History ThatManIsDead / LiveActionTV

* Following a car accident that left him complete amnesia, ''Series/GeneralHospital'''s Jason struggled for several months to adjust to life with his family before finally blowing up at everyone and trashing everything in his room. When his distraught mother tearfully declares that he's destroyed everything that she had left of "him", he coldly declares ""He's" ''dead''!" before storming out, never to return and using a new surname from then on.

* In the Lifetime Movie Of The Week ''Sleeping With The Devil'', (BasedOnATrueStory) a man hires a hitman to kill his ex-girlfriend after she leaves him. She survived but has to go into hiding to recover, which includes changing her name. Her father skips up and refers to her with her previous one, but she gently tells him, "That girl died with six bullet wounds to her back."

--->'''Julian Bashir:''' It's Julian, now, mother. The boy Jules died in that hospital.

* ''Series/KamenRiderKabuto'': [[spoiler:Tsurugi]] plays this trope straight to Tendou during his FaceHeelTurn. [[spoiler:JustifiedTrope in the fact that the ''real'' Tsurugi was already dead, and the current Tsurugi was just a mimic.]]

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In this crime drama, there is a character in one episode named Adam with split personalities. His alternate personality is named Amanda, and her job is to protect Adam. In the end of the episode though, she becomes the dominant personality in order to protect him and tells Dr. Spencer Reid that Adma's gone and he'll (Reid) have to wait a long time to get him back.

* ''Series/FrontierCircus'': In "The Shaggy Kings", RetiredGunfighter Tom Jace is living under the name Jeb Randall. Every time someone accuses him of being Jace, he replies that "Tom Jace is dead".

* ''Series/DarkMatter'':

* ''Series/CowboyBebop2021''. Implied with Spike Spiegel, who refuses to be called Fearless even by those who knew him as a Syndicate soldier by that name. Tragically Julia, [[LovingAShadow the woman he loves, has also left her previous self behind]]. When Spike refuses her WeCanRuleTogether offer, she shoots him [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope to cast aside her innocent self forever.]]

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': Happens in the episode "Die Me Dichotomy" after the neural clone completely takes over John's body. First, he refers to himself as "John Crichton" but then starts referring to John in the third person.
* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': "Objects In Space":
-->'''River/''[[SpaceshipGirl Serenity]]''''': "I'm not on the ship. I'm in the ship. I am the ship."\\
'''Simon''': "River-"\\
'''River''': "River's gone."\\
'''Early''': "Then who exactly are we talking to?"\\
'''River''': "You're talking to Serenity. And Early? ''[[CreepyMonotone Serenity is very unhappy]]''."
* The ArcVillain of the third season of ''Series/TheFlash2014'' only refers to himself as Savitar or [[spoiler: The Future Flash]]. Upon being called [[spoiler: Barry]], he screams "THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"
** Played with in regards to Caitlin, who is eventually taken over by her SuperPoweredEvilSide, Killer Frost. At first, the others decide to only refer to her as Killer Frost, believing the Caitlin they knew and loved to be dead (Well, just before Killer Frost took over she ''was'' almost dead), however, they can't help but be bothered by the fact that she was once their friend and that she might still have a good side. In the season finale, Caitlin regains some control, and seems to have fully regained it by the fourth season, [[JekyllAndHyde though not without some difficulties]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': While Sandor Clegane may have survived the fight and the fall at the end of Season 4, Brienne killed "the Hound". Until the Brotherhood Without Banners unintentionally resurrected it.

--> '''The Scarecrow''': ''"Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore..."''
* In the ''Series/{{Grimm}}'' episode "Eve of Destruction", the resurrected [[spoiler: Juliet]] tells Nick she's Eve now. Later, Nick tells Trouble and Adalind that he met Eve. When Adalind asks who Eve is, he replies "[[DeathOfPersonality I have no idea]]." [[spoiler:It turns out that Eve remembers everything, but she no longer considers herself the same person as Juliet. She's now colder, more decisive. In the final season, though, Eve is much more like Juliet thanks to a side effect of the stick. Despite this, both she and Nick know that what they once had is gone, and they're happy to remain good friends]].

* In the finale of ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'', [[spoiler: Darth Vader says this to Obi-Wan over Anakin when Obi-Wan apologizes for what happened to his former student. This justifies the MetaphoricallyTrue comment Kenobi tells Luke in ''Film/ANewHope'']].

** Dr. Julian Bashir pulls this when his mother calls him by his childhood nickname "Jules":
---> '''Julian Bashir''': It's Julian, now, mother. The boy Jules died in that hospital.
*** To clarify, Bashir had [[spoiler: been genetically modified by his parents to be smarter after being born with a mental impairment, a decision that he had to hide for the rest of his life.]] In this case, he sounded regretful, but Julian was never portrayed as a bad person compared to Jules. He never goes back to his old name. Except in one of the ExpandedUniverse novels, in which an alien MacGuffin undoes [[spoiler: the modification]].

** In "Hard Time", Chief O'Brien has the memories of being imprisoned for twenty years implanted in his mind. He can't cope with it, and when Bashir finds him he's pointing a phaser under his chin.
---> '''O'Brien:''' I'm not your friend! The O'Brien that was your friend died in that cell!
** Also happens in "Duet", although explaining how spoils the episode: [[spoiler:Marritza, during the breakdown of his Gul Darhe'el deception, insists "It's Marritza who's dead! Marritza! Who was good for nothing but cowering under his bunk and weeping like a woman! Who every night covered his ears because he couldn't bear to hear the screaming for mercy of the Bajorans..." before breaking down and weeping.]]

** In the episode "The Vengeance Factor":
--->'''Yuta:''' Five [Tralestas] survived the last Lornak raid. But on that day, a century ago, my life ended...and my search began.
** In "Elementary, Dear Data", Data and Geordi are playing Literature/SherlockHolmes and Dr. Watson in the holodeck, and ask the computer to create an opponent capable of defeating Data. [[GoneHorriblyRight That opponent turns out to be a holographic Professor Moriarity]] who's aware of both being a holographic program and the ''Enterprise'' itself. He gets defeated, but [[TheBusCameBack when he comes back]] in the later episode "Ship In A Bottle", he tells Picard that because of his self-awareness, he is no longer the literary foe of Sir Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's creation.

* A real life instance of this occurs in the reality show ''Series/TattooNightmares''. Jasmine gets a client with a dainty tribal tattoo on the small of his back (i.e., a "tramp stamp"). He explains that he got this tattoo "for a girl who is no longer in my life." While Jas works on his coverup, he elaborates: [[spoiler: he is a [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} trans man]], and the "girl" no longer in his life is ''himself'', pre-transition]].

* In the ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' episode "Orphan of War", Xena and Gabrielle visit a centaur village that Xena had attacked during her Conqueror period:
-->'''Kaleipus ''': Xena, destroyer of nations. You promised you’d never return.\\
'''Xena''': That Xena never will.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' plays with this quite a bit in several side-plots. Arya's refusal to say this, leads to her rejection of the [[MurderInc Faceless Men]]. Jorah Mormont says a version of this when Jon Snow offers him Longclaw, indicating that his [[HeelFaceTurn redemption]] is complete (and thus his [[HeroicSacrifice dramatic death]] is imminent). Notably however: while several characters literally do return from the dead, they actually don't change dramatically in terms of personality. The only character that this actually happens to is Bran. Meera Reid says exactly this about Bran, when he fails to show anything resembling gratitude for her help getting him to the Three-Eyed Raven's cave.

* ''Series/JessicaJones'': Kilgrave [[DoNotCallMePaul refuses to go by his birth name]] of Kevin Thompson, insisting that Kevin died in the experiments that gave him his powers.

* ''Series/GameofThrones'' plays with this quite a bit in several side-plots. Arya's refusal to say this, leads to her rejection of the [[MurderInc Faceless Men]]. Jorah Mormont says a version of this when Jon Snow offers him Longclaw, indicating that his [[HeelFaceTurn redemption]] is complete (and thus his [[HeroicSacrifice dramatic death]] is imminent). Notably however: while several characters literally do return from the dead, they actually don't change dramatically in terms of personality. The only character that this actually happens to is Bran. Meera Reid says exactly this about Bran, when he fails to show anything resembling gratitude for her help getting him to the Three-Eyed Raven's cave.

--->'''[[{{Superman}} Clark]]''': [[SecretIdentityIdentity The Clark Kent you know is a lie.]]

** In the third season premiere, "Girl of Steel", [[spoiler: [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} Kara]] herself attempts this, dealing with her grief over losing Mon-El in the second season finale by throwing herself into being Supergirl full time, quitting her job at [=CatCo=] and generally distancing herself from her humanity, at one point declaring, "Kara Danvers was a mistake!". By the end of the episode she starts to reconnect to her normal life and retakes the name Kara Danvers.]]

* ''Series/JessicaJones'': Kilgrave refuses to go by his birth name of Kevin Thompson, insisting that Kevin died in the experiments that gave him his powers.