4. Maude Flanders - The Simpsons
When Maggie Roswell, the voice of Maude Flanders, left the Simpsons in 1999 after a pay dispute, it was decided by the writers that Maude would be killed off. At a speedway race, Homer attempts to get the attention of a squad of cheerleaders who are firing t-shirts out of a cannon, and when they fire one in his direction, he ducks at the last minute to pick up a bobby pin, as the t-shirt hurtles past him and smacks Maude who had gone to buy hotdogs off the top of the grandstand and to her death on the ground below. Deaths in animation become serious when it starts to affect a young family, with children Rod and Todd left without a mother and Ned without a wife, even questioning his faith in God in the immediate aftermath. This death is also a tragic one in that it was so completely avoidable Homers stupidity in ducking to pick up a pin, then later leaving his car in the ambulance zone to delay medical attention The Flanders could have easily been spared this devastating bereavement. A character on the Simpsons hasn't died since Maude in the 14 years that has passed, though another main character
is scheduled to be bumped off in the New Year, and it will have to be fairly horrific to top Maudes.