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00:00Few things hit harder in the world of TV than the death of a popular character.
00:05Death can be a fantastic way of furthering a plot, adding wrinkles to other characters,
00:09or providing a definitive ending to the arc of the person who lost their life.
00:14The following 10 performers all requested that their alter egos bite the dust,
00:18and for the most part, their wishes were granted.
00:20And so, with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture,
00:23here with 10 actors who demanded to be killed off of popular TV shows.
00:27Number 10. Adewale Akinoye Agbaje in Lost
00:32The show that had everyone questioning everything,
00:35Lost remains a strong talking point amongst TV lovers, even though it wrapped up in 2010.
00:40The island was full of memorable characters,
00:43but few had as big an impact in such a short space of time than Mr. Echo.
00:47Portrayed by British actor Adewale Akinoye Agbaje,
00:51Echo was a Nigerian former drug lord-turned-priest
00:54who ended up stuck on the island after Flight 815 went down.
00:57The strong and silent type, Echo became a firm favourite,
01:01as he was the one most comfortable with life on the island.
01:03The irony of that statement is that in real life,
01:06Akinoye Agbaje was far from content.
01:08The actor had moved out to Hawaii to film the show,
01:11but really didn't like being there.
01:13He wanted to move back home to London,
01:15and so asked for his character to be removed from the show.
01:18Producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse gave in to his demands
01:21for the character to receive a tragic death,
01:24having him brutally murdered by the smoke monster.
01:26Christ, tell us how you really feel about him leaving.
01:29Number 9. Paul Wesley in The Vampire Diaries
01:33People pretended that they watched The Vampire Diaries
01:35for the gripping plot or the compelling characters,
01:38but they actually just stuck around for those sexy Salfator brothers.
01:41They can bite our necks any day.
01:43Damon, played by Ian Somerhalder,
01:45and Stefan, played by Paul Wesley,
01:47became cultural icons across the show's 171 episodes.
01:51In the show's big finale,
01:53Damon got to live out the rest of his life happily with Elena.
01:56As for Stefan, well,
01:58the younger brother elects to sacrifice himself
02:00to save the town of Mystic Falls,
02:02reuniting with his loved ones in the afterlife.
02:05It was a shocking moment for fans of the show,
02:07and it gets even more so once you know that Wesley himself suggested this fate.
02:11The actor wanted Stefan to suffer for his actions in life,
02:15and thought that death was the only consequence he deserved.
02:17He even told Seventeen,
02:19I was very happy he died.
02:21Stefan's surmise makes a lot of sense in storyline,
02:23as well as giving the noble character a worthy end.
02:26Plus, it happened in the series finale,
02:28so it's not like Wesley missed out on any paychecks.
02:31Number 8. Emma Coalfield in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
02:34Another death to take place in a series finale,
02:37another show with the word vampire in the name.
02:40Coincidence? Yeah, probably.
02:42The massively influential Buffy the Vampire Slayer
02:44aired its final episode in May of 2003,
02:47and it went out in style.
02:49Chosen featured a huge battle sequence
02:51between Buffy and her gang of assorted weirdos,
02:54and the first evil.
02:56The fight claims many victims,
02:57including several uber vamps, Spike and Anya Jenkins.
03:01First introduced in the show's third season,
03:03Anya became a firm favourite,
03:05especially when romantically paired with Xander.
03:07Unfortunately for the long-time character,
03:09his beloved gets sliced open by a vampire
03:12in this episode's giant fight.
03:13Emma Coalfield, the actor behind Anya,
03:16actually approached series creator and dodgy man Joss Whedon
03:19about bringing the character to an end.
03:21At this point, there was a chance the show could have continued,
03:24but Coalfield was ready to move on.
03:26I was all for it, she said of the character's death.
03:28I thought that would be a poetic way to have her end,
03:31sacrificing herself for people she could never understand.
03:34We couldn't have put it better ourselves.
03:36Number 7. Aiden Turner in Being Human
03:39Usually, it's never a good sign when a role gets recast on a TV show.
03:43However, in the case of British supernatural drama Being Human,
03:47it might have been one of the best things to ever happen to it.
03:50Aiden Turner took over the role of vampire John Mitchell
03:53on the show after the pilot episode.
03:55Turner really made the most of this chance,
03:57helping the show become extremely popular.
03:59His stock as an actor immediately went on the rise,
04:02which is ultimately what killed off his character on Being Human.
04:05Turner got the role of Keeley in The Hobbit series of films
04:08and announced he was leaving the show.
04:09He wanted Mitchell to be killed off, thinking it would bring his arc to a satisfying end.
04:14And so that's exactly what happened.
04:16After going on a massacre, Mitchell asked his friend George, a werewolf,
04:19to kill him out of mercy.
04:21George obliges, like any decent friend would.
04:24Damn, between this and The Hobbit,
04:25Aiden Turner's characters don't have the best of luck, do they?
04:28Number 6. Jessalyn Gilsig in Vikings
04:31As much as we wish it didn't,
04:33sometimes real life can get in the way of a great TV show.
04:36That's what happened to the History Channel's axe-swinging, skull-crushing,
04:40mead-drinking extravaganza Vikings.
04:43More specifically is what happened to the character of Siggy Haraldson.
04:46The wife of Earl Haraldson,
04:48Siggy eventually grows incredibly fond of series lead Ragnar Lothbrok and his family.
04:53So much so that when this led to her deciding to move out of Ireland,
04:56where Vikings was filmed, thus ending her tenure on the show.
05:00Number 5. Frank Delane in Fear the Walking Dead
05:03Fear the Walking Dead first aired in 2015.
05:06and served as a prequel to AMC's monster zombie hit.
05:10The narrative began during the early days of the apocalypse,
05:13but it has since caught up to its older sibling with several stories running parallel.
05:18It also features main show star Morgan,
05:20which is great because Lenny James is never a bad thing.
05:23Another character on the show.
05:24Number 5. Frank Delane in Fear the Walking Dead
05:27Fear the Walking Dead first aired in 2015.
05:30and served as a prequel to AMC's monster zombie hit.
05:34The narrative began during the early days of the apocalypse,
05:37but it has since caught up to its older sibling with several stories running parallel.
05:42It also features main show star Morgan,
05:44which is great because Lenny James is never a bad thing.
05:47Another character on the show is Nick Clark, as played by Frank Delane.
05:50Well, that should actually be was Nick Clark,
05:53because he got himself shot in the show's fourth season.
05:56What did he go and do that for?
05:57According to showrunner Andrew Chambliss,
05:59it was because Delane wanted to pursue other opportunities.
06:02He said,
06:02One of the first things we were tasked with when we came on to run season four
06:06was to really find a story that would give Nick a fitting send-off.
06:09To be fair, they definitely achieved this,
06:11as Nick's death was a really surprising moment on the show.
06:14As for Delane,
06:15he got to star in a series alongside Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston,
06:18so it was a win for everyone.
06:20Number 4. John Francis Daley in Bones
06:23For all the corpses that turn up at the Jeffersonian,
06:26very few main characters on Bones have actually bitten the dust over the years.
06:30Vincent Nigel Murray, the world's most annoying intern,
06:33famously met his end at the hands of a sniper,
06:35and the other major casualty on the show
06:38was the team's resident psychiatrist, Lance Sweets.
06:41The lovable shrink became entranced in the show's DNA,
06:44which is why it came as such a shock
06:46when he was gunned down in the premier nerd's dream.
06:49Number 3. Julian Glover in Game of Thrones
06:52With the astronomical frequency of character deaths on Game of Thrones,
06:56you'd think that an actor wouldn't get the chance to actually ask to be killed off.
07:00However, that's the exact situation Grand Maester Pycelle found himself in on the HBO Juggernaut.
07:06Pycelle was one of the most powerful men in all of Westeros
07:09as a member of the Small Council and trusted advisor to several kings.
07:12He, like most other powerful people in Thrones,
07:15meets a brutal end when he is repeatedly stabbed by his replacement Qyburn's Little Birds.
07:20Actor Julian Glover must have been oddly thrilled to read the page in the script when this happened,
07:25as he was not having a good time anymore.
07:27It's not interesting to go on doing this, and what's going to happen to him?
07:31A pretty boss way to quit a show, all things said and done.
07:34Number 2. Patrick Dempsey in Grey's Anatomy
07:37If you've ever heard the words Grey's Anatomy used in that order,
07:41then you've also definitely heard the word McDreamy shortly thereafter.
07:44Unless you've only ever heard of the 19th century medical textbook,
07:47in which case you must be extremely confused right now.
07:50McDreamy was the nickname given to Derek Shepard,
07:52one of the leading figures of the 19th century.
07:57He was extremely popular, somewhat down to the strong writing of his character,
08:01but mostly because he was really hot.
08:03Fans McDreams were shattered when Derek met his end in a car crash.
08:07Meredith Grey was even pregnant with his child at the time.
08:11How could Shonda Rhimes do this to us?
08:13Well, actually, it was actor Patrick Dempsey who did this to us.
08:16He was the one who said he wanted out,
08:18actually saying that he wished he'd left the show sooner.
08:21It was a very time-consuming gig,
08:23and the star just wanted to spend a little more time with his family.
08:26But what about your family on the show, Patrick?
08:28What about Meredith and your unborn child?
08:30What about them?
08:31Okay, breathe.
08:32It's just a TV show.
08:34Number 1. Dean Norris in Breaking Bad
08:36On a show stuffed with great characters,
08:38it's a real testament to actor Dean Norris that Hank Schrader said,
08:43he showed up as a mirror to his brother-in-law, Walter White,
08:47and is one of the many people with lives that Walt is jealous of.
08:51He starts out as an obnoxious jock,
08:53but viewers learn to love his more vulnerable traits as the series went on.
08:56Then, in the show's final season,
08:58Hank came face-to-face with Jack Welker.
09:00After a brave last stand against the neo-Nazis,
09:03Hank makes one last defiant speech
09:05before Jack murders him right in front of Walt.
09:08It's a fantastic scene and a heroically fitting end to his story.
09:11In reality, the reason why this happened was far less exciting.
09:15Norris got cast in Under the Dome,
09:17so needed to leave Breaking Bad to go film that.
09:20He asked the showrunners to kill him off in the first part of the show's last run,
09:24to which they said no.
09:25Thankfully, that season was split in two anyway,
09:28so Dean had his cake and ate it too,
09:30and we got to see the most badass departure in Breaking Bad history.
09:34And that concludes our list.
09:36If you think we missed any,
09:37then do let us know in the comments below,
09:38and while you're there,
09:39don't forget to like and subscribe,
09:41and tap that notification bell.
09:42Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there,
09:44and I can be found across various social medias
09:46just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
09:48I've been Ellie with WhatCulture.
09:50I hope you have a magical day,
09:51and I'll see you real soon.
09:52I'll see you real soon.
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