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(#12) Glee
- Lea Michele, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison
What Happened in Real Life: Glee's Cory Monteith died of an overdose in 2013.
What Happened on the Show: The character of Finn Hudson also dies, but the cause of death is not mentioned. The third episode of the fifth season opens three weeks after his funeral. Glee lasted for six seasons, with the high school auditorium named after Finn in the series finale.
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(#14) Dallas
- Larry Hagman, Ken Kercheval, Patrick Duffy
What Happened in Real Life: Jim Davis played Jock Ewing on the prime-time soap opera Dallas. Davis died in April 1981 during the fourth season from complications of surgery for a perforated ulcer.
What Happened on the Show: His character's disappearance was not explained for another season, when Jock Ewing dies in a helicopter crash.
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(#1) 8 Simple Rules
- Katey Sagal, Kaley Cuoco, Amy Davidson
What Happened in Real Life: Star and sitcom legend John Ritter died in 2003 from an undiagnosed aortic dissection.
What Happened on the Show: The comedy series premiered its second season with the three episodes Ritter had already filmed, then after a month hiatus, Ritter's character is said to have died following a heart attack while shopping for milk at the grocery store. The show only lasted one more season.
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(#17) Chico and the Man
- Charo, Freddie Prinze, Della Reese, Jack Albertson, Scatman Crothers, Ronny Graham
What Happened in Real Life: Freddie Prinze - the titular Chico - took his life in 1977. Chico and the Man was in the middle of Season 3.
What Happened on the Show: This one is a doozy: the final episode with Prinze in it was taped just a few hours before Prinze's death. The show continued without him, explaining that the character moved to Mexico. A new character was introduced to take his place, but low ratings meant the show was quickly canceled in Season 4.
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(#9) Cheers
- Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger
What Happened in Real Life: Veteran actor Nicholas Colasanto played the charming "Coach" Ernie Pantusso on Cheers. Colasanto died of a heart attack during the show's third season.
What Happened on the Show: At the start of Season 4, "Coach" dies. In the episode, Woody Harrelson's character, who is Coach's successor, is also introduced. Cheers ran for 11 seasons and is considered to be one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.
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(#7) The West Wing
- Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Allison Janney
What Happened in Real Life: The West Wing's White House Chief of Staff Leo McGarry was played by actor John Spencer, who died of a heart attack during the show's final and seventh season.
What Happened in the Show: Strangely, the McGarry character also suffers a heart attack, on election night, though he recovers. Actor and West Wing President Martin Sheen read a tribute to John Spencer before one of the show's final episodes.
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About This Tool
Fictional characters can always exist in our memory. However, for real actors, this is not the case. They are as susceptible to age and disease as ordinary people. There have been many sad moments. Many actors passed away during the production of TV shows, and they never had the opportunity to watch their performances on the screen. The sudden death of a cast member often affects the production and filming progress of the show, this requires the coordination of the screenwriter, director, and other crew members to perfect it.
Moreover, in addition to the professional necessities that may change the storyline or delete the dead actor from certain scenes, directors, producers, and staff must also deal with feelings of loss and sadness. The random tool tells 20 untimely cast member tragic death and how the TV shows dealt with.
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