SPOILERS AHEAD FOR SEASON 2, EPISODE 2 of The Last of Us!
The latest episode of HBO’s The Last of Us featured a gruesome death. Joel Miller, played by Pedro Pascal, met his end at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). The devastating death had many comparing it to Pedro’s most brutal on-screen death (from Game of Thrones). Many even wondered if Pedro is the ‘new Sean Bean‘ – the man infamous for dying on screen in almost every show or film. But neither Pedro nor Sean compares with one Hollywood legend when it comes to dying on screen. After all, he did so 70 times over the course of his career.
The actor with the most on-screen deaths
The late Christopher Lee had a film career that spanned over six decades. In this time, the actor appeared in over 200 films and quite impressively, saw his character being killed off in over a third of those. According to IMDb, Christopher Lee saw his character die on-screen 70 times over the course of his career. This includes several roles, such as Dracula (a role he immortalised in over a dozen films), alongside other memorable villains in The Curse of Frankenstein, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Star Wars Episode III.
He played iconic villains in Bond films, the Star Wars universe, and scores of horror films. Due to his expertise as a special forces soldier in World War II, Lee often advised how to portray these deaths realistically, as LOTR director Peter Jackson once mentioned.
How Christopher Lee dwarfs other actors with his ‘death’ count
Sean Bean, the man known to ‘die in every role’, has ‘only’ 25 on-screen deaths, a much lower count. He has gained significance because of the high-profile nature of some of these roles, including Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, and Patriot Games. Another British thespian, John Hurt, is also high on the list with 43 deaths. But both Vincent Price and Dennis Hopper are ahead of him with 48 deaths each. Golden era horror icons Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi also feature in the ‘merit list’ with 42 and 36 deaths, respectively.
Among modern-day stalwarts, Danny Trejo leads the field with 41 deaths, which also includes Mark Hamill (30), Mickey Rourke (28), Gary Oldman (24), Willem Dafoe (23), Bruce Willis (22), Anthony Hopkins (21), Samuel L Jackson (20), and Robert de Niro and Liam Neeson (both 19).
