9 More Actors Who Begged For Their Movie Characters To Die

There are plenty of movie characters we’d all love to have seen offed earlier than their creators were willing to concede, and a lot of loathed figures appear in countless instalments of popular franchises long after audiences have begun to tire of their schtick and yearn for an end to their onscreen adventures (cough, cough, Jack Sparrow).

But every once in a while actors themselves can begin to feel typecast or pigeonholed by a well-known role, and can see no better route out of this fate than asking for their character to be killed off at the writer’s earliest possible convenience.

Maybe it’s as ambitious as wanting to try a new type of character or taking a wholesale career break, maybe it’s as simple as needing to work on another conflicting project at the same time shooting commences—whatever the cause, here are ten time actors practically begged creators to kill off their characters.

Yes, hard as it may be to believe now, the original cinematic outing for Gene Rodenberry’s widely adored sci-fi franchise had not proven financially successful, and by the time the darker, more mature Wrath of Khan was in production much of the staff involved in the film believed this would be the franchise’s final filmic outing.

As a result, Leonard Nimoy insisted on a fittingly dramatic death for his iconic hero Spock.

The actor was granted his wish with what remains the flick’s most effective moment, deepening the film’s drama and giving its action more gravitas than the show ever managed. However, this didn’t stop the filmmakers from adding an ambiguous ending teasing Spock’s survival once they realized this film was no flop—thus tempting Nimoy back for, well, The Search for Spock, of course.