Random Actors Whose Deaths Became Storylines (15 items)

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  (#5) Nicholas Colasanto

  • Dec. at 61 (1924-1985)

  Nicholas Colasanto, who played the slow-witted but beloved Coach on Cheers, died from a heart attack in 1985 at the age of 61. Colasanto passed just before Season 3 wrapped on the NBC sitcom. The show never really explained exactly what happened to Coach. There is a scene during the Season 4 premiere where Sam simply tells Diane that Coach died.

  Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson) arrives from small town Indiana to visit his pen pal, Coach, not knowing that he has died. After Woody is told of his friend's death, Sam offers him a job at the bar. The sitcom remained on the air for a total of 11 seasons.

   

  
   
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  (#9) James Rebhorn

  • Dec. at 66 (1948-2014)

  James Rebhorn died on 2014 at the age of 66 from melanoma. Rebhorn played Carrie Mathison's father Frank on the Showtime series Homeland. Frank was always Carrie's voice of reason: the two both suffered from severe mental illness, and Frank seemed to be the only person whom Carrie could truly confide in.

  When Rebhorn passed away after Season 3, the producers opted to not bring up Frank's death until the end of Season 4, so Carrie could work through the CIA's extremely tumultuous situation in Pakistan. It was not until the last episode of the season that Carrie returns stateside to grieve her father's death. The emotional time brings her closer to both Quinn and her baby.

   
  
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  (#15) River Phoenix

  • Dec. at 23 (1970-1993)

  River Phoenix died from a drug overdose outside of Hollywood's famed Viper Room in 1993 at the age of 23. The talented young actor was in the middle of filming Dark Blood at the time of his death. The movie gave Phoenix the opportunity to play a villain for the first time in his career. The film was scrapped after Phoenix's death because it was only about 80% complete and several important scenes still needed to be shot.

  The film's director George Sluizer, however, finished the film 19 years later by narrating descriptions of what was missing from the scenes. The film was screened at a few film festivals in 2013 and 2014 but never received a wide release.

   

   

   

   
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  (#4) Redd Foxx

  • Dec. at 69 (1922-1991)

  Redd Foxx died of a heart attack at the age of 69 while filming his comeback series The Royal Family. The sitcom was only seven episodes into its premiere season when Foxx collapsed on the set during rehearsal. Jackée Harry was brought in as a replacement for Foxx (who played the character Al), as the younger sister to Al's wife, Victoria. Harry's character was there to help her sister deal with the loss of her husband, and his passing became a storyline in the show.

  The retooling of the show was unsuccessful, however, and was cancelled later that same season.

   
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  (#11) Jim Davis

  • Dec. at 72 (1909-1981)

  Jim Davis died in 1991 of cancer at the age of 71. He played Ewing family patriarch Jock Ewing on the nighttime soap Dallas. Davis battled multiple myeloma over the first three seasons of the show, and this condition meant he was absent from filming for parts of the third season. The writers worked his absence into the narrative by having Jock split from his wife Miss Ellie.

  Davis died during Season 3, and the show opted to keep his character in the story by stating that he was out of the country for business. His character was finally killed-off in a helicopter crash during an emotional episode called "The Search."
   
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  (#6) Nancy Marchand

  • Dec. at 72 (1928-2000)

  Nancy Marchand died in 2000 at the age of 71. Most people remember her as Tony Soprano's mother, Livia Soprano, on The Sopranos. Marchand passed away after the HBO program's second season. The Sopranos was, of course, a mob show, but it was just as much a family drama. Tony's mother often came up in his psychiatric sessions and became one of the primary fundamental reasons for his panic attacks and general depression.

  When Marchand died, there was still a lot of narrative to explore in the troubled mother/son relationship. Producers wanted one last scene between Tony and his mother, so the show opted to go the special effects route. They used tape editing combined with computer technology to make a fairly realistic looking Marchand talking to her son one last time. Her character later dies at the end of the episode.

   

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