# Favorite personification of Death? (Fictional, one assumes) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2003, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128 "2003-06-29T08:15:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cbtcad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/46a35a/32.png) [@cbtcad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbtcad)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/21 "2003-06-30T05:05:10Z")
Its gotta be the Death of Diskworld. I mean what other death would ever wear leather robes and ride a motorcycle when his white horse was unavailable or tell knock-knock jokes to lighten up the moment a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/22 "2003-06-30T05:10:06Z")
…But I didn’t have the salmon mousse… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Physiognomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@The\_Physiognomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Physiognomist)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/23 "2003-06-30T05:25:11Z")
Hmm, I like him best in Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. (Wherever those two go, Death is close behind… \>.\>) That particular Death is quite similar to Pratchett’s, but just a little more professional, in my opinion. Zane and the Pratchett standby get honorable mentions. I have read the Neil Gaiman novel linked to up there, but am not very familiar with his works… everywhere I’ve gone, graphic novels are a ripoff, so I don’t buy them without a whole lot of conviction. By the way, hi. Glad to be here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thatDDperson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de0a6/32.png) [@thatDDperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thatDDperson)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/24 "2003-06-30T05:41:24Z")
Discworld’s Death, and his little buddy, the Death of Mice. Personally, I am Death of Chocolate. Any chocolate, in my presence, is a goner. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/25 "2003-06-30T05:51:28Z")
Obviously Katey Segal as Death from that one episode of “Married, With Children.” “I could look like your greatest fantasy, or your worst nightmare. I could look like MY worst nightmare, but who’d want to look like Sally Struthers?” ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Shellhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e56c9b/32.png) [@Old\_Shellhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Shellhead)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/26 "2003-06-30T06:20:08Z")
Poe’s Death (I don’t know if this really counts, I mean the Masque of Red Death - Death… since he may just be representative of the plague & not death in general) ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/27 "2003-06-30T06:54:18Z")
SQUEAK. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/28 "2003-06-30T07:02:28Z")
> [@](#): > > I have read the Neil Gaiman novel linked to up there, but am not very familiar with his works… everywhere I’ve gone, graphic novels are a ripoff, so I don’t buy them without a whole lot of conviction. Gaiman’s graphic novels are NOT ripoffs. They are carefully crafted stories. Gaiman is above all a storyteller, and I don’t believe that he’d allow his stories to be defiled. ---
**Author:** ![skaterboarder87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@skaterboarder87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skaterboarder87)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/29 "2003-06-30T07:28:53Z")
**Greg** of **Conker’s Bad Fur Day** (N64). He has a hilarious role with humerous quirks such as hating cats and a pip-squeak voice (remedied by a microphone…which broke) “Bloody cats, they meow and piss everywhere. And their shit just smells bloody awful”. ---
**Author:** ![Sock\_Munkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Sock\_Munkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sock_Munkey)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/30 "2003-06-30T07:50:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 2trew \* > \*\*SQUEAK. \*\* Please elaborate. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Physiognomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@The\_Physiognomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Physiognomist)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/31 "2003-06-30T08:16:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lynn Bodoni \* > \*\*Gaiman’s graphic novels are NOT ripoffs. They are carefully crafted stories. Gaiman is above all a storyteller, and I don’t believe that he’d allow his stories to be defiled. \*\* Oops, I meant ripoff in the financial sense. It’s not Gaiman’s fault, anyway, and probably not all the publisher’s either… but it really sucks when you pay almost $20 for a paperback and it starts falling apart after the fifth read. ---
**Author:** ![MarsDragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@MarsDragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarsDragon)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/32 "2003-06-30T09:44:52Z")
Definately the Pratchett Death. Amusing, but somewhat less silly than the other ones I’ve seen. THE CAPTIAL LETTERS ARE A PLUS TOO, though I’m not too sure why. They just are. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/33 "2003-06-30T10:01:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Physiognomist \* > \*\*Oops, I meant ripoff in the financial sense. It’s not Gaiman’s fault, anyway, and probably not all the publisher’s either… but it really sucks when you pay almost $20 for a paperback and it starts falling apart after the fifth read. \*\* Oh. Yeah, I know precisely what you mean. My copies have stood up to numerous rereadings, and I am NOT gentle with my books. However, I am not so rough with my reading materials that a book should fall apart on its first reading, either, as has happened with a few mass-market paperbacks I’ve owned. Grrrr. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/34 "2003-06-30T10:48:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*Death’s appearance in _Family Guy_, along with Peter Griffin’s temporary assumption of the role, was funny. \*\* And, of course, the appearance of Death’s Mother in that same episode. I pretty much nearly wet myself laughing. ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/35 "2003-06-30T10:52:30Z")
Heh. Thought I would chime in with one of the lesser known personifications: Orpheus’s Death in Cocteau’s film Orphée (1949). A beautiful, chilling femme fatale who can walk through mirrors and ultimately sacrifices herself for the man she loves – she’s wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/36 "2003-06-30T15:57:00Z")
Manuel Calavera, from the computer game _Grim Fandango_. He is one of many “Death’s” who work for the DOD (Department of Death), and he is absolutely hilarious! “My scythe. I like to keep it next to where my heart used to be.” ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/37 "2003-06-30T16:11:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sock Munkey \* > Please elaborate. That’s the Death of Rats in Discworld. 😃 Yup, Pretchatt’s Death gets my first vote too - he even got a whole book about him. Anthony’s Death gets the honourable mention. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/38 "2003-06-30T16:29:01Z")
I wanted to post something about Jessica Lange in _All That Jazz_; man, did I have a death wish after seeing that. But when I went to IMDB to check some incidental facts about the movie, I saw her character listed in the credits as “Angelique” and described in a plot summary as a muse, so I guess my answer has to be, I don’t know. However, I will increase the geekiness of this thread by bringing Monty Python into it; specifically, the crabby Grim Reaper (a.k.a. Mr. Death, one of the little men from the village) in _The Meaning of Life._ > [@](#): > > You always talk, you Americans. You talk and you talk and say ‘let me tell you something’ and ‘I just wanna say this’. Well, you’re dead now, so shut up! ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/39 "2003-06-30T16:50:06Z")
Sir Cedric Hardwicke (you remember him as Ramses the Elder in the Ten Commandments), who gets chased up an apple tree by Lionel Barrymore in “On Borrowed Time.” Claude Raines in “Here Comes Mr. Jordan.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128/40 "2003-06-30T17:00:17Z")
**TWDuke** , I agree that Jessica was Death in _All That Jazz_. Roy Scheider’s character made several references to dying, death, and the afterlife that she was going to play a prominent part, so I think she qualifies. And, rowr. Almost made me want to abuse drugs if I got to hang around with a lady like that in my hallucinations. However, I also liked Death from Gaiman’s novels. I liked the issue of The Hulk where Rick and Marly got married, and Death was at the wedding, and Marly (who had been dead briefly) couldn’t figure out where they’d met… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-personification-of-death-fictional-one-assumes/185128.md?page=3)