# Really and truly dead movie characters
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 17, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961 "2016-05-17T03:41:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/41 "2016-05-17T14:18:04Z")
What about [this dude](http://images3.cinema.de/imedia/8336/2178336,WFVu0czUBHBNZvX1DBchUecFSX56M2p6vch2iqr5di7xF7Dl+GQXlRS1h5+WLCen47AxVdyJm5uoPnfjRqJEUw==.jpg)?
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/42 "2016-05-17T14:24:16Z")
> [@Zuzu\_s\_Petals](#):
>
> Is David Kentley in Hitchcock’s _Rope_ ever seen alive? He’s the hidden corpse around which the two murderers throw a dinner party, to celebrate their cleverness in getting away with the perfect crime.
At the beginning of the film the camera pans from the street to a window - with closed curtains - and we hear a man (Kentley) screaming. Then we cut to an interior and Kentley is being strangled and on the very point of death. His scream stops, his eyes close and his head slumps.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/43 "2016-05-17T14:26:49Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#):
>
> Incredible - (did I not read closely enough?) this thread has gone _this_ far without the mention of unquestionably _the_ greatest non-living character in any film, p-e-r-i-o-d, and that, of course, being Warren Oates’s road mate (a reeking, putrefying severed head) in “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”.
> Easily the greatest buddy film ever made.
Then there is Yorick of ‘Alas poor Yorick’ fame.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/44 "2016-05-17T14:31:29Z")
> [@Eddie The Horrible](#):
>
> Incredible - (did I not read closely enough?) this thread has gone _this_ far without the mention of unquestionably _the_ greatest non-living character in any film, p-e-r-i-o-d, and that, of course, being Warren Oates’s road mate (a reeking, putrefying severed head) in “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia”.
Unless it took you an hour and five minutes to compose this post, then, yeah, you didn’t read closely enough. 😉
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/45 "2016-05-17T14:33:16Z")
Rebecca in the eponymous movie, IIRC.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/46 "2016-05-17T16:08:01Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure all we ever see of Alfredo Garcia is his severed head.
You know, I thought of that but I only dimly know what that movie is about. From the plot summary on Wikipedia, it sounds like he qualifies.
> [@Folacin](#):
>
> I’d have to say ‘no’ - she was not dead at the beginning of the movie, or else Dorothy couldn’t have landed a house on her.
True, but she (the Wicked Witch of the East) doesn’t enter into the story until after Dorothy’s house has killed her.
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/47 "2016-05-17T16:10:40Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#):
>
> Then there is Yorick of ‘Alas poor Yorick’ fame.
>
> TCMF-2L
And, if ghosts count, Hamlet’s father. Though, even if ghosts count, he’s probably a bit too obvious for a trivia question.
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### Author:  [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/48 "2016-05-17T16:17:19Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#):
>
> Cary Grant and his wife in **Topper.**
Nope, the film opens with them alive and driving (and crashing, which is how they die). Oh, and that’s Constance Bennett, who appeared in the sequels when Cary Grant didn’t.
The OP can speak for himself, of course, but I like the idea of dead characters who are a lynchpin of the plot (like in The Big Chill) or dead characters who are a minor plot point or piece of trivia (as in The Good The Bad and The Ugly), more than ghost characters.
And I would argue for including the Wicked Witch of the East - you could argue that since the whole thing was something in Dorothy’s head while she was unconscious, she didn’t exist until Dorothy’s house fell on her. And even if she did have some objective existence at some point, since we never see her it doesn’t matter.
eta: ninja’d on my last point by **Robot Arm**.
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### Author:  [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/49 "2016-05-17T16:23:45Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Martin Guerre
Rather depends on the version. In the historical case, it’s usually accepted that the real Martin Guerre turned up during the trial. Different fictional adaptions then tend to handle that aspect differently.
For example, take the three best known recent versions. The 1982 French film follows the historical facts fairly closely and has someone claiming to be the real Martin appear at the trial. However - and it’s a while since I’ve seen it - while there’s some ambiguity about whether he’s not just another imposter, it’s clearly intended that he may well be the real one. By contrast, _Sommersby_ handily meets the OP’s condition, since the notion is that having buried the real Sommersby at the beginning of the film, Richard Gere takes on his identity. Judging by the Wiki synopsis, in the stage musical it’s clearly the real Martin who comes back at the end.
My own suggestion: Falstaff dying off-stage in _Henry V_. No corpse as such, but the characters reminiscing about him makes for one of the play’s most famous scenes. Since he appears in the other plays, this is somewhat the equivalent of the _Weekend at Bernie’s II_ example.
Which may be the first time anyone has compared _Henry V_ to _Weekend at Bernie’s II_.
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/50 "2016-05-17T16:30:56Z")
Henri Baq - killed at the beginning of the movie, his death was used to get Hemlock to agree to perform **The Eiger Sanction**
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/51 "2016-05-17T16:36:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> [del]Harry Lime in _The Third Man_[/del]
:: golf clap ::
Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi master who arranges for the creation of the huge clone Grand Army of the Republic in _Star Wars: Attack of the Clones_.
Charles Grady, Jack Torrance’s doomed predecessor as hotel caretaker in _The Shining_ (and most of the people Jack later sees, for that matter).
Gazerbeam, who died on Nomanisan Island but left a crucial clue behind in _The Incredibles_.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/52 "2016-05-17T16:47:56Z")
**[The Detective](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Detective_(1968_film))**. The victim is dead in the first scene.
Sylvia Lennox in **The Long Goodbye**.
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/53 "2016-05-17T17:10:23Z")
Maybe Susie Salmon in _The Lovely Bones_, but I don’t remember if the first part of the movie is her alive or a flashback
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### Author:  [@Zuzu\_s\_Petals](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zuzu_s_Petals)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/54 "2016-05-17T18:08:11Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#):
>
> At the beginning of the film the camera pans from the street to a window - with closed curtains - and we hear a man (Kentley) screaming. Then we cut to an interior and Kentley is being strangled and on the very point of death. His scream stops, his eyes close and his head slumps.
>
> TCMF-2L
Ah. So close… 😉
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### Author:  [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/55 "2016-05-17T18:11:26Z")
There was a movie in the '50s or early '60s I vaguely remember called “The Busy Body” which had much the same idea as “Weekend at Bernie’s”, except a couple of guys were moving the body all over New York trying to get rid of it. The featured actor in the film was Sid Caesar. I do not know who played the dead guy…It could have been Ben Blue, but I don’t know for sure.
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/56 "2016-05-17T18:14:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Gazerbeam, who died on Nomanisan Island but left a crucial clue behind in _The Incredibles_.
Doesn’t he show up at the wedding? Not a flashback, even?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/57 "2016-05-17T18:15:21Z")
Sir Charles Baskerville’s (off-screen) death is what gets the plot moving in _The Hound of the Baskervilles._
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### Author:  [@Smitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smitty)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/58 "2016-05-17T18:21:37Z")
The father whose death kicks off the events of **Death at a Funeral**? I don’t remember off hand if he is seen alive or not.
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/59 "2016-05-17T18:24:12Z")
In **Treasure Island** the treasure map (and the treasure) are from the long dead Captain Flint.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/60 "2016-05-17T18:30:50Z")
Scraping the bottom of the barrel here but King Solomon was dead for centuries before the events in \*\*King Solomon’s Mines.
\*\*
TCMF-2L
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