# 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:** 4
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/61 "2016-05-17T18:46:26Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#):
>
> Scraping the bottom of the barrel here but King Solomon was dead for centuries before the events in \*\*King Solomon’s Mines.
> \*\*
> TCMF-2L
A better example from the same movie (1950 version) is Henry Curtis, who his wife Elizabeth is searching for with Allan Quartermain. Henry’s skull is later found in the mines.
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/62 "2016-05-17T18:52:25Z")
I am ready to be corrected on this - and there is certainly ambiguity created with all the unidentified soldiers killed in the opening battle scene - but do we ever see any of the other Ryan brothers in **Saving Private Ryan**? The plot is based on three brothers dying hence the urgency of saving the fourth and final one.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/63 "2016-05-17T19:06:45Z")
> [@xizor](#):
>
> 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
Yes, she’s alive at the beginning IIRC.
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#):
>
> Doesn’t [Gazerbeam] show up at the wedding? Not a flashback, even?
Ooops, right you are. No lines, though.
> [@Smitty](#):
>
> 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.
I think he’s dead all along - but is he named? Can’t find his name anywhere online.
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/64 "2016-05-17T20:30:38Z")
The mother Adele in **Killer Joe** is named and seen briefly as a corpse but never alive.
Meanwhile famous John Wayne western **The Sons of Katie Elder** has Katie Elder as a major plot point (obviously), dead but never seen.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/65 "2016-05-17T21:07:30Z")
In Babylon 5, the Centauri leader has the decapitated heads of his enemies in jars on his desk, and he has conversations with them.
In Guardians of the Galaxy, part of the movie takes place within the corpse of a god.
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### Author:  [@TCMF-2L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TCMF-2L)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/66 "2016-05-17T21:10:09Z")
One of the most quoted lines from one of the most quotable films - **The Princess Bride**.
‘_My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die_.’
Elsewhere the father is given the complete name of Domingo Montoya.
TCMF-2L
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### Author:  [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/67 "2016-05-17T21:16:40Z")
Chester Copperpot and One-Eyed-Willy from _The Goonies_
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/68 "2016-05-17T21:21:34Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> That’s just not the question I was trying to ask in the OP. For most of _Sunset Boulevard_ we see Joe during his lifetime, taking part in events and interacting with people . . .
Dog my cats! You’re right! I had completely mucked that up, and thought he was a deader, just a body in a pool, the whole movie through. I had honestly forgotten that he was alive in all the main sequences of the movie. My blunder.
(But, _god damn it_, I did read the OP! It was the movie I’d forgotten!)
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### Author:  [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)
#### Post date: [May 17, 2016, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/69 "2016-05-17T23:31:40Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
>
> Unless it took you an hour and five minutes to compose this post, then, yeah, you didn’t read closely enough. 😉
:smack::smack::smack:
(sorry, **Bryan Ekers** :o)
Not _ **100%** _ sure if buddy was dead, but there’s the Monty Python sketch where some poor sap is thrown into a rugby scrum. I did hear some agonized moaning and yelping, so maybe he was still alive as he was getting tossed and booted around.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/70 "2016-05-18T00:00:29Z")
In Journey to the Center of the Earth, Arne Saknussem’s skeleton is found lying on the floor of the cavern where he died, pointing to the exit, providing them with the clue they need to get back to the surface.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/71 "2016-05-18T00:21:22Z")
I think that in the 2010 version of _True Grit_, Mattie Ross’s father Frank Ross is killed off screen before the movie starts. (IIRC, in the 1969 version the movie starts with his murder.)
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/72 "2016-05-18T00:32:18Z")
Carlotta Valdes, in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/73 "2016-05-18T01:05:03Z")
Rembrandt, _Silver Streak_.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/74 "2016-05-18T02:05:28Z")
If we’re going Python, then surely the canonical example is the parrot.
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### Author:  [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/75 "2016-05-18T02:23:56Z")
What about _The Last of Sheila_? Been a while since I’ve seen it. The movie takes place some time after Sheila’s death, but I don’t recall if there were flashbacks showing her.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/76 "2016-05-18T02:29:27Z")
Not a main character by any means, but Paula Schultz died before the events of Kill Bill vol 1 & 2. Many think she’s the wife of [King Schultz](http://killbill.wikia.com/wiki/Paula_Schulz) in Django Unchained, but it’s unconfirmed…
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/77 "2016-05-18T03:56:53Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#):
>
> How do we feel about The **Wicked Witch of the East** in **Wizard of Oz**?
>
> First seen as under Dorothy’s house - Dead. Massively important to the plot since her corpse provides the Ruby Slippers plus her death provokes the Wicked Witch of the West to pursue Dorothy.
>
> TCMF-2L
>
> DAMN. Ninjad by Ludovic. Bugger.
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> The Wicked Witch of the East?
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> Excellent example. She’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.
> [@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.
All wrong! The first glimpse we have of her is [riding a broomstick](https://youtu.be/RQWSh7Db-_E) in the tornado that carries the house to Oz. About 3:30 seconds or so in.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/78 "2016-05-18T04:21:32Z")
> [@Morgyn](#):
>
> All wrong! The first glimpse we have of her is [riding a broomstick](https://youtu.be/RQWSh7Db-_E) in the tornado that carries the house to Oz. About 3:30 seconds or so in.
That’s the [Wicked Witch of the West](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WnXAl1ntt_4/hqdefault.jpg), played by Margaret Hamilton. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, is the one that is killed by Dorothy’s house falling on her. All we ever see of her is [her feet (wearing the Ruby Slippers.)](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/ea/b9/28eab966135257caade825c4bd623c6d.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/79 "2016-05-18T04:36:07Z")
In _The Lost World_ (1925 version), the remains of Maple White, the original discoverer of the plateau, are found by the expedition after they reach it. (In the 1960 version, the same character, named Burton White, is still alive.)
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2016, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-and-truly-dead-movie-characters/754961/80 "2016-05-18T04:56:27Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Martin Guerre
If you mean from the French film with Gerard Depardieu, Guerre turns up alive at the end, and in any event, is shown as a youth just married in flashbacks earlier in the film.
> [@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.
I’d say this is a great example, since the whole film is essentially about the elephant in the room, aka, the corpse in the trunk in the middle of the room during a party. If we see him alive, it’s for seconds.
> [@Folacin](#):
>
> I’d have to say ‘no’ - she [The Witch of the East] was not dead at the beginning of the movie, or else Dorothy couldn’t have landed a house on her.
>
> > [@Morgyn](#):
> >
> > All wrong! The first glimpse we have of her is [riding a broomstick](https://youtu.be/RQWSh7Db-_E) in the tornado that carries the house to Oz. About 3:30 seconds or so in.
> >
> > > [@Colibri](#):
> > >
> > > That’s the [Wicked Witch of the West](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WnXAl1ntt_4/hqdefault.jpg), played by Margaret Hamilton. Her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, is the one that is killed by Dorothy’s house falling on her. All we ever see of her is [her feet (wearing the Ruby Slippers.)](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/ea/b9/28eab966135257caade825c4bd623c6d.jpg)
I think Morgyn is right. Miss Gultch morphs into the Witch of the East. He hair is down, she has a cape, her costume looks like it’s not all black, and most importantly, she appears to be wearing the ruby slippers. Margaret Hamilton plays both witches.
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