10 Actors Pissed Off By Their TV Character Deaths

The demise of Chef (Isaac Hayes) on South Park's tenth season premiere was at once shocking, hilarious, and hugely controversial, as the character's death resulted from Hayes' sudden departure from the show.

At the time, it was widely circulated that Hayes objected to Matt Stone and Trey Parker's depiction of Scientology, of which Hayes was a member, leading to the character being killed off in supremely humiliating style, while his dialogue was spliced together from pre-existing recordings.

But in a more recent retrospective on the controversy, Hayes' son Isaac Hayes III confirmed that his father didn't in fact quit the show, having suffered a stroke shortly before he "quit".

At this point his PR team, many of them Scientologists themselves, made the decision while he was unable to himself.

Though Stone and Parker criticised Hayes at the time of his exit for his perceived hypocrisy, Hayes III added that this wasn't his father's call at all:

"My father was not that big of a hypocrite to be part of a show that would constantly poke fun at African-American people, Jewish people, gay people - and only quit when it comes to Scientology. He wouldn't be that hypocritical."

Though Hayes sadly lost the ability to speak in his later years, it's evident from his son's comments that he was none too pleased about his unfortunate exit from the show.