There’s a new Daniel Radcliffe movie coming out soon called Swiss Army Man.
Dracula
Floyd Thursby in The Maltese Falcon was probably dead at the start.
Martin Guerre
I do realize but choose to ignore that the title says “movies”: the narrator of Desperate Housewives is dead. Very dead. Extremely dead… there are occasional dream scenes or someone remembering her, but in the majority of the episodes she is just dead. There are also some other dead people who I don’t think get shown on screen but happen to be relevant (ISTR some deceased spouses in such a situation).
Isn’t Dracula more, un-dead then dead or alive? That’s how I’ve always thought of him. If we’re going there what about Frankenstein’s monster? Was it ever actually alive?
It also seems there was a Weekend at Bernie’s II, so Bernie is still a good answer.
Alex is a major source of conversation all thru The Big Chill. They discuss his affair with Sarah, his column in the college newspaper, his plans with Chloe for the cabin, his series of jobs after college, and the fact that he was the one that brought them all together in the first place.
Yeah, I’ve seen the movie a few times…
Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol. “Marley was dead to begin with, dead as a doornail.” Okay, his ghost comes back, but he’s famously dead.
[del]Harry Lime in The Third Man[/del]
The Wicked Witch of the East?
We never see Thursby, but he was certainly alive at the beginning of the film. He was alive enough for Archer to shadow him, and he’s shot in front of his hotel shortly after Spade leaves the scene of Archer’s murder. Which is why the police think Spade killed him.
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.
Reminds of another Bogart Movie, Sean Regan is dead at the start of The Big Sleep but who killed him and why is a plot point.
In ** Stand By Me ** the whole film is four young friends searching for, and finding, the dead body of Ray Brower.
TCMF-2L
A Christmas Carol “Marley was dead: to begin with.”
Excellent example. She’s not only merely dead, she’s really most sincerely dead.
I’m pretty sure all we ever see of Alfredo Garcia is his severed head.
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.
Cary Grant and his wife in Topper.
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.
Missed the edit button. There’s also the character of Captain Gregg in The Ghost and Mrs Muir, if ghosts are included (which from the OP, I’m not certain they are).
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.