10 Actors Who Begged For Their TV Characters To Die

7. Dan Stevens - Downton Abbey

Why He Wanted To Die

After spending three seasons on hit period drama series Downton Abbey, Dan Stevens decided he wanted to venture off to explore stage and screen opportunities, and so asked for his popular Matthew Crawley to be written out.

But the focal nature of his character, centred around his pivotal relationship with Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), left series creator Julian Fellowes with no other choice but to kill Matthew off, because there was no other conceivable scenario where the two would be realistically separated indefinitely.

Stevens said of his choice to leave, "From a personal point of view, I wanted a chance to do other things...It is a very monopolising job. So there is a strange sense of liberation at the same time as great sadness because I am very, very fond of the show and always will be."

Given that Stevens won the lead role in the cult thriller movie The Guest shortly after departing, and has since starred as Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, played the lead in FX's Legion and is widely considered a fave to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond, it's safe to say he made a smart call.

How It Happened

In the third season's Christmas Special episode, Matthew is killed in a car accident mere moments after meeting his newborn son, in a move that infuriated the vast majority of the fanbase.

Granted, Stevens himself set this plan in motion by asking to leave while in the middle of a major central storyline, but did he have to be killed in quite such a perfunctory and over-the-top fashion?