Probably Mario. Followed by the Marathon security officer, or either of the Russian characters from the first Call of Duty.
Whoa, I totally forgot about this game! ARGH! ::reliving frustration::
Definitely Jumpman, Mario a close second. After that, maybe Prince Alexander from KQ 6, I think it was (there was one part of that game that took me a month to figure out… a month of many deaths).
Are counting online multi-player FPSers? 'Cause I die a lot in Halo2.
After that, I have to say Mario. After I got the (nearly) unlimited life in world 3.1 of SMB I would get very careless.
Probably a tie for Lev Arris in Privateer II: The Darkening (to this day, Clive Owen’s voice grabs my attention), and James Earl Cash in Manhunt.
Hey man, whatever you like, cause it’s like a free board. Except for the subscription fee we pay every year. And the rules we have to follow but other then that, freedom.
I’m surprised Mario isn’t really dominating this thread. Although actually thinking about it most of my deaths with him were earlier on when I wasn’t as good of a gamer as I am now. Take Mario Sunshine, I probably only lost about 25 lives to win that game and half of those were in the pinball level. That’s a very rough estimate. Whereas several levels in the Jak games having timing so precise you have to do it a dozen or more times to get it down. Plus it has a very quick death/restart period.
Dangerous Dave by a wide margin. I spent whole afternoons just playing the first few levels over and over - my GOD was that control frustrating.
Definitely the soldier in Commando (back on the C-64).
I’m sure it’d be Captain Falcon. He’s my primary character in Smash Brothers (both of them) and also I play as him in F-Zero GX. In fact, if I can be bothered, I’m sure I can get actual statistics on how many times I’ve died as Falcon in Smash Brothers Melee. It’d have to be well into the thousands. I’ve caused more falls than I’ve suffered though.
Damn you! I was reading through the thread hoping to be the first.
Gosh, we’re old, huh? 
I’ve got most of my early teen years logged on that game.
An honorable mention to the helicopter pilot in an early Apple game (“Sortie”?) where you had to pick up your guys before the tanks shot them and get them back home while you avoided enemy fire.
I need to add these too.
The Monkey chararcters in Donkey Kong country, 1, 2, and 3.
Gordon Freeman.
Ain’t it grand? Let freedom ring. Or let freedom cha-ching.