I caught Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein the other day for the first time since it was released in theaters. As I saw Helena Bonham Carter set aflame for a fiery death, it struck me that last year’s Sweeney Todd marked Carter’s second death by being set on fire.
Now, no doubt there are many actors who have been twice shot and several who have been twice stabbed or twice died of disease- but for the same actor to be twice set aflame, that is something curiously remarkable.
So, what are some other examples of actors who have twice (or more) died the same unusual death?
Again, common deaths like gunshots don’t count- unless there were such a case as an actor who died twice of a gunshot delivered via a “Moe Greene Special” or some method similarly unusual.
Also, twice facing an unusual death doesn’t count- same actor who once dies in a woodchipper and once by rabid muskrat attack- it must twice (or more) be the same unusual death: twice in a woodchipper or twice by rabid muskrats.
John Hurt. Alien bursting out of chest; first in Alien, then for laughs in Spaceballs. (Don’t know if this one counts, though, since the second occurrence was a direct spoof of the first.)
In a similar vein, Mark Hamill gets a hand chopped off in The Empire Strikes Back, finds himself saying “Not again!” in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Peter “Doctor Who” Davison has on twoseparate occasionsplayed the murderer in a 1930s British murder mystery. Presumably his character was hanged both times, although it happened offscreen.
Daryl Hanna, Blade Runner and Kill Bill she had the same exact death scene…now that I think about it, not quite, she was shot in one and bitten by a snake in the other but the deaths were the same anyhow
yeah yeah yeah I had a drink or 3, I hope that makes sense
I thought Judy Davis got decapitated a lot, although the only examples I can think of are Barton Fink (off-camera) and Naked Lunch (Head exploded in gunshot incident). I always thought the perfect indy film would feature her being decapitated while Stanley Tucci, tied to a chair, is forced to watch.
I’ve only seen one Linnea Quigley movie, but I’m guessing multiple zombie attacks.
This doesn’t really count, but Janet Leigh’s film characters have had extraordinarily bad luck in motel rooms. Of course, there’s her signature role as the murder victim in Psycho, and then she gets gang-raped (though not killed) in Touch of Evil in another motel room. There was at least one other movie where she’s brutally attaked in a motel room. Can’t remember the name of it, but I do remember watching it on a late show once and thinking “Damn! Janet Leigh is getting attacked in a motel room again???”
Per IMDB, Steve Buscemi dies, with more and more of him dismembered. Ending with Fargo (this link), where he winds up in a wood chipper with nothing but a leg intact. Admittedly, this is one of those “director’s trademark” things.
Eh, I’m going to disqualify cancer, heart failure, and explosion. There’s nothing unusual about the first two, and in film there’s nothing unusual about the third.
The only one I can think of is Lee Marvin. He was twice killed by John Wayne and he was supposedly drunk both times (the character, not Marvin, although from what I’ve heard about Marvin, he could have been too). The Comancheros and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence