History Main / AuthorExistenceFailure

* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/Vappyvap88 Vappyvap88]], a well-known creator of WebVideo/{{Vinesauce}} compilation videos, passed away from complications of COVID-19 on April 22nd, 2020.

* Wrestling/BrodieLee. He was brought in to elevate the floundering stable of the Dark Order and by all measures did just that. His last match in Wrestling/AEW had him losing a tltle match and then taking time off TV to recover from injuries, with more stories to tell after beforing suffering from a lung disease and never recovering.

[[folder:Pro Wrestling]]
* WWE superstar Michael "Hawk" Hegstrand appeared with his partner Joe "Animal" Laurinatis on the May 17, 2003 ''WWE RAW'' and despite his history of severe drug and alcohol abuse, performed exceptionally well, as he had finally gotten completely clean. According to those who knew him, Hegstrand had dedicated himself to staying drug-free for the rest of his life; unfortunately, his years of drug abuse had taken such a physical toll on his body that he died of a heart attack six months later. He, unlike many drug addicts and alcoholics, managed to live up to hope - [[ExactWords he remained clean for the rest of his life]].
* Wrestling/EddieGuerrero. Having become a born-again Christian and cleaned up from his pill-popping days, Eddie was set to participate in the upcoming RAW vs. [=SmackDown=] ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries'' match and -- according to Wrestling/StephanieMcMahon, who may have been emotionally compromised at the time -- win the World Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately, the weekend after he qualified for the aforementioned ''Survivor Series'' match, Eddie died of an unexpected heart attack at the age of 38, all those years of drug abuse having finally caught up to him.
* Wrestling/ChrisBenoit. His death was just as tragic as his best friend Eddie's, [[PaterFamilicide for all the wrong reasons]]. If he hadn't died, he would've won the ECW Championship and worked a program with Wrestling/CMPunk.
* Wrestling/BrodieLee. He was brought in to elevate the floundering stable of the Dark Order and by all measures did just that. His last match in Wrestling/AEW had him losing a tltle match and then taking time off TV to recover from injuries, with more stories to tell after beforing suffering from a lung disease and never recovering.
[[/folder]]

* Brice Armstrong, who played Miss Etta in ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'', died in January 2020 of natural causes, while a ContinuityReboot, as well as another movie, were still in development. It is unknown if she and fellow puppet character Scooter will be in either of these productions due to this or if they'll appear with new voices, as the original show had an odd tendency to replace the voices of the costume characters every few years due to the FleetingDemographicRule.

* [=YouTuber=] Corey La Barrie posted a video called "Deleting this video in 24 hours" on his birthday in 2020. That night, he was killed by his drunk driving friend. The video is still up, and probably will be for the end of time.

* After Creator/MiguelFerrer died of throat cancer, his character Owen Granger in ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' was written off as taking care of some "unfinished business".

----

* ''Manga/BarefootGen'' was discontinued in 2009 due to author Keiji Nakazawa's developing cataracts and vision problems, and he died of cancer just three years later.

** Creator/MiyuMatsuki, the voice of Choppy in ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar'', died in October 2015 of lymphoma that she got as a complication of a chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection. This happened while ''[[Anime/PrettyCureAllStars Pretty Cure All Stars: Minna De Utau Kiseki no Mahou]]'', which featued the cast of all the Pretty Cure series until ''Anime/MahoGirlsPrecure'' including the ''Splash Star'' characters, was still in production. As a result, Cure Bloom was the only ''Splash Star'' character to have a speaking role in the film, and Lulun was the only pre-''Go! Princess'' fairy from the franchise to speak. This event, along with the fact that there were now [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters way too many Cures to give speaking and screen roles to]], led to the ''All Stars'' films from then on featuring only the current team and the two teams before it. The later film ''Anime/HugttoPrettyCure [[Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Futari Wa Pretty Cure:]] [[Anime/PrettyCureAllStars All Star Memories]]'', which features the ''Splash Star'' characters once again, did not include the fairies from that incarnation, with only Mepple, Mipple and Mofurun being the three pre-''Hugtto'' fairies with speaking roles.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Franchise/WonderWoman creator William Moulton Marston died of cancer in 1947, and dispite working under a pen name which he shared with Joye Murchison on the comic DC did not keep Murchison on as writer, and instead replaced him with Creator/RobertKanigher who had a very different take on the Amazon princess and the rest of the cast, and placed everyone he didn't put on a bus in far more traditional gender roles.

* While nothing happened to the author, we do get a meta version; the ''Series/{{Glee}}'' fic ''Sister Directions'' was deleted after the death of Christina Grimmie, whom the author cast as main character Freya. To make matters worse, a new chapter had been scheduled for the same night the singer was murdered.

* Creator/WaltDisney. Though, contrary to certain urban legends, he did not cryogenically (or otherwise) preserve any part of his body and did not tell his employees exactly what to do after he left. In fact, the only project where a valid case could be made that he guided his employees following his passing was in the completion of a film he had planned based on A.A. Milne's ''Winnie the Pooh'' books; this culminated in the release of the complete feature, ''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'', in 1977 - over a decade after his passing. (This is why his name, and not that of his eponymous company, appears on the featurettes which went into full production following his death, save for one last featurette made in 1983 which still had his name instead of the company's on the closing title, and the complete feature.) The last Disney film made entirely during his lifetime was 1967's ''WesternAnimation/TheJungleBook1967''.

* Howard's mother was written out of ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' after her voice actor Carol Ann Susi died of cancer in 2014.

* Television host Larry Blyden, best known for ''Series/WhatsMyLine'', died of a car accident in Morocco in 1975. This impacted the short-lived charades GameShow ''Series/{{Showoffs}}'', as he had already taped a pilot episode before his death. As a result, creator Creator/MarkGoodson hastily replaced him with Bobby Van.

* Creator/AlexTrebek was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in March 2019, and passed away from it on November 8, 2020, while the show he was most famous for hosting, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', was still airing (his last episodes as host were taped over a week before his death). Later that month, it was announced that the series would continue with a series of intirim guest hosts, starting with Ken Jennings; a permanent successor had not been decided at the time.

* Several of the ''Series/MythBusters'' alumni are no longer with us:
** Jessi Combs passed away on August 27th, 2019, after getting into a high-speed car crash.
** Grant Imahara passed away on July 13th, 2020, after a serious brain aneurysm episode.

* In May 2015, American mathematician John Forbes Nash, whose life was dramatized in ''Film/ABeautifulMind'', [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3103618/Had-Beautiful-Mind-just-finest-work-Mathematician-Nash-told-friends-devised-equation-replace-Einstein-s-famous-theory-just-DAYS-died-car-crash.html had told a friend that he was working on an equation]] that he believed could replace UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein's Theory of Relativity. Sadly, Nash and his wife Alicia were killed in an auto accident a couple of days later as he was coming from Norway for receiving the Abel Prize.

* [[Creator/TheCynicalBrit John "TotalBiscuit" Bain]] passed away on May 24, 2018, following a four year battle with bowel cancer. Prior to his death, he announced that his hosting duties for the ''Podcast/TheCoOptionalPodcast'' would be passed to his wife, Genna, when he died, though most of the rest of the series on his channel have most likely died with him.

** Ever-so-narrowly averted by Creator/JimHenson: while he filmed his last segments for ''Sesame Street'' a year before his passing, he had many other projects that never got off the ground (or took a long time in doing so) after he died in 1990, most notably the selling of the Muppet characters to Disney, which wouldn't go through until 2004. Puppeteer Steve Whitmire [[TheOtherDarrin took over as Kermit]] almost immediately and - after spending several years as TheVoiceless - began performing Ernie as well in 1993.

*** This trope almost happened to Spinney 33 years before his actual death. In 1986, he was invited to go on the ill-fated Challenger mission as a civilian passenger. However, he rejected the offer, and social studies teacher Christa [=McAuliffe=] was chosen instead.

* The planned sequel to ''VideoGame/{{Blasto}}'' was cancelled due to the aforementioned Phil Hartman's murder-suicide two months after the first game's release.

* ''[[http://captainn.net/main.html N-Fans: The Series]]'' began to flounder in 2007, when creator Webster Swenson passed away unexpectedly. The people who inspired the other characters made a few attempts to revive the series and keep it going in his memory, but the entire website has stagnated since early 2008; the one exception is the forums, which managed to remain active until 2015.

* Tom Siddell, of ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'', joked that due to his strip buffer, if he were to keel over and die this instant, we'd still get about three months' worth of strips.

* In December 2020, a [[https://deadline.com/2020/12/night-court-sequel-john-larraquette-dan-fielding-harry-stone-daughter-melissa-rauch-nbc-reboot-1234657152/ new series]] based ''Series/NightCourt'' was announced. Since Creator/HarryAnderson, the star of the original show, had died in April 2018 of complications of the seasonal flu, this will be a sequel show that, should it make it to series, [[SpinOffspring will focus on Harry Stone's daughter Abby]].

* In December 2020, a revival of ''Series/NightCourt'' was announced. Since Creator/HarryAnderson, the star of the original show, had died in April 2018 of complications of the seasonal flu, this new revival (should it make it to series) will instead focus on Harry Stone's daughter Abby.

Not to be confused with the criticism trope known as "DeathOfTheAuthor". Or ApocalypticLog. Or CreatorKiller, where the author merely falls from grace and loses their reputation.

* Writer Kota Fukihara died in May 2020 of brain haemorrhage, just one month shy from the premier of ''Series/UltramanZ''. However, Fukihara managed to write all 25 episodes prior to his death, as both him and Taguchi wrote the series composition through reverse method. Any episodes filmed in June 2020 (after the COVID-19 pandemic restriction in Japan was lifted) has Kiyotaga Taguchi replacing Fukihara as the series' main composition.
* In December 2020, a revival of ''Series/NightCourt'' was announced. However, Harry Anderson died in April 2018 of complications of the seasonal flu, so the revival will instead focus on Harry's daughter Abby.

* In December 2020, a revival of ''Series/NightCourt'' was announced. However, Harry Anderson died in April 2018 of complications of the seasonal flu, so the revival will instead focus on Harry's daughter Abby instead.

* Sam Williams, alias Smerdyakov Karamazov of Theatre/TheFlyingKaramazovBrothers, died of a sudden heart attack while on the job with the Seattle Metro Transit, just weeks before he was to have performed with fellow FKB Paul Magid in a fundraising event. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Just before carking it over the Alaskan Way Viaduct, he had the foresight to slow down the bus he was driving and signal for the passengers to take over, so that they could guide the bus to safety as he faded away.]]

* Sam Williams, alias [[Threatre/TheFlyingKaramazovBrothers Smerdyakov Karamazov]], died of a sudden heart attack while on the job with the Seattle Metro Transit, just weeks before he was to have performed with fellow FKB Paul Magid in a fundraising event. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Just before carking it over the Alaskan Way Viaduct, he had the foresight to slow down the bus he was driving and signal for the passengers to take over, so that they could guide the bus to safety as he faded away.]]

* Shari Lewis died of ovarian cancer while ''Series/CharlieHorseMusicPizza'' was still in production. As a result, the show became a ShortRunner with only 23 episodes in the can.

* Bil Keane of ''ComicStrip/TheFamilyCircus.'' His son Jeff Keane is [[OutlivedItsCreator continuing it]], having assisted Bil with it in his final years.

* ''Series/FatherTed'' just managed to avoid this. Dermot Morgan, the actor behind the titular character, tragically died of a sudden heart attack ''24 hours'' after filming wrapped on the series' final episode. To quote Wikipedia, "The irony of Morgan's death, at a time when after twenty years of struggle, he had finally achieved financial and artistic freedom, was not lost on his family and friends and commented on by his colleagues in the media." This has actually led to a belief that ''Father Ted'' was cancelled because of his death, when in fact, it was intended to end after three seasons. British TV show seasons are very short compared to American TV show seasons. His death did still invoke this trope, though, as a new series he was thinking of doing had to be scrapped.

* Creator/AlexTrebek was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in March 2019, and passed away from it on November 8, 2020, while the show he was most famous for hosting, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', was still airing (his last episodes as host were taped over a week before his death). It is unknown how the show will handle his death.

** Joe Raposo, the show's songwriter, died on February 5, 1989 of lymphoma. New songs that he had written for this show appeared until 1990, with one nabbing him a posthumous Emmy.

** Jeff Moss died of cancer in 1998; he wrote his last song, "You and You and Me", the day of his death. The song was filmed in January 1999.

* Narrowly subverted by ''Manga/{{Gunnm}}''; the reason the original manga series had such a quick and dirty ending is because Yukito Kishiro became ''very'' ill while writing it, causing him to fear the story would be LeftHanging if he didn't [[WrapItUp give it some kind of ending while he still could]]. Luckily, his health improved and he promptly started a SequelSeries to release all the stuff he couldn't squeeze into the original.

** According to the documentary ''Won't You Be My Neighbor?'', the series ended production in 2000 when Creator/FredRogers decided not to film any new episodes because he sensed his health was becoming worse. Three years later, he would die of stomach cancer.

* The producers of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' reportedly planned for this in advance. In 2013, 60-something Creator/Georg RRMartin, author of the book series upon the program is based, revealed that he outlined his planned conclusion for the series to the showrunners, both so they could plan ahead, and also as insurance should he ever be unable to complete the final two books.

** According to the documentary ''Won't You Be My Neighbor?'', the series ended production in 2000 when Fred Rogers decided not to film any new episodes because he sensed his health was becoming worse. Three years later, he would die of stomach cancer.

* Just like the Ocean’s series above, Alfonso Ribero has stated that any hope of a ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'' reunion/reboot died with James Avery on December 31st, 2013. Nonetheless, that didn't stop Will Smith from announcing in 2020 that there would indeed be a reboot (albeit DarkerAndEdgier) and a reunion special.

* ''Series/{{Chico And The Man}}'': Freddie Prinze (Sr.) [[DrivenToSuicide killed himself]] towards the end of the third season. They wrote it into the script that Chico was visiting family in Mexico and then later stated that he died, and they tried to [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replace him]] with [[CousinOliver Raul]], but ratings dipped in the final season and it was canceled. All the more disturbing because he killed himself a few ''hours'' after taping his final episode, "Ed Talks to God."

* The 1985 TV series ''Series/LimeStreet'', starring Robert Wagner and essentially devised for [[NonActorVehicle Samantha Smith after her letter to Yuri Andropov brought her worldwide attention]], ended even before it aired - with just eight episodes produced, the 13-year-old and her father were killed in a plane crash not long before the series premiered. Rather than recast her role, the series simply ceased production. Wiki/ThatOtherWiki [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_Street_%28TV_series%29 has the whole sordid story.]]

* The producers of ''Series/GameOfThrones'' reportedly planned for this in advance. In 2013, 60-something George R.R. Martin, author of the book series upon the program is based, revealed that he outlined his planned conclusion for the series to the showrunners, both so they could plan ahead, and also as insurance should he ever be unable to complete the final two books.

* Oscar-winning film director Jonathan Demme died on April 26, 2017, [[{{Retirony}} the same day]] that an episode of the miniseries ''Series/ShotsFired'' that he had directed was first aired.

* Creator/AlexTrebek was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in March 2019, and passed away from it on November 8, 2020, while the show he was most famous for hosting, ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', was still airing. It is unknown how the show will handle his death.