 3 months less time filming. It never filmed as many episodes as NCIS in a season. It had to be easier to do. And despite the name Rizzoli seemed to carry most of the weight of the show. Certainly not in the same category as the OP but R&I had to deal with the loss of a cast member. Lee Thompson Young committed suicide near the end of one of the seasons. The next season they had him die in a car accident. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674/60 "2025-01-08T01:43:02Z")
T.J. Miller, whose _Silicon Valley_ characterization of “Ehrlich” was frequently hilarious, was written out of the show in Season 5 for failing to appear for work and showing up under the influence when he did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/difficult-actors-on-tv-shows-whose-characters-are-killed-off/1012674.md?page=4)