Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

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Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Nutso »

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Not yet anyway.

http://nerdist.com/does-sean-bean-reall ... er-actors/
It looks like the “walking spoiler” meme has a grain of truth to it. While Bean does have over 70 movies under his belt, he certainly dies in a lot of them — almost a third of his films.

However, even though Bean has perfected his “I’m dying” face, he still hasn’t died the most on screen. Two legendary horror actors, Vincent Prince and Bela Lugosi, each outpace Bean by at least 10 movies.

But the top honor of most on-screen deaths goes to wonderful character actor John Hurt. With over 120 movies, Hurt’s death percentage is similar to Bean’s — around 30% — but just seeing the list of Hurt’s 43* deaths is impressive.

He has died in The Wild and the Willing, Sinful Davey, A Man for All Seasons, 10 Rillington Place, The Ghoul East of Elephant Rock, Spectre, Alien, The Elephant Man, Heaven’s Gate, The Osterman Weekend, The Hit, After Darkness, The Black Cauldron, Jake Speed, Spaceballs, Aria, Deadline, Little Sweetheart, Scandal, L’Oeil qui ment, Monolith, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Contact, The Climb, All the Little Animals, You’re Dead, Lost Souls, Hellboy, Pride, Tabloid, The Proposition, V for Vendetta, Outlander, Boxes, An Englishman in New York, Ultramarines, Whistle and I’ll Come To You, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Only Lovers Left Alive, Snowpiercer, Hercules, and finally the TV miniseries I, Claudius.

Maybe it should be #DontKillJohnHurt.

So is Sean Bean a walking spoiler alert? For that we could compare deaths per film to standardize among the actors. If we do that, Sean Bean is still at the top of the list with 0.32 deaths/film, tied with Bela Lugosi, and followed closely by Mickey Rourke and John Hurt with 0.31 deaths/film. Vincent Price and Cary Tagawa are next with 0.28 deaths/film, and it decreases from there. (For the curious: South Park‘s Kenny barely beats Bean with 0.38 deaths/episode.)

Of course, Bean has indeed racked up a large number of deaths early on in his career, relatively speaking (he has made far fewer films compared to Lugosi, Price, and Hurt). In the years to come, we could see Boromir bite the dust enough to become the undisputed duke of the death scene.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Needs to be done in terms of deaths per films.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Mikey »

Graham Kennedy wrote:Needs to be done in terms of deaths per films.
Yes, I think a percentage is a fairer way of looking at it.

Also, to be absolutely fair, Bela Lugosi starred in more than one film in which he died but his character was still active subsequently.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Atekimogus »

Had to google the two blokes after John Hurt to be honest. :|
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

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Atekimogus wrote:Had to google the two blokes after John Hurt to be honest. :|
:shock:

Um... what?
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

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Jim wrote:
Atekimogus wrote:Had to google the two blokes after John Hurt to be honest. :|
:shock:

Um... what?
Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price.....never heard of them. Does it shock you that I didn't know an actor who died 30 years before I was even born (in a non-us/uk cultural circle)? (Well, Price actually died when I was a child...still...)
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Mikey »

Atekimogus wrote:
Jim wrote:
Atekimogus wrote:Had to google the two blokes after John Hurt to be honest. :|
:shock:

Um... what?
Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price.....never heard of them. Does it shock you that I didn't know an actor who died 30 years before I was even born (in a non-us/uk cultural circle)? (Well, Price actually died when I was a child...still...)
Yes, it does shock me. Homer wrote approximately 2800 years ago, but I'm still familiar with The Iliad and The Odyssey. Modest Mussorgsky died almost 140 years ago, but I recognize Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Mountain, or Songs and Dances of Death in a heartbeat. Marlon Brando made On the Waterfront 60 years ago, but those intervening six decades didn't stop me from seeing it. In other words, you shouldn't be surprised that other folks are themselves surprised by your unfamiliarity with those names. That unfamiliarity isn't anything wrong, and nobody accused you of any malfeasance, but our surprise is justifiable.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Jim »

Atekimogus wrote:
Jim wrote:
Atekimogus wrote:Had to google the two blokes after John Hurt to be honest. :|
:shock:

Um... what?
Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price.....never heard of them.
:shock:

Um... what?

I might, MIGHT, be willing to give you Vincent Price... MAYBE! ...not really... But Lugosi...

you need...

You need to go sit over there for a while and think about where you went wrong...
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

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Bela is not amused...

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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

Atekimogus wrote:Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price.....never heard of them. Does it shock you that I didn't know an actor who died 30 years before I was even born (in a non-us/uk cultural circle)? (Well, Price actually died when I was a child...still...)
Yes, that shocks the hell out of me to be honest. Maybe it shouldn't, but it does.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Atekimogus »

Mikey wrote:
Yes, it does shock me. Homer wrote approximately 2800 years ago, but I'm still familiar with The Iliad and The Odyssey. Modest Mussorgsky died almost 140 years ago, but I recognize Pictures at an Exhibition, Night on the Bare Mountain, or Songs and Dances of Death in a heartbeat. Marlon Brando made On the Waterfront 60 years ago, but those intervening six decades didn't stop me from seeing it. In other words, you shouldn't be surprised that other folks are themselves surprised by your unfamiliarity with those names. That unfamiliarity isn't anything wrong, and nobody accused you of any malfeasance, but our surprise is justifiable.
Not really...you compare one of most important classical greek writers with some hollywood-actor?

Here is the difference...you learn about Homer in school... you certainly don't learn about the actor in school and my personal interest does not extend to the silent-film-era of hollywood (Chaplin aside maybe) so I don't see what the surprise and shock is all about.

If I said I don't know who Homer, Aristophanes, Shakespear, Kafka, DaVinci, Sophokles, Caesar, Napolean, Charlemagne, etc. is....well yes, that would be shocking (or not..depending on educational background). But a silent-film moviestar from the 1920s is hardly on the same level, won't you agree?


We had a native englisch teacher from London for a time in our school and you do this word association game...what do austrians think when they hear england and vice versa. According to him, if you hear Austria you think: " Ah yes...the film Sound of Music!". But most pupils in our class were basically: "Sorry...but wtf is Sound of Music?" A few knew the musical...but....it just isn't a big deal here, nothing that become part of our pop-culture or anything.

I assume the case with Mr. Lugosi is similar. It certainly isn't a name you absolutely NEED to know...at least not in my parts.

Or maybe I am just THAT ignorant......but then as I said..that era of filmmaking is of no particular interest to me. Maybe I'll aquire the taste later.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Graham Kennedy »

To be clear, my shock is not so much of the "Wow, Atekimogus is so badly informed about the world!" sort, and more of the "Oh hell, here's another one of those moments that demonstrates how OLD I'm getting..." sort. I'm the kind of guy who is still vaguely surprised that I can meet real grown up adults who were born in the 80s.
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Mikey »

Indeed, Atek, you seem to be misconstruing our surprise for belittlement or offense. Nobody (at least not I) thinks less of you for not knowing those actors... yet we can still be surprised at the fact. Lugosi, at least, would be more famous the closer one got to Hungary (which, if my geography is correct, Austria is more so than any part of the U.S.) I didn't learn Homer in school, nor Aristophanes, Euripides, Howard, Gibson, Jerzy Kozinski, Hermann Hesse (EDIT: scratch that, I did in fact read Steppenwolf in high school,) Bishop Berkeley, Sartre, Kirkegaard, etc., etc. I came upon them like any other normal human - I chose to read and to learn.

I think more important, you are taking our surprise and becoming defensive, and in doing so are comparing degree rather than fashion. Was Charlemagne more important to history than Vincent Price? Was Homer more important to the development of Western literature than Bela Lugosi? Of course, on both counts. But when John Lennon said, "We're more popular than Jesus now..." he was talking about celebrity only, as we had been, rather than about qualitative impact on history.

I mentioned Hesse earlier. I imagine that in your part of the world he's far more famous than he is here. Even so, and as talented as he was, he's at best a footnote to literary history. Does that mean that people shouldn't know who he was, or shouldn't bother to read him?
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

Post by Jim »

It certainly is NOT a "just that ignorant" kind of thing. Lugosi is just one of those people that I take as common knowledge. (given a level of technology, social and economical environment) You are on this board, actively. You would seem to have an interest in genre, at least sci-fi. Vienna is not out of touch (Miami Wise! Number one new show!). It is also rather close to Dracula-land and Lugosi IS Dracula.

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff... they, well, they simply ARE

I can see Vincent Price being a USA thing...
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Re: Does Sean Bean Really Die More Than Other Actors?

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Jim wrote:Lugosi IS Dracula.
Lugosi may be Dracula, but Dracula is Christopher Lee.
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