10 Actors Who Refused To Die On Screen
5. Sarah Wayne Callies - Prison Break
Sarah Wayne Callies appeared in the first two seasons of Prison Break as Fox River State Penitentiary's kindly doctor Sara Tancredi, who eventually becomes protagonist Michael Scofield's (Wentworth Miller) love interest.
However, near the start of season three, Sara was unexpectedly killed off when Michael's brother Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) saw what was apparently her decapitated head in a box.
It was a hugely dissatisfying reveal for fans, and came about largely due to Callies' behind-the-scenes disagreements with Fox over her contract.
According to producer Matt Olmstead, Sara's death was suggested as an attempt to shake up the series' formula, though disputes over how many of season three's episodes Callies would appear in ultimately led to her being absent from the entire season.
It's been suggested that Callies, who fell pregnant after the second season was shot, understandably wasn't eager to return for a major role with motherhood on the horizon.
And though the producers suggested flying a camera crew out to her to shoot a small cameo, it never worked out, and so they were left to shoot Sara's death scene without her.
This actually ended up benefiting them, though, given that it allowed the showrunners to revive Sara at the start of the next season with the plausible enough explanation that Lincoln never actually saw the severed head in enough detail to confirm it was 100% Sara's.