This story contains detailed spoilers for each of the series highlighted, including HBO’s The Last of Us.
TV shows kill off their characters for a lot of reasons. Sometimes the actors are ready to move on, sometimes the writers are trying to pump up the ratings with a dramatic death, and sometimes their hands are tied by the source material they’re adapting. As viewers, we make peace with the fact that none of the characters we’ve grown attached to are 100% safe. But every once in a while, a death comes along that is so heartbreaking it overrides our ability to remind ourselves that it’s only a TV show. Here are some of the most devastating, the most brutal, and the most tragic deaths that still upset us to this day.
Lane Pryce – Mad Men
Lane Pryce may not have been your favorite characters on Mad Men, but he is without a doubt one of its most pitiable figures. A mild-mannered Englishman, Pryce served as a representative of the larger British company that bought Sterling Cooper, only to go rogue and help them stage a coup d’etat. He was a founding member of the new agency, but money problems followed him there – as a partner, he was required to help financially support the fledgling company, much more than he could afford. After getting caught forging Don’s signature to prevent his financial ruin, he was allowed to resign rather than being fired. Overwhelmed by the shame and feeling as though he was out of options, he died by hanging in his office, a kind, gentle man who was in far over his head.
Seymour – Futurama
That’s right – this is the episode of Futurama that everyone skips over unless they’re in a really dark place. As we all know, Fry was inadvertently frozen at the turn of the millennium, only to be unthawed 1000 years later and forced to reckon with an entirely new futuristic society. But it’s only in this episode that we see the impact of this event on Fry’s faithful dog, Seymour, who waited every single day for his master’s return until eventually dying at the age of 15. The writers of Futurama (who clearly didn’t get enough hugs as children) knew how much of a gut punch they were delivering, and didn’t hold back even the tiniest amount, making Jurassic Bark one of the most upsetting episodes of the entire show.
Mark Greene – ER
Any show that takes place primarily in an emergency room is going to have people dying left, right, and center. But you’re expecting patients to die, not doctors, and definitely not members of the central cast. Dr. Mark Greene (played by Anthony Edwards) was one of the quiet, reliable leaders of ER – less flashy than his superstar costar George Clooney, but nonetheless incredibly important to the show. In the eighth season of ER, Edwards was ready to take a final bow, and the writers spared no expense in giving him an emotional farewell. After being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, Greene spends his remaining time with loved ones, eventually passing away in his sleep and signalling the end of an era for the long-running medical drama.
Opie Winston – Sons of Anarchy
Even before his shocking, untimely death, Opie Winston had a rough go of it. In the first season, his wife was murdered at the hands of Clay and his goons, who were tricked into thinking that Opie planned on betraying them. As a result, he not only lost his wife, but his entire social circle, as her death left a wedge between him and the rest of the gang. And then when he finally rejoins the circle, he is arrested. While in prison, he makes the choice to sacrifice his life so that Jax and his friends can go free, a decision that sees him brutally beaten to death by a prison gang.
Dan Conner – Roseanne
There’s something so incredibly likeably about John Goodman, especially in his role as everyman Dan Conner on Roseanne. The easygoing patriarch who balanced out Roseanne Barr’s more over-the-top antics, Dan Conner will go down in television history as one of the best sitcom dads ever. Which is why it was so upsetting to learn in the final season of Roseanne that Dan died of a heart attack, and that all of his most recent appearances on the show were merely a product of Roseanne’s grieving mind. As far as deaths go, however, Dan’s wasn’t particularly permanent. When the show was rebooted in 2018, it was explained that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated: Apparently it was all part of a book Roseanne was writing, and he never actually died.
Poussey Washington – Orange Is the New Black
Some television deaths feel inevitable – you can see them coming from miles away. Poussey Washington’s death on Orange Is the New Black, on the other hand, is incredibly sad precisely because it doesn’t feel like it had to happen at all. Her’s is a pointless, accidental death, just another inmate killed in a prison riot. When she attempts to intervene when one of her fellow inmates begins attacking one of the guards, she is restrained, but the guard holding her down doesn’t realize that Poussey is slowly being suffocated until its too late. Through her death, we are shown the brutality of the prison guard structure, where officers are encouraged to respond to even peaceful protests with violence.
Derek Shepherd – Grey’s Anatomy
It’s probably not overstating things to say that the character of Derek Shepherd was integral to the success of the early seasons of Grey’s Anatomy. Played by Patrick Dempsey, who was given the nickname of “McDreamy,” Derek Shepherd was a neurosurgeon and the main love interest of Meredith Grey. He lasted for 11 seasons on the show, before being killed in a car crash. If he died on the scene, it might not have made this list. But what makes his death so tragic is that he’s taken to the hospital, begs the doctors for the treatment that he (again, a neurosurgeon) knows he needs, only to be denied a CT scan until it is too late to do any good. We hear his voiceover, narrating until the very end, capping off a beloved character’s tenure on the show with a glimpse into his last moment of consciousness.
Omar Little – The Wire
In the harsh world of The Wire, Omar Little was like a Shakespearean figure. Existing in an amoral space that didn’t quite align with either law enforcement or the drug gangs, he operated by his own personal code of ethics. After his best friend was murdered in a crime of vengeance against him, the retired Omar got back in the game, putting himself on a collision course with death. His final moments purposefully defy expectations – after an epic shootout, he limps away to a convenient store, where he is executed by a young boy, a strange end for such a mighty character.
Will Gardner – The Good Wife
If nothing else, Will Gardner’s death on The Good Wife is probably one of the most unexpected to appear on this list. After all, Gardner was a lawyer (traditionally not the most dangerous of careers), he seemed to be in perfect health, and the show gave no indication leading up to his death that they had any intention of killing him off. But then came the 15th episode of the fifth season, and all of a sudden, one of the most beloved characters on the show was brutally gunned down by his own client who was on trial for murder. The melodrama came to a roaring crescendo, as Jeffrey Grant (Hunter Parrish) stole the court officer’s gun and shot him, leaving Gardner bleeding out on the courtroom floor and the hearts of viewers everywhere in tatters.
Sarah Lynn – Bojack Horseman
There’s a laundry list of people whose lives Bojack Horseman has played a pretty significant role in destroying, and Sarah Lynn has to be near the top. One of the three human children adopted by Bojack’s character on the 1990s hit sitcom Horsin’ Around, Sarah Lynn’s life followed the trajectory of far many child stars in Hollywood. Childhood acting career, followed by a sexy dance hit to prove she’s all grown up, then drugs, rehab, redemption, and finally, a tragic overdose. After nine months sober, Bojack invites her to party, giving her an opportunity to relapse. As the two spend a drug-fuelled night at a planetarium, she dies of a heroin overdose. Her last words are, “I wanna be an architect,” calling back to her childhood dreams and all the promise that was stolen from her.
Hodor – Game of Thrones
After six seasons of Game of Thrones, audiences probably thought that they were numb to emotionally devastating deaths. But the showrunners had one more trick up their sleeve as they killed off the gentle giant and audience favorite, Hodor, who died protecting Bran from the White Walkers. Moments earlier, Bran had used his powers to warg into Hodor, the mental effects of which rippled through time. We learn that the one thing Hodor is able to say – what we believe to his own name – is actually “Hold the door,” a command imprinted on him in childhood, thanks to Bran’s clumsy efforts to take control of his mind. Goodbye, sweet prince. You were too good for this world.
Fred – Angel
A spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel was essentially the bubbly teen vampire show’s morose, more “adult” sister series. And one of the basic ground rules of Angel was that no one was allowed to be too happy. If you see people on the show starting to get too comfortable, watch out – someone’s probably going to die. In the case of Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and Fred (Amy Acker), the two fledgling lovebirds had finally gotten on the same wavelength with one another and were beginning to embark on a romantic relationship. That is, until Fred was infected with the spirit of an ancient god, Illyria, which essentially hollowed her out until there was nothing of Fred left. In her last moments before Illyria took full control of her body, Fred lay in Wesley’s arms, asking one final heartbreaking question: “Why can’t I stay?”
Mr. Hooper – Sesame Street
When most people think of the lessons taught on Sesame Street, things like letters, numbers, and sharing come to mind. But when Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, died in 1982, the show saw the opportunity to engage with its audience of preschoolers on the unlikeliest of subjects: death and the grieving process. Rather than recasting Mr. Hooper or creating a storyline where the character moved away, they chose to have the character die along with his actor. Sesame Street consulted with child psychologists to determine the best way to depict this on screen, and the result is a raw and powerful scene where Big Bird grapples with the fact that his beloved Mr. Hooper has died. The way that the other characters describe it to him – in simple and direct language – is devastating, as is Big Bird’s horrified reaction.
Henry Blake – MASH
MASH was, at its heart, a dark comedy satirizing war – but that didn’t mean it couldn’t deliver a dramatic gut punch when it needed to. Colonel Henry Blake was one of the most likeable characters on the show, and in the third season he received an honorable discharge that would allow him to return home. But tragically, although he survived active duty, his plane back to the United States was shot down and he was killed, as reported by his shell-shocked colleague. A cruel twist of fate, his death is not even allowed the opportunity to be properly mourned – the doctors gape at the news for a few seconds, but then there are new patients brought in that need to be attended to, and his funeral march is the terse clicking of medical instruments as his colleagues do their best to attend to business as usual. His death caused a public outcry, with its producers allegedly receiving hundreds of complaints.
Bobby Singer – Supernatural
At the heart of Supernatural is the story of two traumatized boys trying to make an emotionally distant father proud of them. Although the Winchesters had an actual dad, their relationship with him was frequently tense, and in a lot of ways, the gruff but big-hearted Bobby Singer filled the role of surrogate father better than anyone else. Throughout the series, he’s the comforting presence they go to whenever they need additional support, one of the only constants in their extremely turbulent life. So it’s especially crushing when they lose him after he is shot in the head by the leader of the Leviathans, then falls into a coma and dies shortly after. The Winchester brothers, the closest thing he has to family, are by his side in the hospital when he goes, and their emotional connection to Bobby makes this one of the most gut-wrenching deaths in a show filled to the brim with loss.
Ben Sullivan – Scrubs
If you have Brendan Fraser as a guest star on your show, and you have the gall to kill his character off – honestly, how dare you? Fraser appeared as Ben Sullivan on Scrubs, a close friend of Dr. Cox whose cancer, previously in remission, began aggressively spreading throughout his entire body. He died shortly thereafter, and although he was only in two episodes of the show, his death had a massive impact. Most notably, it gave John C. McGinley as Perry Cox the rare emotional moment as he mourns his dear friend, a stark change from his usual gruff and sardonic exterior.
Jack Pearson – This Is Us
This Is Us let us know from the very beginning that it was going to be the sort of show that you could burn through an entire box of tissues on any given episode. So when it became clear that Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) died at some point during the Pearson kids’ childhood, everyone was anxiously awaiting the episode that would actually explore his passing. And as it turns out, it’s all the crockpot’s fault. After an electric fire torches the Pearson family home, Jack runs back into the house to rescue the dog and some sentimental items. Although he (and the dog, don’t worry) make it out, he goes into cardiac arrest later that night as a result of smoke inhalation and dies suddenly, upending the lives of his entire family. Even though audiences had quite some time to prepare for his death, it still came as a massive shock to finally see it play out on screen.
Glenn – The Walking Dead
Glenn, played by Steven Yeun, is one of the original survivors of The Walking Dead, a character who is around from the very first episode. Over the course of the series, he quickly became a fan favorite, and was one of the people audiences most wanted to see make it through the zombie apocalypse more or less intact. Alas, the world of The Walking Dead was not kind to anyone, and Glenn was no exception. In the sixth season of the show, Glenn and his band of survivors ran afoul of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who planned to punish them with the use of his trademark weapon, Lucille. Although the writers of The Walking Dead played fast and loose with the show’s comic book canon, Glenn’s death was judged to be too important to the overall narrative, even though everyone wanted Glenn to survive. And so the show lost one of its most likeable characters in the seventh season premiere, brutally beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Joyce Summers – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The tragic irony of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is that the one death on the show that brought every single character to their knees wasn’t a supernatural one, with a character dying at the hands of a vampire or demon. In the fifth season episode entitled “The Body,” Buffy Summers’ world came crashing down when she came home to discover her mother, Joyce, lying dead on the couch of an apparent aneurysm. Whereas the rest of the show leans into its fantasy elements, this episode is heartbreakingly real, as we watch the aftermath of her death play out almost in real time. Each character has a moving reaction to losing Joyce, from Buffy’s soft, childish, “Mommy?” when she realizes her mother isn’t responsive, to Anya’s struggle to understand the entire concept of death. A lot of people died on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: It was just that kind of show. But no loss carried more weight than Joyce Summers.
Sarah – The Last of Us
The Last of Us has been known for its devastating opening since its release, but no one could have anticipated that HBO would manage to make Joel’s loss of his daughter Sarah even more devastating. The series pilot may be long, but it’s time well spent as The Last of Us series makes sure we get to know Sarah before her untimely end. Of course, some of the credit must go to Pedro Pascal for his heart wrenching performance as he begs his daughter to hold on. The familiarity we’re granted early on coupled with impeccable acting immediately solidified Sarah’s death as one of the most devastating losses in television.
