Is there even such a thing?
Sounds like a challenge to me.
<loads sniper rifle, waits patiently for an answer>
I am pretty sure you can’t kill them whether it is in the contract or not.
Please note that I didn’t specify politician after having seen today’s comments by one of Santorum’s folks.
In case I need to spell it out, I was referring to the character and not the actor.
John Barrowman?
While I don’t think it was written into their contracts, Joss Whedon made no secret of the fact that the “core four” (Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles) were never in danger of dying in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Please ignore Buffy’s two deaths on the show as she got better both times.
Samuel L Jackson supposedly had a “must be killed” bit in his contract for the Star Wars Prequels.
I remember reading that there was serious consideration given to killing Xander near the end of the series. Instead, they just maimed him.
Also, in the comics:
Angel murders Giles.
My understanding is that it was always the intention of killing off the Jedis, including Mace Windu. What Jackson wanted was an agreement that the character would have a “good” death: “I don’t mind dying, I just don’t wanna go out like some punk.”
Not a “can’t be killed” clause, but one I have thought was about as neat, is for Tony Sirico in The Sopranos (as mentioned at this Sopranos trivia site):
The factual nature of that, and whether or not it was in his contract, is up for grabs. But it’s a fun bit of trivia, I think.
I doubt it. If they kill off a character before the end of an actor’s contract, the actor still gets paid. A show isn’t going to pay an actor to stay home.
I’ve heard that as well. I’m sure that has to do with him being an actual member of the mob back in the '60s. I would assume he didn’t want to be portrayed as a rat either due to a loyalty to the mob and/or he was worried that there are old friends and enemies out there who may confuse reality and fiction* and might go looking for him.
*Especially since I’d imagine a lot of the Sopranos based fictions probably has some basis in reality.
There was no contract, but it was in the bible for the series that the Coyote would never catch (and kill) the Roadrunner.
Leonard Nimoy had the opposite agreement for making Star Trek 2–he said he’d only do it if they killed him off at the end.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think Sean Bean has a “must be killed” line in his contract.
I think Kenny does, too.
“Must be killed” clauses seem to be more common.
IIRC, Charlton Heston had one in the last Planet of the Apes movies he was in.
I guess he was fed up with the series so he demanded his character be killed so that he couldn’t be called back for another sequel.
I’m not an actor, I’m not famous, but if for whatever reason I did become rich and famous and some dumbass wanted me to appear in their TV show or movie, I would only do it on the condition that my character died an utterly pointless death without warning.
It might make for some fun digging through IMDb for the actor who has been killed off the most – if such statistics are even available there.
As a side venture it would make for a nice challenge to see if anybody had a more ridiculous death scene than Elvis in Love Me Tender. I bet he wore out a pair of pants wiggling around the way he did.
Which doesn’t preclude a prequel, so there’s still hope.