The Character Died With Him / Live-Action TV

• In a Soap Opera, this is one of the only occasions when you know a character is not coming back from the dead (regardless of whether they ever found the body), although this is usually reserved for elderly actors who have played the role for so long that it would be impossible, if not outright disrespectful, to re-cast the part.
  • On All My Children, Erica Kane's mother Mona developed lung cancer at the same time as her actress Frances Helfin. When Helfin passed away, a scene was written into the show in which Erica goes into her mother's room and comes out devastated at having found that she died in her sleep.
  • On As the World Turns, when Benjamin Hendrickson died in 2006, his character Chief was also killed off.
  • Coronation Street actress Betty Driver died aged 91, so her character Betty Williams was killed off as well. This has happened several times in Coronation Street: Jack Walker, Jerry Booth, Albert Tatlock, Stan Ogden, Bert Tilsley, Blanche Hunt, and Deirdre Barlow. Elsie Tanner and Christine Hardman were all mentioned as having died several years after they left the show and Annie Walker is talked about in the past tense.
  • This was done on Days of Our Lives when the last remaining original cast member, Frances Reid (who played matriarch Alice Horton), passed away. Macdonald Carey was given the same treatment when he died in 1994.
  • On General Hospital, Anna Lee died in 2004, and her character Lila Quartermaine was killed off. John Ingle, who played her husband, died of cancer in September 2012, and so his character Edward Quartermaine died of a heart condition. His last word before passing: the name of his beloved wife Lila.
    • Before that, Emily McLaughlin, who had played Nurse Jessie Brewer from the beginning of the show in 1963, passed away in 1991. Although Jessie had only been seen sporadically in later years, John Beradino (who had played Dr. Steve Hardy from the beginning of the series) broke character at the end of an episode to announce McLaughlin's passing. Jessie was officially acknowledged in-story as having passed on during the 30th-anniversary episode two years later.
    • Beradino passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1996, and Dr. Hardy was written as having died of a heart attack. The two characters did make a return appearance in 2015, but only as a flashback to their younger days, with current cast members (Rebecca Herbst/Nurse Elizabeth Webber and Jason Thompson/Dr. Patrick Drake) playing the roles.
    • Both Lee and Gail Baldwin were both officially written out in 2017 & 2019 , after the deaths of their respective actors, Peter Hansen and Susan Brown.
    • After John Reilly's death in 2021, his character Sean Donely was also written out of the show. John Reilly's tribute episode was notable for casting Donely's real life daughter, Catlin Reily, to potray Annie Donely, the daughter of Sean and Tiffany.
    • Sonya Eddy (Nurse Ephiphany Johnson) passed away in late 2022 at age 55. A tribute episode to her character was aired in March of 2023, with Epiphany passing away off screen. Later that year, Eddy would win a Posthumous Daytime Emmy for her role on General Hospital.
    • In January of 2024, Carly gets word that her mother, Bobbie, has passed away. This came after Bobbie's actress, Jackie Zeman passed away from Cancer at the age of 70 in May 2023.
  • A very touching example occurred on One Life to Live. NYPD officer John W. Perry had frequently appeared on the show as an extra by the time of his death during the September 11th attacks. The first anniversary was commemorated when Commissioner Bo Buchanan was seen looking at John's picture and sadly musing, "I can't believe it's been a year;" the scene evidently did not require much acting on the part of Bo's actor, Robert Woods. The in-universe story was that Perry had been visiting New York on that day (the show is set in Pennsylvania, making this plausible), but had died as he had in Real Life — rushing down to the Trade Center to help, and killed when the South Tower collapsed. It was very well-handled, especially for an entertainment genre that had struggled over how or if to acknowledge the tragedy onscreen.
  • Also on One Life to Live was Michael Zaslow, who played David Renaldi; the actor was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and confined to a wheelchair. The character, who was absent from the show for several years, was given the same diagnosis when he returned. When Zaslow passed away in 1998, David was written to have likewise died.
• A rare double case occurred in the series 15/Love, where two main characters were killed off in one heartbreaking episode in a plane crash because of the (very) young actors' deaths in the same car accident.
• Unlike All in the Family, on the original British show Till Death Us Do Part the demise of the protagonist Alf's wife Else - for which it was retooled into In Sickness and In Health - was due to the genuine demise of actress Dandy Nichols.
• Angel:
  • In a strange view of this trope, the character Doyle was supposed to come Back from the Dead but this became impossible when Glenn Quinn died of a drug overdose.
  • Following Andy Hallett's death, his character, Lorne, was retired in a self-titled, one-shot comic. While it would've been easy to keep the character alive since the series had long since transitioned from television to comic books, this was seen as the proper way to give tribute to the actor.
• Auf Wiedersehen, Pet:
  • Following Gary Holton's death, Wayne's role in the rest of the series was filled by Noel Clarke as his illegitimate son, Wyman. The final episode of Series 2 opens with a spoken dedication to Holton's memory by Tim Healy.
  • Pat Roach (Bomber) was terminally ill when shooting began for the 2004 two-part special and died that July. In the series, Bomber is said to have retired, and the other six raise a glass in his honour during a restaurant scene, toasting, "To Bomber!". A dedication to Roach's memory appears at the end of the final episode.
• Barney Miller: When Jack Soo (who portrayed Nick Yemana) passed away, a Clip Show episode was made as a tribute to him (with the cast breaking character for this occasion). Sometime later, it was mentioned that Nick had passed on and his desk had been removed. A subsequent episode focused on the desk and Barney's (successful) attempt to get it back.
• The character of Mrs. Wolowitz on The Big Bang Theory took a trip to Florida and died there in her sleep after the actress who provided her voice, Carol Ann Susi, died from cancer. There are quite a few episodes dealing with the in-universe aftermath, including the characters holding a toast to her and her son Howard trying to get her ashes after they were misplaced.
• Charlie Murphy died in between seasons 2 and 3 of Black Jesus. This is acknowledged in the Season 3 premiere, where it's revealed that despite Vic (Charlie Murphy's character) being an asshole and not believing that Jesus was the real Jesus, his love for God still got him into Heaven.
• The Blacklist: Following the death of his actor, Clark Middleton, between seasons in October 2020, Reddington's tracker Glen is revealed in early Season 8 to have died offscreen. They even take it a step further and mention that he died in-universe from the same cause (West Nile virus).
• Blue Bloods: Treat Williams was killed in a car accident in July 2023, between seasons 13 and 14. His character — Frank's former partner Lenny Ross — passed away from cancer the day before the events of the third episode of season 14 and the episode itself was dedicated to Williams.
• Bonanza: When Dan Blocker unexpectedly died before the start of the 1972-1973 season, his character of Hoss Cartwright was never seen again. It was never stated outright, but it had been strongly alluded to that Hoss, too, died, without an explanation as to how... particularly with Ben's comments in the episode "The Initiation," where he says, "I've already buried one son!"
  • The answer finally came in a "Next Generation" TV movie; the son Hoss never knew he had comes to the Ponderosa and learns that Hoss drowned saving a young woman and her daughter from a river during a raging storm.
• Boy/Girl Meets World: Julius Carry, the actor who played Angela's father during the final season of BMW in 1999-2000, died in 2008. In 2015, When Angela returns in Girl, she reveals that her father has also died, roughly around 2011.
• Castle (2009): Stephen J. Cannell who passed during Season 3 in 2010 at 69 is a Real Life Writes the Plot and As Himself combination. Richard Castle considered him a mentor as well as a friend and fellow writer, so he and the other writers in his Poker club left Cannell's seat open for a year to honor his memory.
• Cheers: Ernie "Coach" Pantusso, played by Nicholas Colasanto, suddenly perished from a heart attack. He was replaced by Woody.
• Chico and the Man: Chico, although this was not stated until late in Season 4, more than a year after Freddie Prinze's death. Late Season 3 and earlier Season 4 episodes stated that Chico was "away." Unlike the circumstances surrounding Prinze's death (suicide), Ed explains simply – to Raul, a character who had been brought in to replace Chico – that Chico had died, leaving the cause unknown.
• Cobra Kai (a sequel series to The Karate Kid (1984)):
  • With the death of Pat Morita in 2005, Daniel mentions Mr. Miyagi's death. Daniel also visits Mr. Miyagi's grave in Episode 5 (which reveals the character died in 2011), and the episode is dedicated to him.
  • Zig-zagged with Tommy, whose death was already planned to happen months before his actor would follow suit. That was a Real Life Writes the Plot, as his actor really was dying of cancer. The first episode of Season 3 is dedicated to Rob Garrison's memory.
  • In Season 3 when Daniel goes back to Okinawa, he hears from Kumiko about her aunt Yukie passing away (Nobu McCarthy passed in 2002) and from Chozen that his uncle Sato did as well (Danny Kamekona passed in 1996).
• Colleen Dewhurst:
  • Due to Colleen Dewhurst's death, Marilla Cuthbert dies near the end of the Road to Avonlea series.
  • Dewhurst's character on Murphy Brown, Avery Brown, mother of Murphy, dies early in the season where Murphy becomes pregnant. Murphy's son, who is born at the end of the season, is named Avery in her memory.
    • Also on Murphy Brown, actor Pat Corley (who'd portrayed Phil, owner of "Phil's Bar and Grill") died in 2006. The series shows the main characters learning that Phil passed away and convincing his son, Phil Jr., to take over running the bar.
• The short-lived CBS action series Cover-Up had a case of this involving a death that occurred during the actual filming of the series. Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Mac Harper, the original sidekick/love-interest to the main character, accidentally killed himself during a recording break by shooting himself in the head with a blank pistol cartridge, apparently in the belief that it would just cause a harmless bang and not realizing the serious dangers of such an act (the pressure blast from the cartridge exploding fractured his skull and forced pieces of it into his brain). Because of that, the ninth episode of the series had his character killed off-screen in the line of duty and Suspiciously Similar Substitute Jack Striker (played by Antony Hamilton) took his place. Striker tells Dani, "Mac is not coming back." The episode then ends with an in-memoriam message dedicated to Jon himself.
  "When a star dies, its light continues to shine across the universe for millenniums. John Eric Hexum died in October of this year. But the lives he touched will continue to be brightened by his light... forever... and ever. "
• Dallas:
  • Jim Davis passed away suddenly during production of the fourth season. The production crew had his character, Jock Ewing, go offscreen for a year while they figured out how to write out his character, then finally perish in an offscreen plane crash.
  • Barbara Bel Geddes's character, Miss Ellie, does not appear in the rebooted series, as the actress had passed away in 2005. She is stated to have died of a heart attack sometime between the end of the original series and the pilot of the rebooted series.
  • After the death of Larry Hagman in 2012, his character J.R. Ewing was shot offscreen during the second season of the revival series. Since Hagman had been playing J.R. since 1978, and he was the show's Breakout Character, the producers pulled out all the stops for a tribute: The next episode revolved around his funeral, complete with Texas celebrities like Mark Cuban in attendance, and a reprisal of the famous "Who Shot J.R.?" storyline.
• When Norman Beaton died, the show Desmond's was replaced by a Spin-Off about secondary character Porkpie. The first episode begins with him consoling Desmond's widow.
• Desperate Housewives: An unusual variation with Kathryn Joosten whose character, Karen McCluskey, was dying with her. Both Joosten and McCluskey had terminal cancer; the character died during the series finale, while the actress died only a short time after filming wrapped. This earned her a Dying Moment of Awesome, using her advanced illness to save the main characters from going to prison.
• In the reunion episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, we learn that the characters Mel Cooley, Buddy Sorrell, and Jerry Helper had died over the years; their respective actors Richard Deacon, Morey Amsterdam, and Jerry Paris had passed away also.
• The District: Ella Farmer, played by Lynne Thigpen, suddenly died of the cancer from which the character had been in remission when the actress passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage.
• Doctor Who:
  • Donna Noble's father Geoffrey. He appeared in "The Runaway Bride", but due to Howard Attfield's terminal illness and death during the filming of "Partners in Crime", his part was replaced by Wilfred Mott, who was retconned into Donna's grandfather, and Geoff Noble is stated to have died. As a dedication to the actor, the Tenth Doctor in his final episode gives Donna's mother, as a wedding gift to Donna, a lottery ticket bought with a quid the Doctor obtained by going back in time offscreen to borrow from "a really lovely man. Geoffrey Noble, his name was."
    • Subverted in the 60th Anniversary specials in 2023. In real life Bernard Cribbins had passed away the previous year and the Doctor assumes that Wilfred must be dead by this point, but Donna's family inform him that he is alive and in a retirement home. He later appears onscreen in footage which Cribbins filmed before his death.
  • Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, as stated in "The Wedding of River Song". In fact, by way of tribute to the only actor to in some form act alongside all seven original series Doctors^note Nicholas Courtney played alongside the First Doctor as Bret Vyon in "The Daleks' Master Plan." As Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, he was in the serials "The Web of Fear" and "The Invasion" along with the Second Doctor, and was a major cast member in the Third Doctor's run. The Brig appeared in "Robot" and "Terror of the Zygons" with the Fourth Doctor, and in "Mawdryn Undead" and "The Five Doctors" with the Fifth Doctor. He also appeared in the Seventh Doctor's serial "Battlefield". Finally, Courtney appeared alongside Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor in the non-canon thirtieth-anniversary special "Dimensions in Time" and voiced the character in the canonical Sixth Doctor Big Finish drama "The Spectre of Lanyon Moor"., the fact that The Character Died With Him is a crucial plot point in the episode — it is the Brigadier's death that gets the Doctor to stop running and face his fate in Utah. The character has since been mentioned a few times, the Brigadier's legacy upheld by his daughter, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, a leader in UNIT just like her father. The character, however, briefly came back as a Cyberman in the last minutes of "Death in Heaven" in which corpses were zombified into Cybermen.
  • Dr. Harry Sullivan, brief companion with the fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, when Sarah Jane mentions some of the Doctor's old companions' present exploits in Death of the Doctor. It isn't spelled out, but he is mentioned in the past tense while the rest of them are mentioned in the present. (In the novelisation of "The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith", however, Sarah Jane reflects that she doesn't know if Harry's still alive; he's just M.I.A., as previously mentioned in the Sarah Jane Smith audio series.)
  • Often erroneously applied to Sarah Jane Smith. Although The Sarah Jane Adventures was canceled due to the death of actress Elisabeth Sladen, for years, there was no on-screen indication in the television canon that the character has also died; thus, Character Outlives Actor more correctly applies. Russell T Davies specifically rejected the idea of depicting the character's death in canon when an interviewer brought it up, and despite his history as a Lying Creator, the franchise has kept to it. However, in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe, Davies wrote a webcast story in 2020 called Farewell, Sarah Jane which depicted Sarah Jane's funeral, and Sarah Jane was finally confirmed to have passed away in "The Giggle".
  • Not quite an actor, but the Fifth Doctor's could-have-been companion Kamelion, a shape-shifting robot, had to be written out of the series when the mechanical prop's software designer, Mike Power, died in a boating accident. As he'd only just finished programming the expensive apparatus and hadn't had the chance to write down the instructions, the prop malfunctioned constantly and became such a liability that the character spent the rest of his tenure in a back room of the TARDIS, then was given a Mercy Kill in Five's penultimate story.
  • Cliff Jones, who married Jo Grant in "The Green Death", was stated by Jo to have died in the Season 9 Blu-ray trailer released in 2023 after his actor Stewart Bevan died the previous year.
• The Dukes of Hazzard:
  • In the 1997 reunion movie (one which fans consider canon to the original series), Boss Hogg had died several years earlier; this was brought out in a scene where Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane – by this time Boss's successor as county commissioner – reflects on and mourns Boss's passing. This reflects the real-life death of Sorrell Booke in 1994, more than two years before the reunion movie was filmed.
  • In a second reunion movie aired in 2000, Jesse Duke is also acknowledged as deceased; his actor, Denver Pyle, passed on in 1997, just months after the first reunion movie debuted. It was Pyle's last work, which he did despite being terminally ill with cancer.
• Joan, the first wife/biological mom of the kids in Eight is Enough. Actress Diana Hyland appeared only in four episodes before being diagnosed with breast cancer. Joan was written out of the rest of the season and Hyland died twelve days after the first episode aired. When season two aired, it was revealed that Joan died in the year before the beginning of the season's plot.
• Emmerdale: When Toke Townley died in 1984, his character Sam Pearson also died.
  • When Arthur Pentelow died in 1991, his character Henry Wilks also died.
  • When Stan Richards died in 2005, his character Seth Armstrong also died.
  • When Clive Hornby died in 2008, his character Jack Sugden also died.
  • When Richard Thorp died in 2013, his character Alan Turner also died.
  • Due to Steve Halliwell’s death in 2023, it’s unknown what will happen to his character Zak Dingle.
• Fame: When Michael Thoma died in 1978, his character Greg Crandall was also killed off.
• Frasier (2023):
  • John Mahoney, who played Martin Crane in Frasier, died in 2018. His character is said to have died not long before the events of this series. The first episode ends with a dedication to him.
  • Eddie is also killed off since the dogs who played him, Moose and Enzo, died in 2006 and 2010, respectively. (Not to mention that Eddie would realistically have died long ago anyway.)
• Full House: After the death of Buddy, the original dog who played Comet in 1998 after the show ended, he was said to have died in the Sequel Series Fuller House.
• Old Nan in Game of Thrones was obliquely treated as having died after Margaret John's death, though it was never actually spelled out in the show.
• Gilmore Girls: A year after Edward Hermann's death from cancer in 2014, it was announced that the Gilmores would return for a 4-episode miniseries subtitled "A Year In the Life". Amy Sherman-Palladino confirmed that in the time between the show's final season and the revival, Richard (Hermann's character) also passed away and one of the major storylines in the revival would be how the Gilmore women cope with the grief and bereavement.
• Gimme a Break!: After Dolph Sweet (Chief Kanisky) died of cancer, the season five opener had the family dealing with the Chief's sudden death.
• When Glee actor Cory Monteith died from an overdose, it was decided that his character would also pass away. Creator Ryan Murphy worked together with Lea Michele, Monteith's real-life girlfriend, on a memorial episode. The episode "The Quarterback" focused on how Finn's family and friends and everyone he knew coped with the loss. The show preferred not to say how Finn died because, in Kurt's words, his life was more important than the moment of his death — but likely also to avoid the sensationalism that accompanied Monteith's real-life death, along with accusations of Bowdlerization if they'd had Finn die a different way.
• The Goldbergs: Following the death of his actor George Segal in the middle of the eighth season, Albert "Pops" Solomon makes his final appearance in the Season 8 episode “Couple Off”, and it is addressed that he died offscreen in the Season 9 premiere "The Goldbergs' Excellent Adventure". While the real Albert Solomon passed away in 1995, they had to expedite his passing in the show to an earlier date to compensate.
• Brazilian sitcom A Grande Família suffered this twice: the family's patriarch, Mr. Floriano, died with his actor, Rogério Cardoso. His brother, Uncle Juvenal, was soon introduced as a replacement - and also died with his actor, Francisco Milani, just two years later.
• Geoffrey Hutchings died between Series 1 and 2 of Grandma's House, and as a result, Grandpa Bernie (his character) was stated to have died in the Series 2 premiere. What makes it extra sad is that Bernie had just been proven to be fine in the Series 1 finale after a series-long subplot about him possibly having cancer.
• Hill Street Blues: When Michael Conrad died, his character of Sgt. Esterhaus was written as having died of a heart attack during sex. It's Played for Drama, despite the circumstances.
• The 1970s British kids' puppet show Inigo Pipkin changed its name to Pipkins when the actor George Woodbridge, who played the title character, died, and the character was killed off with him. News of his death was broken to the puppets by his assistant Johnny (Wayne Laryea), in an episode broadcast in 1974.
• John Ritter:
  • 8 Simple Rules: Ritter's character on that show was Paul Hennessy. While rehearsing the second season, Ritter suddenly suffered an apparent heart attack while on the set of the show rehearsing and was rushed across the street to the hospital. Turned out he suffered an aortic dissection, and he died. Following Ritter's passing, the show Paul was Killed Off for Real; no specific reason was given, he "collapsed while buying milk". The show then added James Garner as Cate's (Katey Sagal)'s father Jim Egan and David Spade as her cousin CJ Barnes to the main cast.
  • Ritter's character on Scrubs, Sam Dorian, was main character J.D.'s father. The reason given for his death was a massive heart attack.
• Last Man Standing (2011): Zig-Zag example : Robert Forster—Mike Baxter's father Bud—lost his life to Brain Cancer in 2019. A year before that, Bud is revealed to have passed away from a heart attack in a Season 7 episode.
• Last of the Summer Wine:
  • When Bill Owen died, the character of Compo also passed away, allowing for a funeral arc (and more than a little grieving for the country as a whole).
  • Happened with most of the other characters as well. It would never be stated that they had died, but everyone else would start referring to them in the past tense.
• While Law & Order prime was not affected by Jerry Orbach's death, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, the show to which Lennie Briscoe was transplanted, was hit early by Briscoe's death (the main show did have a tribute episode).
• For the 1983 Leave It to Beaver Made-for-TV Movie Still the Beaver, June says her famous "Ward, I'm worried about the Beaver" catchphrase to Ward's gravestone, as Hugh Beaumont had died the previous year.
• Love and War: John Hancock, who played bartender Ike Johnson, died halfway through the first season. The other characters are shown attending Ike's funeral. Ike was replaced by his brother Abe, played by Charlie Robinson, who inherited Ike's share of the bar.
• Mad Men: Pete Campbell's dad was killed off in the crash of American Airlines Flight 1 early in the second season. In reality, Christopher Allport had died in an avalanche.
• Mais Você: When the character of Louro José came on the show, he was played by Permanent Placeholder actor Tom Veiga. In 2020, when Veiga died of a stroke at his home in Rio de Janeiro, Mais Você held a formal goodbye to the character.
• In Mare of Easttown actress Phyllis Somerville passed away in July 2020, so her character Betty Carroll died in a car accident (shot in such a way that her face wasn't visible) and the episode shows her funeral.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: The season 4 episode “Everything is Bellmore” reveals that Jackie died, as his actor, Brian Tarantina, passed away in November 2019. Much of the episode is focused on his funeral.
• Aunt Ginny in The Middle died along with Frances Bay, the actress. "The Map", an episode that began with the Hecks coming home from Ginny's funeral, ended with an In Memoriam to her.
• It was commonly theorized that the character of Trini Kwan from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is dead following the 2001 death of her actress Thuy Trang in a car crash. The fact that there were two characters with that power set (Trini and her immediate successor Aisha Campbell) made it almost impossible to know which Yellow Ranger was in a scene (with All There in the Manual being debatedly canon). The 30th anniversary special Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always finally confirmed it by featuring Trini's daughter, with her taking up the mantle of the Yellow Ranger to avenge her mother's death in battle. The same could go for the character of Ernie, whose actor Richard Genelle died in 2008 from complications due to a heart attack, with the fandom applying this speculation to many a fanfic. Other Power Rangers actors who've passed away don't seem to have their characters die with them, such as Udonna from Power Rangers Mystic Force, as they show up in major team-up episodes.
• Zig-zagged two times with Modern Family:
  • Despite Jon Polito's death in 2016 after season 7, his character Earl Chambers appeared one last time the following season in "Halloween 4: The Revenge of Rod Skyhook," now played by Robert P. Costanzo. A season later in "In Your Head," it's revealed by Jay in a Confession Cam segment that Earl died (or, as Jay refers to it, "bought the old horizontal wardrobe"), and the episode is about him trying to figure out where to scatter his former rival's ashes.
  • Phil's father Frank Dunphy passed away during the eleventh and final season of the show in the final episode, and not long after that episode aired, his actor Fred Willard also unexpectedly passed.
• Monk: Stanley Kamel, who played Dr. Charles Kroger, died of a heart attack on April 8, 2008, during the production hiatus between the show's sixth and seventh seasons. It was thus explained in "Mr. Monk Buys a House," the season 7 premiere and first episode aired after Kamel's death, that Dr. Kroger had died of this as well, rather than try to recast the role. The episode also introduced Hector Elizondo as Dr. Neven Bell to replace the void filled by Kamel's death. The final scene of the episode ends by settling on a photograph of Kamel as Dr. Kroger on Monk's fireplace mantle, and a card saying "In Loving Memory of Stanley Kamel" comes before the end credits.
  • Oddly enough, in book form at least, Dr. Kroger actually outlived Stanley Kamel by eight months, as two Monk books by Lee Goldberg, Mr. Monk Goes to Germany and Mr. Monk is Miserable were published respectively in June and December 2008. Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop, published in July 2009, was the first novel to feature Dr. Bell instead of Dr. Kroger, establishing its events as taking place during or just after season 7.
• NCIS:
  • Ralph Waite, who played Gibbs's father, died in February of 2014. In the season finale, Gibbs is told that his father died of a stroke and the episode had Gibbs coming to terms with it as a side plot. The episode is dedicated to the memory of Ralph Waite. In a variant, when the actress who played Ducky's mother died, Ducky said that she had been moved to a resting home, and her character wasn't actually killed off until a couple of seasons later.
  • David McCallum, who played Ducky, passed away in 2023, and the episode "The Stories We Leave Behind" opens with Ducky dying in his sleep.
• On NCIS: Los Angeles, the death of actor Miguel Ferrer also meant the death of his character, Assistant Director Owen Granger.
• NewsRadio: After Phil Hartman's murder shortly after production wrapped on season 4, his character Bill McNeil suffered a fatal heart attack in the first episode of season 5. Said episode dealt with his funeral and the characters coming to terms with his death - a weighty episode for a sitcom, and the other actors were quite obviously not faking their tears.
• '80s sitcom Night Court had it a few times:
  • Original cast member Selma Diamond, who played bailiff Selma, died after the first two seasons, so her character was also written off as deceased.
  • The succeeding bailiff was Florence, played by Florence Halop; but Halop passed away after one season and thus her character shared the same fate. It wasn't all that surprising, considering the ages of both actresses. In fact, there were whispers and jokes that both actresses had fallen prey to some sort of "Night Court curse," and this is said to be one of the reasons that series creator and executive producer Reinhold Weege decided not to bring in a third elderly actress and instead replaced Halop with Marsha Warfield, who was only 32 when she began playing Roz Russell. In fact, the producers knew Florence Halop would not be around for Season 4; the ep "Flo's Retirement" was their way of preparing viewers for this.
  • The 2023 sequel series revealed Judge Harry Stone had passed away sometime prior, as Harry Anderson died in 2018.
    • It's eventually revealed that Christine as passed away as well, coinciding with her actress, Markie Post.
• Only Fools and Horses:
  • When Lennard Pearce died, they decided to kill off his character, Grandad (offscreen, of course). Thus the first episode made after Pearce's death begins with Grandad's funeral.
  • The same happened with Uncle Albert after the death of Buster Merryfield. Although Albert died during the episode, with the first scene explaining that he hadn't joined them in the Caribbean because it had turned out the great sailor didn't have a passport.
• Porridge: Ronnie Barker, who played the protagonist Fletcher, passed away in 2005. In a one-off revival special in 2016, his grandson Nigel states that Fletcher passed away in 2011 after enjoying a long and happy retirement on the straight.
  • Barker's other great creation, Arkwright from Open All Hours, is said to have died at some point before Still Open All Hours, having raised Granville to follow in his footsteps. A framed photograph of him hangs in the living area behind the shop.
• Power Rangers has a mix of this and Character Outlives Actor with Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Power Ranger. Trini's actress, Thuy Trang, died in 2001, leaving her character in limbo. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always finally puts what happened to Trini to rest, both in confirming she outlived Thuy, and at the same time, killing her character off.
• The 2021 Reboot of Punky Brewster on Peacock has Henry, her guardian from the original show, said to be dead, due to the 2013 death of actor George Gaynes. Cherie's grandmother Betty is also said to have passed away due to Susie Garrett's death in 2002. Brandon The Wonder Dog is also said to have passed away.
• The pilot of Quantum Leap (2022) has a character mention that Al Calavicci, played by Dean Stockwell died the year before, just like his actor, who passed in November 2021.
• The fourth season premiere of Riverdale focuses on the sudden death of Archie's father Fred Andrews in a car accident, months after actor Luke Perry suddenly passed away from a stroke.
• Lee Thompson Young's suicide happened near the end of season 4 of Rizzoli & Isles, with no time to do more than write his character, Detective Barry Frost, out of the last episode of the season. It was later revealed that Barry died in a car accident.
• The pilot of the 2018 revival of Roseanne reveals that Mark died at some point during the Time Skip; Glenn Quinn died of an overdose in 2002. The episode "Eggs Over, Not Easy" is dedicated to him, since it deals with Becky still trying to get over Mark's death. The Season 3 episode of the show's successor, The Conners, "Cheating, Revelations, and a Box of Doll Heads", reveals he died in a motorcycle accident.
  • Implied to be the case for Nana Mary, whose actress, Shelley Winters, died in 2006. Notably, both these characters have a Dead Guy Junior.
  • Zig-Zagged with Ned Beatty passing away a few weeks before turning 84 in 2021. It's revealed in an episode a year before that Dan's father Ed—who he played—passed away.
• Redd Foxx died after only seven episodes of The Royal Family, resulting in Al Royal's death and the introduction of their eldest daughter Coco (Jackée Harry) to help cope with the loss.
• In Saved by the Bell (2020), following the death of Dustin Diamond from lung cancer in February 2021, the opening episode of season two revealed that Screech had died between seasons.
• In Silicon Valley, Peter Gregory was played by the late Christopher Evan Welch, who passed away during the shooting of the first season. Midway through the season, Peter Gregory stops appearing in person, and his Character Death is made official during the first episode of the second season.
• The early seasons of Smallville had a character named Dr. Virgil Swann, played by Christopher Reeve. Following Reeve's death from heart failure in 2004, Swann was mentioned as dying sometime in between the events of the show's third and fourth seasons.
• Livia Soprano on The Sopranos, who died after actress Nancy Marchand's death. Bizarrely, though, they filmed one last scene with Livia after her actress's death, using a Fake Shemp with her head added with CGI, and playing lines Marchand had previously recorded. This was followed by the character dying of a stroke in her sleep offscreen.
• Don S. Davis, General Hammond on Stargate SG-1 for 7 seasons, died a few years after he officially retired from the show. In the series finale of Stargate Atlantis, which is dedicated to Davis's memory, Carter mentions that Hammond had died of a heart attack off-screen, directly referencing Davis's actual cause of death. She also mentions that Earth's newest interstellar warship, then under construction, would be renamed in his honor. The completed ship later appears in the premiere episode of Stargate Universe.
• Averted for St. Elsewhere. In the credits for the series finale "The Last One", MTM Production's (the production company behind St. Elsewhere) logo was replaced with the company's mascot, Mimsie the Cat, lying on her deathbed right next to an IV bag and a heart monitor. When the credits end, the monitor flatlines. Ironically enough, Mimsie died for real just days after the episode aired, which led many people to believe that the episode aired after Mimsie's death and that this was MTM's way of announcing it. However, this is far from the truth.
  • Funnily enough, over a decade before the finale of another MTM production, The Texas Wheelers, MTM pulled a similar thing featuring an animated version of Mimsie. In this one, she staggers from behind a wagon wheel and drops dead. This is not confirmed fully, as invokedno footage of it exists online yet, although this Chicago Tribune article from 1985 claims this was true.
• A recurring character on Strong Medicine was Milo Morton, a doctor who became a love interest to main character Andy. Actor Richard Biggs unexpectedly died of an aortic dissection in May of 2004. An episode had been written where Milo would meet Andy's ex-husband Les. It was re-written with Andy getting a phone call that Milo had been killed by a drunk driver while helping people at an accident scene and Les helping her cope.
• Suddenly Susan: David Strickland, who played Todd Styles, took his own life in March 1999 while in production of the third season. In the season 3 finale, it's implied Todd had died in a car accident.
• The Scottish cop show Taggart had its title character die off-screen following the death of the actor, Mark McManus. The show continued with the rest of the ensemble cast and notoriously ended up with more seasons without Taggart than with him.
• When actor Victor Buono, who played Mr. Cauldwell, Jim Ignatowski's wealthy but estranged father in Taxi, passed away, they killed off his character as well. Several episodes afterward mention or revolve around Jim receiving a large sum of money from his inheritance.
• That '90s Show: Kitty Forman mentioning her mother Bea Sigurdson's grave—and that her ashes were scattered—means she passed away since last appearing in the original series. This is likely because actress Betty White passed away in 2021 at age 99.
• As Twin Peaks had a quarter century between the original series and The Return, numerous actors had died in the meantime. While some outlived their actors, others did not:
  • Pete Martell (Jack Nance) and Andrew Packard (Dan O'Herlihy)'s fate was one of numerous Left Hanging, as their last scene has them at least potentially killed by an explosion. The Secret History of Twin Peaks, released after the death of both actors, confirmed their deaths.
  • Garland Briggs (Don Davis), whose actor died in 2008, turns out to have died shortly after the time frame of the original series. The circumstances turn out to be plot-critical.
• The lockdown shorts produced of The Vicar of Dibley in December 2020 establish that Alice has passed away since the last full episodes; her actress Emma Chambers died of a heart attack in 2018. However, Character Outlives Actor is in place for Owen and Frank, who are still alive offscreen despite the deaths of their actors Roger Lloyd-Pack and John Bluthal in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
• The Waltons: The characters mourned the death of Grandpa Zeb during the first episode of the 1978-79 season after actor Will Geer died shortly after filming had completed for the previous season. Neighbor Flossie Brimmer's death was also mentioned and mourned in the same episode, as her actress had also passed away between seasons.
• The West Wing: John Spencer who played Leo McGarry, died shortly into filming for the seventh season. His seven final episodes were shown, and Leo, who was Matt Santos' presidential running mate, was said to be on a campaign tour for the remainder of the season. At the beginning of the episode "Running Mates", airing January 8, 2006, Martin Sheen introduced the show with a tribute to both Spencer and Leo. The episode "Election Day Pt. 1" had Leo's death written into the script, with his assistant Annabeth discovering him in his hotel room. In "Election Day Pt. 2", Santos wins. The following episode, "Requiem", showed Leo's funeral in the National Cathedral.
• Will & Grace
  • There was an episode that dealt with Will grieving his father's death. The man's actor, Sydney Pollack, really died.
  • The revival eventually revealed that Grace's mother Bobbi Adler had passed away between seasons following the death of her actress Debbie Reynolds.
• The Wire: Cops who die on the job before their retirement date are honored with Irish wakes at Kavanaugh's Pub. The first two times we get these wakes, they were in-show tributes to cop characters whose actors had died.
  • Detective Ray Cole was played by beloved producer Robert F. Colesberry, who passed away from heart complications between seasons 2 and 3. In the show, Cole is said to have died of a heart attack while exercising on a Stairmaster.
  • The same thing was done in season 4 after Richard DeAngelis, who played Col. Raymond Foerster, passed away from cancer.
  • Actor Dick Stilwell died in a car accident so Commissioner Warren Frazier "retired", and Ervin Burrell is promoted to Commissioner in season 2.
• During the Home Improvement and Last Man Standing Crossover, Tim reveals that his neighbor Wilson died sometime after 1999. Wilson's actor Earl Hindman died of lung cancer in 2003.
• Lassie: When George Cleveland, who played Gramps Miller, died from a heart attack in 1957, his character was killed off in the season 4 episode "Transition."
• Gunsmoke: When Glenn Strange died in 1973, his character Sam was also killed off.
• The Jeffersons: When Zara Cully died in 1978, her character Olivia was also killed off.
• Hill Street Blues: When Michael Conrad died in 1984, his character Philip Freemason was also killed off.
• Gimme a Break!!: When Dolph Sweet died in 1985, his character Carl was also killed off.
• Love & War: When John Hancock died in 1992, his character Ike Johnson was also killed off.
• Taggart: When Mark McManus died in 1994, his character Jim Taggart was also killed off.
• Cosby: When Madeline Kahn died in 1999, her character Pauline Fox also died.
• Isidingo: When Ashley died in 2008, her character Leone was also killed off.
• The Young and the Restless: When Jeanne Cooper died in 2013, her character Katherine was also killed off.
  • When Kristoff John died in 2019, his character Neil Winters was also killed off.
• The Blacklist: When Clark Middleton died in 2020, his character Glen Carter also died.
• Not Going Out: When Bobby Ball died in 2020, his character Frank also died.