10 Actors Who Asked For Their TV & Movie Characters To Be Killed Off
7. Kal Penn - House, MD
In House, MD's season five episode Simple Explanation, Dr. Lawrence Kutner is found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The in-universe explanation for Dr. Kutner's suicide was depression.
The real-world explanation was that Kal Penn, who played Kutner, was leaving the show. Penn had spent the previous year campaigning for Barrack Obama. After Obama's inauguration in 2009, Penn applied for the position of Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
Even though the position involved a significant pay cut, Penn took it and had his character written out of House, MD. Penn served in the Obama administration until June 2011 before going back to full-time acting.