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TV Shows Where The Main Character (in real life) Died

M

Mark Giardina

Dan Blocker- Bonanza

Ward Bond- Wagon Train

John Ritter - 8 Reasons

Redd Foxx- The Royal Family

In the case of Bond, he was replaced by John McIntyre (sp) and the show continued on for a few years. Foxx, Ritter and Blocker's shows were canceled shortly after their passing.
 
Dolph Sweet-Gimme A Break

Larry Blyden-the Whats My Line host I believe waas doing dramas for PBS at the time of his 1975 death, such as the one he had done with Carol Burnett on alcoholics.
 
John Ritter and crew were rehearsing what was to be season 2 episode 4 of 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter. He passed away on September 11, 2003, which is also his daughter Stella's birthday. The show would continue for almost 2 more years with involvement from David Spade and then James Garner.

As for other deaths, I wanted to include Victor French from NBC's Highway To Heaven. He passed away in 1989, but I'm not sure if the show was already done with or not. Of course, Michael Landon would die from pancreatic cancer in (I think) 1991.
 
The Joker's Wild (Jack Barry)

Dragnet (Barton Yarborough)

The Twilight Zone (Paul Douglas, the star of the episode "The Mighty Casey," died during production; the episode was refilmed with Jack Warden replacing Douglas in the version that was aired)

Lime Street (Samantha Smith)

Mickey (Sammee Tong; the episode that aired on ABC on 28 October 1964, the next night following the date of Tong's suicide, was titled "Goodnight, Whoever You Are")
 
mleach said:
Larry Blyden-the Whats My Line host I believe waas doing dramas for PBS at the time of his 1975 death, such as the one he had done with Carol Burnett on alcoholics.
Click to expand...
...Blyden had also emceed the successful pilot for the ABC game show Showoffs the week before he took a trip to Morocco, where he was killed in an auto mishap. Goodson-Todman, the producers of Showoffs, hurriedly replaced Blyden with Bobby Van less than a month before the series was to replace Password on the ABC schedule...
 
Not really main characters, but second leads...

George Cleveland (Gramps) in LASSIE.
Larry Keating (Addison) in MISTER ED.
Joe Kearns (the first Mr. Wilson) in DENNIS THE MENACE.

And then there's Ernie Kovacs....
 
Or prominent supporting players:

Alice Pearce, the original Mrs. Kravitz in Bewitched.

Barbara Pepper, the original Mrs. Ziffel in Green Acres.

Marion Lorne, Aunt Clara in Bewitched.

Selma Diamond and Florence Halop, the bailiffs in Night Court. This is the only show I can think of where an actor who passed away was replaced by another, who passed away fairly soon thereafter.
 
As long as we are expanding the topic to included regulars or featured players, let's also include people who left a show because they were dying (and knew it):

William Frawley - My Three Sons
Allen Ludden - Password
Gary Moore - To Tell the Truth
 
Jim Davis (Jock, Dallas)


Lots of this over the years in daytime:

Don McLaughlin (Chris, As the World Turns)
Helen Wagner (Nancy, ATWT)
Michael Zaslow (Roger, Guiding Light)
Charita Bauer (Bert, GL)
MacDonald Carey (Tom, Days of Our Lives)
Frances Reid (Alice, Days)
Frances Heflin (Mona, All My Children)
James Mitchell (Palmer, AMC)
Ruth Warrick (Phoebe, AMC)
Hugh Marlowe (Jim, Another World)
Brent Collins (Wallingford, AW)
Constance Ford (Ada, AW)
Douglass Watson (Mac, AW)
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned these two yet:

Cheers: Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach") (d. Feb. 1985)

Sesame Street: Will Lee (Mr. Hooper aka "Mr. Looper" by Big Bird) (d. Dec. 1982)

Also on "Sesame Street," Northern Callaway, who played David (who succeeded Mr. Hooper as the owner to Hooper's Store) passed away himself in 1990, but IIRC the script mentioned that he "moved to his grandmother's farm" (and his death was not mentioned).
 
Tim from Springfield said:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned these two yet:

Cheers: Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach") (d. Feb. 1985)

Sesame Street: Will Lee (Mr. Hooper aka "Mr. Looper" by Big Bird) (d. Dec. 1982)

Also on "Sesame Street," Northern Callaway, who played David (who succeeded Mr. Hooper as the owner to Hooper's Store) passed away himself in 1990, but IIRC the script mentioned that he "moved to his grandmother's farm" (and his death was not mentioned).
Click to expand...

Also for "Sesame Street," one could go as far to include Jim Henson in this list (he died May 16, 1990--the same day as Sammy Davis Jr.). At the same time, "Muppet Babies" was still airing on CBS Saturday mornings.

Another cartoon voice who passed away while his show was on the air:

Wuzzles (CBS 1985-86, ABC reruns '86-87): Bill Scott, the voice of Moosel. I have seem some claims that more episodes of the "Wuzzles" than the original 13 were to be produced for a second season in 1986 (and there were additional Wuzzle characters that came out in dolls and books than the original 6 that IMO probably would have been introduced to the show had there been a second season), but never occurred after Scott's death.
 
Jack Soo ("Barney Miller") 1979
Diana Hyland ("Eight is Enough") 1977
Dan Blocker ("Bonanza") 1972
 
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